Purchase Request and Approval Process For Small to Medium Sized Enterprise

A Purchase Request Process that Includes:Electronic DeliveryElectronic RoutingApprovalsAbility to Add Attachments, Time Stamp on Approvals, Easy Electronic Storage For Audit,

Global Implementation in Days and NO ADDED COST

UPDATE Integration Path With Enterprise or SaaS Based Finance Systems

Executive Summary

• Companies that need a functional purchase request system can put one in place for no cost using MS Excel and Outlook that provides– Electronic Delivery and Routing, – Approvals, – Ability to Add Attachments, – Time Stamp on Approvals, – Easy Electronic Storage For Audit, – Global Implementation in Days– Possible integration to SaaS or Enterprise Finance

Typical Purchasing Process

Request Approve Negotiate Purchase Order Receive Match Pay

Requestor generates with backup and budgetary price

Per Sig Authority

Requestor Responsible

Upon Approval Final terms and price negotiated

PO issued by person delegated Purchase Authority

Connection to Approved Request

Physical Items on System

Services by Requestor

PO, Receipt, Invoice

Per PO Terms

Scope of proposed process

Detailed Process• Open Purchase Request excel template • Enter Information• Copy and paste onto Outlook email• Attach to email relevant quotation and or other backup • Add appropriate approvers.• Go to “Options” and Enable voting button – approve or reject• Look in your SENT folder file for status of approvals• When all approvals obtained forward, as an attachment, to internal only

email PurchaseRequest@companyname.com (request delivery receipt when opened)

• Purchase Request@company.com will be reviewed by Finance/ Purchasing Team– confirm signature levels, budget status– take action based on company policy for amount and type of spend

Create Purchase Request Template and make available to users

• Excel Works well• Information is more important than exact format

Requestor Department Date of Request Vendor Description Total Cost In Budget

Bill Kohnen Supplier $-00

Justification Include Justification

Details

Vendor Contact Name Mike D

Vendor Contact E mail mike@dell.com

Vendor Contact PH 555-5555

Item Quantiy Unit of Measure Description Unit Cost Total Cost Delivery

1 EA xxx $-00 $-00

2

3

4

5

Purchase Request

Requester Opens Purchase Request Template and Completes

Create New Email and Paste Purchase Request

Add Approvers

Enable Voting on Options Tab

Confirm approvals received located in sent items

Sending as attachment will make sure everything form original is included

Send Tracking Message to internal company purchase request e-mail address as an attachment

Send Tracking Message to internal company purchase request e-mail address as an attachment

The Forwarded Message will show approvals with Date Stamp as well as detailed request and attachments

Next Steps

• Finance Review to Confirm Information• Forward for next steps per company policy• Move Copy to Finance shared folder for

storage and future reference for audit

• Some companies wanted integration with Finance systems for PO creation

• Since Requisition is simply an Excel template it is simple to map the fields to Finance systems

• Not surprisingly this is easier with new Cloud based SaaS Finance systems

• It does require additional discipline with the request format

• Still majority of small companies will not need this

Additional Things to consider

• Achieve copy vs. all access copy– Finance can move approved copy to a restricted

access folder for audit record retention – Could have a public location where requestors can

see their history and all others• Status– Generally the person making the request would

get a copy of the purchase order to know the request was completed.

Additional Things to consider

• Could Add unique number to request:– At request creation• Get from Finance – Finance Assigns numbers in blocks

to departments• Our just use date, requestor initials and number of

requests for day Ex. 41514BK1

• Link purchase request to PO # issued– After purchase order issued add PO # onto

Request before achieve

Summary

• Implementation is simple• Provide better user experience, more control

and better efficiency• Process can sustain higher level of activity than

initially designed for• Possible to integrate with Finance System as is• With no infrastructure cost it is easy to migrate

to an integrated SaaS based solution when ready