INVENTORY MANAGEMENT | 4 minute read
Are you running a small / mid-sized company but not using purchase orders? It may be more important than you think.
When most small businesses start out, they forego purchase orders in favor of handshakes and informal processes. An unspoken agreement between a small-time supplier and a trusted vendor.
But what happens if there’s ever a dispute, a disagreement about a payment, quality standards or even performance. You need a document to reference.
As business grows in size and complexity, a formalized system ensures your purchases are ordered, budgeted for and fulfilled accordingly. That’s where purchase orders come in.
Purchase orders are an important tool that businesses like yours should use to ensure spend stays within budget. Without purchase orders tracking expenses is more difficult, prone to errors and validating delivery reports becomes a nightmare.
1. Name of the company making the goods or service
2. Purchase Order number
3. Purchase Order Date
4. Delivery & Invoice Addresses
5. Description and quantity of the goods or services
6. Agreed Prices
7. Payment Information
Purchase orders ensure spend stays within budget. Without purchase orders tracking expenses is more difficult, prone to errors and validating delivery reports becomes a nightmare.
You might say, “Isn’t a purchase order the same thing as an invoice?” Actually, no.
A purchase order is created by a buyer, who wants to make sure they received exactly what they ordered. Meanwhile, an invoice is issued by a vendor or supplier who requests payment.
An invoice is a statement of money owed, the due date, and any available discounts (i.e. early payment).
Most small and midsize businesses and enterprises we know still use spreadsheets to manage purchase orders.
Using manual processes with purchase orders puts your company finances at risk because you can’t:
It’s inefficient and, frankly, unwise for a growing business.
Good news. TradeGecko’s inventory management software is designed to streamline the purchase order management process.
Related Blog: Simplifying purchase orders
Our purchase order features enable businesses to:
Related Blog: Purchase order landed costs with TradeGecko inventory management software
With an integrated approach to inventory management, TradeGecko makes creating and managing purchase orders simple and easily referenceable, trackable and super simple.
From the dashboard, you can easily create, review, and update all outstanding purchase orders, with stock levels and pre-loaded supplier information all in the one place. Prices are also automatically adjusted to match different quantities as needed.
Like all of TradeGecko’s functionality, the PO management dashboard enables growing businesses to work smarter, accurately plan for the future, and provide a better customer experience.
If you want your time back and want to minimize the risk of human error, use a purchase order management system. TradeGecko makes creating and managing purchase orders super simple.
