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Fraxion

Fraxion provides a complete procure-to-pay solution for purchasing, expense, and AP automation. The all-in-one procure-to-pay suite includes: -Purchase requisitions & custom approvals -Budget & policy control -Purchase order aut...Read more about Fraxion

4.4 (59 reviews)

4 recommendations

Precoro

FrontRunners 2024

Precoro is a cloud-based purchasing software that streamlines procurement processes for SMBs and Enterprises. Key features include purchase order creation and delivery, blanket PO, visual analytics on spends by departments, billin...Read more about Precoro

4.8 (211 reviews)

10 recommendations

Oxalys

Oxalys assists businesses in streamlining procurement processes. Oxalys is the preferred partner of mid-sized organizations from various industries in more than 25 countries across the world as a software vendor focused solely on ...Read more about Oxalys

4.0 (1 reviews)

Zahara

Zahara is a cloud-based purchase management solution which helps small to large-sized organizations manage invoices and control budgeting. Its key features include coding approval, workflow automation, supplier and document manage...Read more about Zahara

Procurify

Procurify’s easy-to-use Intelligent Spend Management platform provides hundreds of organizations worldwide with real-time visibility and control over all business spend. By bringing more spend under management, our customers captu...Read more about Procurify

4.5 (145 reviews)

4 recommendations

Kissflow Procurement Cloud

Kissflow Procurement Cloud is ideal for companies that are either transitioning from manual procurement management tools, implementing a solution for the first time, or replacing disparate point solutions. With Kissflow, businesse...Read more about Kissflow Procurement Cloud

e-SCM

e-SCM helps businesses optimize their supply chain from order to delivery. With a focus on product quality and rapid time-to-market, e-SCM empowers informed decisions, enhances responsiveness, and ensures a smooth supply chain jou...Read more about e-SCM

4.7 (3 reviews)

Vetcove

Vetcove is a free online veterinary supply ordering platform. It allows veterinarians to research, compare, and purchase pharmaceuticals, supplies, equipment, and more from all their vendors in one place. Vetcove combines major di...Read more about Vetcove

5.0 (6 reviews)

Da Vinci Supply Chain Business Suite

Da Vinci is a cloud-based supply chain management (SCM) solution designed specifically for 3PLs, internet retailers and wholesale businesses with demanding warehouse, fulfillment and transportation needs. In addition to a WMS an...Read more about Da Vinci Supply Chain Business Suite

4.5 (17 reviews)

2 recommendations

Claritum

Claritum is a cloud-based spend management solution designed to streamline source-to-settle processes for midsize and enterprise-level organizations. From source to settle, organizations have an automated process to capture o...Read more about Claritum

Acctivate Inventory Management

Built for growing product-selling businesses using QuickBooks, Acctivate is a premium inventory management & multi-channel order fulfillment add-on that helps you focus on growth without operational limitations. Solve for QuickBo...Read more about Acctivate Inventory Management

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Bellwether Purchasing Software

FrontRunners 2024

Bellwether Purchasing Software is an easy-to-use, cloud-based purchasing and inventory management solution ideal for SMB customers in all industries who create 50-1000 POs a month. Primary features include requisitions, approval ...Read more about Bellwether Purchasing Software

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SutiProcure

SutiProcure is a supply chain management solution that helps businesses automate the entire procure-to-pay cycle. With applications for procurement, strategic sourcing, WMS, supplier management and more, it assists companies to ma...Read more about SutiProcure

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QSTRAT Sourcing

QLM Sourcing & Supplier Management by QSTRAT is a Strategic Sourcing solution that caters to businesses in industries such as automotive, medical devices, aerospace and more. Key features include supplier eRFQ life-cycle managemen...Read more about QSTRAT Sourcing

ESM Purchase

EasyPurchase by ESM Solutions is a cloud-based procurement management solution for higher education institutions, K-12 school districts, state and local governments and mid-size commercial businesses. The solution allows users to ...Read more about ESM Purchase

4.5 (2 reviews)

Tradogram

FrontRunners 2024

Tradogram is a cloud-based procurement management solution. Users can choose from a list of integrated modules such as supplier management, purchase-to-pay, contract management, strategic sourcing and order management. Team manag...Read more about Tradogram

4.5 (67 reviews)

7 recommendations

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E2open

E2open is the connected supply chain software platform that enables the world’s largest companies to transform the way they make, move, and sell goods and services. With the broadest cloud-native global platform purpose-built for ...Read more about E2open

3.2 (3 reviews)

ProcurementExpress.com

FrontRunners 2024

We bring your entire purchasing process together in a single cloud based app that magically automates away your most boring, time-consuming purchasing tasks. Easy to use Purchase Approval System for Small Business CFOs. Procure...Read more about ProcurementExpress.com

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ProcurePort

ProcurePort offers a cloud-based e-procurement suite to assist companies with their sourcing, procurement and auction needs. It is suitable for small to midsize pharmaceutical companies, government agencies and more. ProcureP...Read more about ProcurePort

iBuyer

SicommNet’s iBuyer is a cloud-based solution that includes procurement processes for both buyers and sellers. iBuyer provides organized tools to track targeted requests for bids and proposals from buyers, and keeps those in a cent...Read more about iBuyer

4.0 (1 reviews)

Buyers Guide

Last Updated: March 16, 2023

What is purchase order software?

Purchase order software is a software tool that manages essential procurement processes. It creates and manages purchase orders (POs), can transmit POs to suppliers, and reconciles supplier invoices to POs, contracts, and more.

