Top 5 Procurement Management Tools to Automate Purchasing Functions

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Selecting and onboarding suppliers, contract negotiations, and purchase order approvals: Procurement processes are often large, unwieldy, and chaotic when many stakeholders are in the mix. Procurement teams are not only faced with the task of managing, but also simplifying the process in order to reduce expenses and deliver timely results. If your team is struggling under piles of complex manual workflows, procurement management tools could be the automated solution for your procurement ills.

Procurement management tools help those involved in all stages of the procurement process to navigate complex requirements quickly and easily. Instead of tracking swathes of suppliers individually to ensure compliance and performance, procurement management tools enable users to improve internal workflows and tasks.

Ultimately, through automation, procurement management tools streamline purchasing functions for businesses, including:

• Raising and approving purchase orders

• Maintaining inventory

• Supplier onboarding and management

• Receiving and matching invoices and orders.

What are the best procurement management tools for your business?

The best procurement management tool for your business will depend on the level of functionality you require. With that in mind, I've put together a list of five of the best procurement management tools based on user reviews and procurement features.

Certify Purchasing is a cloud-based procurement tool that digitizes key processes, including requisition, approvals, payments, and invoicing processing. The tool also offers real-time visibility and reporting capabilities to keep track of budgets and performance.

• Businesses can set up custom approval workflows.

• Includes automated controls that facilitate meeting regulatory requirements and approval processes.

• Digital two and three way matching to verify payments and reduce errors.

Purchase orders in Certify (Source)

Pricing: Certify Purchasing subscription starts at $8 per user per month for those seeking to license up to 25 employees. Professional And Enterprise subscription plans have monthly service fees and fixed annual fees respectively, varying based on scope of services provided.

ProcurementExpress.com is a tool ideal for facilities management, construction, software, and marketing organizations with between 20 and 200 employees. It allows users to manage purchasing and budgets simply, from anywhere.

• Automate approvals and set maximum expenditures.

• Customizable purchase orders and allocations.

• Keep track of POs and documentation, including automatic email backups.

Reports in ProcurementExpress.com (Source)

Pricing: ProcurementExpress.com costs $25 per month, and increases 25 for every 5 users added to the plan.

eBuyerAssist Procurement is a modular procurement solution, covering RFQs, RFIs, invoice matching, inventory control, and much more. Users can also manage warehouses, contracts, and strategic sourcing with eBuyerAssist Procurement.

• Users are able to choose and pay for only the modules they need e.g. requisitioning or vendor portals.

• eBuyerAssist Procurement integrates with accounting solution QuickBooks and ERP solution Microsoft Dynamics AX.

• Users can assess vendor risk management through auditing their suppliers.

Overview or orders in eBuyerAssist Procurement (Source)

Pricing: eBuyerAssist Procurement starts at $39 per user per month for the Small Business edition, going up to $49 per user per month for the Enterprise edition, and $69 per user per month for a Custom Platform.

Procurement management tool Precoro incorporates budget tracking, purchase order approval routing, and supplier onboarding into a feature-rich platform to streamline the procurement lifecycle.

• Users can create customizable reports including spend and analytics, and auto allocate cost centers (which can be imported into an ERP system).

• Customizable goods and services catalogs and the ability to generate 'free forms' allow users to add granular detail to purchase requests.

• Notifications ensure users are aware of budget overspends.

Purchase order in Precoro (Source)

Every Precoro plan includes the following:

• Purchase order creation and delivery

• Billing

• Spend data analysis

• Approval workflow

• Real-time budgeting

• Vendor management

• Catalog management

• Three way matching

• Receiving.

Pricing: Standard users pay $6.50 per month, while next level Power users pay $52 per month. The full enterprise plan includes custom integrations and a dedicated customer success team. Quotes for the Enterprise level plan can be obtained directly from Precoro.

Procurify is a comprehensive spend management tool that allows users to set up workflows, approvals, and track receipts and budgets in real time.

• Includes complete purchasing history to track and report on your business' spending.

• Reduces manual entries by integrating with Quickbooks and NetSuite, among other financial software. 

• Users can match packing slips to orders and invoices, and distribute payments if needed.

Procurify Dashboard (Source)

Pricing: Procurify offers three subscription tiers. Pricing details are available through the vendor sales team.