Fitness Formula Clubs Drives Smarter Purchasing with Order.co’s AI Approval Insights
How Fitness Formula Clubs harnesses Order.co’s AI insights for approvals feature to save hours of manual spend analysis and drive compliance.
The opportunity
Lucky Weeras, Procurement Manager at Fitness Formula Clubs, had successfully onboarded Order.co to streamline purchase-to-pay processes across their 11 locations. With this foundation in place, Lucky was excited to learn about Order.co’s latest feature: AI insights for approvals.
The AI insights for order approval requests provide users with information and recommendations to guide their approval decision. The AI flags atypical orders for additional review, including those that involve a new vendor, higher costs, or larger quantities compared to historical purchasing patterns. As a result, teams can avoid making potentially costly mistakes during the ordering process and ensure every purchase aligns with brand standards.
While Order.co’s consolidated invoice feature helped Lucky understand spending at each gym for their 180+ vendors, he still spent 1-2 hours each week analyzing every invoice to review purchases. However, the new AI recommendations feature revealed an opportunity to save that valuable time by eliminating potentially unapproved purchases at the source.
The outcome
Proactive compliance
One of the most valuable benefits has been how the AI flags potential compliance issues. This feature helps prevent regulatory violations and eliminates the risk of discovering compliance issues during year-end reviews. With this capability in his toolbelt, Lucky’s procurement strategy is more proactive than ever.
“One location had ordered a product that we had not approved according to our regulations and compliance,” Lucky described. “We found that out because the AI blurb said it was not something that the club usually orders. It helped us stop the issue before it created an avalanche effect.”
Instant historical spend analysis
Just one month after implementation, Lucky discovered that the AI insights for approvals provide an additional layer of analysis on top of Order.co’s existing reporting capabilities. “[Order.co AI] shows me how consistent an order is with historical spending patterns,” Lucky shared.
As a result, Lucky can easily ensure that orders meet thresholds for benefits such as free delivery and faster vendor fulfillment. If an item purchased is priced higher than pre-negotiated amounts or at a larger volume than usual, Order.co AI surfaces this issue.
Just-in-time inventory optimization
Lucky highlighted that the Order.co AI feature adds crucial timing intelligence that’s particularly valuable for Fitness Formula Clubs’ ordering process. “Fitness Formula Clubs orders on a just-in-time basis,” Lucky shared. “We have zero to little warehousing. The AI feature lets me know when the last order was put in. Usually, our clubs put in one order a month. Sometimes, we have to cater to demand variations. It helps me to know that a location has higher foot traffic. This is okay.”
The feature tracks when the operations team placed the last order, provides demand variation data to help justify orders from high-traffic locations, and supports Fitness Formula Clubs’ preferred purchasing cadence to keep operations running smoothly.
Interested in learning how Order.co AI can help your business achieve 100% visibility and control over every purchase? Schedule a demo to get started!