As businesses grow and evolve, so do their purchasing needs. One of the most critical aspects of managing a successful procurement process is purchase requisition management. A purchase requisition is the process by which a business requests goods or services from a supplier. It is the first step in the procure-to-pay (P2P) process, and it’s crucial to managing the purchasing cycle effectively. Over the years, businesses have developed manual processes to manage purchase requisitions, but these methods are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and can lead to errors and inefficiencies. Luckily, purchase requisition software provides a solution to these challenges.

What is Purchase Requisition Management?

Purchase requisition management is the process of creating, reviewing, approving, and tracking purchase requests. It involves multiple stakeholders, including requestors, approvers, and procurement teams. The goal of purchase requisition management is to ensure that purchase requests are reviewed and approved quickly and accurately, allowing the procurement team to order goods and services efficiently.

Traditionally, purchase requisition management has relied on manual processes, which involved filling out paper-based forms, routing them through the organization for approval, and manually entering data into procurement systems. This process was time-consuming, prone to errors, and lacked visibility into the status of purchase requests. In contrast, purchase requisition software automates the entire process, from request creation to final approval.

The Benefits of Purchase Requisition Software

Purchase requisition software offers several benefits over traditional manual processes. These include:

Increased Efficiency

Purchase requisition software streamlines the entire purchase requisition process, from request creation to final approval. It eliminates manual data entry, automates approval workflows, and provides real-time visibility into the status of purchase requests. This increased efficiency leads to faster processing times, reduced cycle times, and improved productivity.

Cost Savings

Manual purchase requisition processes are expensive, requiring additional staff to manage the various stages of the cycle. In contrast, purchase requisition software reduces labor costs and eliminates the need for paperwork, ink, printers, and filing space.

Enhanced Visibility

Purchase requisition software provides real-time visibility into the status of purchase requests, allowing stakeholders to track progress and monitor performance. This increased visibility enables better decision-making, improves cash flow control, and provides accurate spend data.

Improved Compliance

Purchase requisition software ensures that all purchase requests are reviewed and approved according to established policies and guidelines. It eliminates inconsistent practices and duplicate requests, reducing the risk of expense fraud and needless overspending.

Customizable Controls

Purchase requisition software allows for robust process customization, making it easy to fine-tune every aspect of the purchase requisition process. For instance, it enables approval workflows based on spending levels and budget requirements, limiting access to specific items for users working in certain locations, departments, or budgets.

How Purchase Requisition Software Works

Purchase requisition software simplifies the purchase requisition process, making it easy for requestors to create purchase requests and procurement teams to approve them. The following steps outline how purchase requisition software works:

  • Request Creation: The requestor creates a purchase request within the system, choosing items from a pre-approved catalog of goods and services. For new items or one-off purchases, forms can still be added manually, populated with standard contract and other data as required.
  • Internal Approvals: A supervisor or department head approves the requisition and routes it to the purchasing department.
  • Purchasing Department Review: The purchasing team reviews the approved purchase requisition form to ensure it is complete, accurate, and meets budget requirements.
  • Purchase Order Creation: Once the purchase requisition is approved, a purchase order is created detailing quantities, types, and prices.
  • Provider Acceptance: The purchase order is sent to the provider. Once accepted, the purchase order undergoes a contract.

Key Features of Purchase Requisition Software

Purchase requisition software offers several key features that simplify the purchase requisition process. These features include:

Touchless Purchase Order Management

Purchase requisition software eliminates the need for manual data entry, automating the entire process from request creation to final approval. It pre-populates purchase requests with information from pre-approved vendor lists, contextualized by item availability, pricing, and delivery terms. Purchase orders are created and automatically linked to the original purchase requisition, as well as the associated invoice, shipping documents, and any other correspondence related to the transaction.

Optimized Approval Workflows

Purchase requisition software supports contingency workflows, ensuring that orders never languish in an unattended inbox. Purchase requests that require revision or special approval can be flagged and then automatically rerouted through the system to ensure consistency and avoid redundant labor.

Customizable Ordering Controls

Purchase requisition software allows for robust process customization, making it easy to fine-tune every aspect of the purchase requisition process. For instance, it enables approval workflows based on spending levels and budget requirements, limiting access to specific items for users working in certain locations, departments, or budgets.

Total Spend Visibility

Purchase requisition software provides real-time visibility into the status of purchase requests, enabling stakeholders to track progress and monitor performance. This increased visibility enables better decision-making, improves cash flow control, and provides accurate spend data.

A Complete Audit Trail

Purchase requisition software provides complete data management and spend visibility, making it easy to implement financial controls. Financial teams can produce a complete audit trail on demand, improving forecasting and spend analysis. They can also examine spending trends and anomalies to identify opportunities for innovation, process improvement, and growth.

Integration with Other Software Solutions

Purchase requisition software can connect with other modules to provide all business units with accurate, real-time spend data they can use for stronger inventory management, contract management, and supplier management. Integration with ERPs, accounting software, and customer resource management (CRM) packages means marketing, sales, logistics and accounting–as well as the C-suite–are all on the same page and working to support company goals while budgeting properly for their own specific initiatives.

Improved Supplier Management

Purchase requisition software makes it easy to onboard and evaluate suppliers. Performance data strengthens your negotiation position for terms and pricing, and lets you identify top performers and add them to a list of preferred suppliers. Underperformers can be suspended or removed from the system altogether. Automated approval and payment workflows make it easier to capture early payment discounts and avoid late fees, too, ensuring your reputation with the vendors essential to your company’s day-to-day operation remains strong.

Conclusion

Purchase requisition management is a critical aspect of managing a successful procurement process. Traditional manual processes are time-consuming, prone to errors, and lack visibility into the status of purchase requests. Purchase requisition software provides a solution to these challenges, streamlining the entire process from request creation to final approval. It increases efficiency, reduces costs, enhances visibility, improves compliance, and provides customizable controls. Key features of purchase requisition software include touchless purchase order management, optimized approval workflows, customizable ordering controls, total spend visibility, a complete audit trail, integration with other software solutions, and improved supplier management. By adopting purchase requisition software, businesses can streamline their procurement processes, improve their bottom line, and stay competitive in today’s fast-paced business environment.