Purchase order software can be offered as a standalone software program or as an application within a supply chain management system or enterprise resource planning (ERP) software (more on this below).

In this buyers guide, we’ll examine the various types of PO software, the standard features, and the types of buyers in this space.

Here's what we'll cover:

What are the major types of purchase order software?

POs are the beginning of both direct and indirect procurement processes. Direct procurement refers to the purchasing of goods and services used in an organization's products, whereas indirect procurement refers to the purchasing of goods and services used to support an organization's processes.

As such, there are various types of software that deal with purchase orders:

Types of Purchasing Software

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Procure-to-pay (P2P) suites are essentially all-purpose tools for managing all of an organization's procurement activities. Typically, P2P systems wade into related areas such as contract management, inventory management, supplier management, and strategic sourcing. They're the focus of this buyers guide.

Most P2P solutions are cloud-based.

ERP suites typically feature procurement modules, but primarily work in conjunction with other modules in the system—e.g., production planning. Moreover, these modules tend to lack the niche features as well as the user-friendly interfaces that encourage adoption throughout an organization.

Work-stream tools are stand-alone applications for managing highly specific procurement processes (telecommunications spend, temporary workforce spend, travel spend etc.). These tools offer dedicated interfaces and approvals workflows to streamline a single, highly important procurement process.

While these solutions are niche, they can offer major benefits when it comes to managing tricky forms of spending. Gartner notes in "Procurement Leaders Need to Deploy Work-Stream-Specific P2P Solutions to Maximize ROI" that “work-stream-specific P2P solutions deliver dramatic out-of-the-box improvements over basic tools in the granularity and degree of control over spending. They achieve this through improved compliance to contract, spend category, and/or project specific workflows and order process audit trail documentation.” (This content is available to Gartner clients.)

Typically, if you're looking for a work-stream tool, you're looking to control spending in a specific area, and you'll look to the niche vendors that specialize in this area. Hence our focus here will be on multipurpose procure-to-pay (P2P) suites.

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Notifications on expense report in Coupa Cloud Spend Management

What are the features of purchasing software?

P2P suites offer a range of modules with diverse functions. The below table homes in on some of the most important:

Rules engine for PO to invoice reconciliation (accounts payable automation)

One of the core features of any procurement solution. Automates the tedious process of reconciling POs to invoices by matching them via rules engines.

PO to contract reconciliation

Automatically match POs to contracts.

E-invoicing

Transmit and store invoices in an electronic format such as electronic data interchange (EDI).

E-catalogs

Can be customized and managed to show, for example, prices based on contracts.

Integrated spend analysis and reporting

Procurement managers can analyze spend using native reporting tools or export prepared and aggregated data for further analysis. Advanced solutions sport built-in data warehousing functionality.

Expense reporting and management

Enables a rules-based approach to ensure compliance with organizational policies.

Strategic sourcing

Some of the more robust P2P suites have built-in modules for strategic sourcing via reverse auctions and other mechanisms.

ERP integrations

Since P2P solutions are sold as suites in their own right rather than components of ERP systems, they typically offer integrations with leading ERP systems.

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Procurement e-catalog in GEP

Benefits and potential issues

P2P solutions offer the following key benefits:

  • Automation of accounts payable (AP) processes: Procurement software eliminates the necessity for manual matching with rules engines, improving efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness.

  • Better control over expenditures: Features such as e-catalogs through which employees can make purchases, supplier information databases, and rules for creating POs and reporting expenses ensure that employees' purchasing habits comply with organizational policies to reduce spending.

  • Paperless processing: By eliminating the use of paper in crucial areas, these solutions can offer dramatic savings.

  • Integrated reporting and spend visibility: P2P solutions offer dashboards as well as ad hoc reporting interfaces to ensure better visibility into expenditures throughout the organization.

  • Improved purchasing workflows: User-friendly interfaces with built-in approvals workflows, as well as remote and mobile access to the system, simplify complex purchasing processes.

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Exceptions to AP process report in Basware

Potential issues include:

  • Local e-invoicing regulations: While e-invoicing doesn't pose particular regulatory challenges in the US, it remains difficult and/or impossible in some areas of the world. Gartner offers specific guidance in the report E-Invoicing Gains Traction Worldwide.

  • Employee adoption: Lack of support for some complex purchasing workflows (e.g. travel purchases) may lead to poor adoption of the system. In some cases, the purchase of an additional work-stream-specific tool may be necessary to supplement the functionality of the P2P suite and encourage engagement.

What type of buyer are you?

We've seen that there are many software options out there for managing POs. Let's take a look at which kinds of buyers should examine particular solutions.

Buyers primarily involved in direct procurement should explore procurement modules in ERP suites, which offer integrated features in other modules for making the most of data generated by direct procurement (e.g., production planning). Additionally, ERP systems offer strong functionality in areas such as vendor-managed inventory/automated replenishment, which are key to streamlining direct procurement processes.

Buyers dealing with both indirect and direct procurement should explore P2P suites, as these suites are robust and rangy enough to handle various types of purchasing.

Departmental buyers should explore work-stream specific tools that don't require the whole organization to move onto a new procurement platform.

Buyers seeking to control spend in a single key area should evaluate work-stream specific tools.

Buyers with advanced needs such as job costing and quoting need to evaluate niche solutions that can track POs against jobs and that can convert quotes to invoices. Such features are lacking in many all-purpose P2P suites.