Acumatica ERP Distribution Tools: Purchase Order Management

Purchase orders are an essential tool that ensures businesses stay within their spending budget. Without an effective purchase order management solution, tracking expenses is more difficult, prone to errors and validating delivery reports can be a nightmare. In this article, which is part 2 of our 3-part Distribution Tools Series (Read the overview of Distribution Management Software here, Part 1 of the Distribution Tools Series on Advanced Inventory Management here and Part 3 on Sales Order Management here), we’ll look at how Acumatica Cloud ERP helps businesses streamline procurement processes to ensure a steady supply of materials while enforcing policy and process controls.

What is Purchase Order Management Software?

Purchase order software serves many essential procurement business processes. It helps with creating purchase orders (POs), transmitting POs to suppliers, reconciling supplier invoices to POs and contracts and more. As an owner of an SMB, you may think your business doesn’t need to use purchase orders. But purchase orders provide value at every business level. Efficient purchase order software enables enterprises to create budgets, keep a close eye on money coming in and out, and manage spending through accurate and timely reporting.

Some benefits of purchase order management software include the automation of accounts payable (AP) processes. Procurement software eliminates the necessity for manual matching with rules engines and ultimately improve efficiency, accuracy and cost-effectiveness. Another key benefit of the software is enhanced purchasing workflows. With user-friendly interfaces that include built-in approvals workflows, as well as remote and mobile access to the system, PO software significantly simplifies complex purchasing processes.

What Can Purchase Order Management Software Do for My Business?

A purchase order system, like Acumatica’s module within their Distribution ERP solution, helps you reduce costs and improve vendor relationships by automating and centrally managing your global purchasing processes. Acumatica’s online sourcing automates the entire procurement process from vendor quotes to paying invoices. You can streamline procurement processes to ensure a steady supply of materials while enforcing policy and process controls.

With Acumatica’s purchase order management, you can track when POs are received. Orders can be partially filled, filled, or consolidated from multiple purchase orders into a single receipt. You can even modify pricing information during bill entry in Accounts Payable, and the difference will be posted to the designated variance account.

Another important PO feature is you can create drop shipments to deliver goods directly to a customer location. You can create these drop shipments automatically from sales orders or enter them manually by linking to a sales order from the purchase order entry screen. After the bill is entered for the drop shipment order, the corresponding sales order will be released, and an invoice will be generated for the customer.

Finally, with Acumatica you can manage disparate inventory IDs among suppliers and your system. As soon as you receive purchase orders the software automatically assigns serial and lot numbers for simplified item tracking. Want to learn more about what sets Acumatica’s Inventory Management software apart? Check out our recent blog post PC Magazine’s Best Inventory Management Software Going into 2019!

Key Benefits of Acumatica’s Purchase Order Management Module

Gain Control of Approvals

• Create approval rules for order types, vendor information, order amount and other order-specific information.
• Control release through a pre-set approval process.

Reduce Acquisition Costs

• Generate purchase orders based on stock level and inventory replenishment algorithms.
• Place orders with the vendor that best meets your price and delivery time requirements.
• Generate drop shipment purchase orders from open sales orders automatically.

Increase Efficiency

• Automate your entire supply chain by eliminating repetitive data entry and errors
• Include suppliers, receiving, accounting and other departments in any geographical location – quickly and securely.

Save Time Working with Receipts and Vouchers

• Track receipts – partially filled, filled, or consolidated from multiple purchase orders – into a single receipt.
• Create accounts payable vouchers automatically from receipts.
• Consolidate multiple receipts into a single voucher and numerous invoices from a single receipt
• Modify pricing during invoice entry in Accounts Payable with automatic variance posting in General Ledger.

Want to learn more about Acumatica’s Distribution Management Software? Check out the following articles in our What is ERP? Distribution Tools series! (Advanced Inventory Mangement, Purchase Order Management and Sales Order Management)

Want to learn more about ERP software? Check out the other posts in our What is ERP series! (Financial Tools: Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, General Ledger; Manufacturing Management: Bills of Material/Routing, Material Requirements Planning, and Production Management)​

Think Acumatica’s Distribution Management Software could be a game-changer for your business? Find out more here.

Have any questions about Acumatica or want to request a demonstration? Contact our team.

Remember, the company you choose to implement your software dictates the success or failure of your software investment. At Aqurus, we’re passionate about providing superior ERP solutions and support.