How are purchase requisitions currently managed?
One of the main needs of purchase requisition processes in an organization is to obtain formal permission for purchases in order to be reviewed by those responsible for approval. These processes are used to request office supplies, products to be used or production materials, among others.
Despite being such an important process, many companies and organizations are still using obsolete strategies to organize purchase requisitions: approvals during informal office exchanges, via Excel spreadsheets or written records, or by e-mail.
These strategies have major disadvantages that can be seriously detrimental to the organization, such as no spending control, difficulty in detecting potential fraud, and delays in decision making.
Advantages of implementing an automated process in Qflow
To solve these problems, a well-defined and automated process can be implemented with a BPM tool such as Qflow. This tool offers several advantages, given that:
- Standardizes and organizes purchase requisition processes.
- Streamlines communication with purchasing and procurement.
- Provides an audit of all decisions made.
- Allows for greater control over expenses, including assessing their need and selecting a supplier, among others.
- Maintains workflow, even when a staff member is absent.
- Provides the possibility to manage a schedule with reminders, alerts and due dates.
The Qflow solution: Ready-to-use purchase request template
Qflow offers a ready-to-use “Purchase Request” template customizable to the needs of any organization, regardless of its size.
Some of the most important steps in the process include:
Request purchase
The requesting user makes the request, entering its justification, the currency to be used, and the different items to be purchased with their associated cost. Additional information and comments can also be added for a later review.
First approval
This task falls under the user assigned as the “First Reviewer” who can approve or reject the request. According to how it is specified, this person can be the requester’s direct supervisor, someone specifically in charge of reviewing requests, or a group of people (i.e. a sector of the company).
If the organization has a purchasing and procurement division, these employees can receive and evaluate the requests. Another possible scenario would be for example the case of office supply requests, where the first approver could be the requestor’s supervisor, and once approved, the request would continue for further review.
The approval request has a time control setting, which includes a 10-day and a 20-day reminder, as well as an automatic expiration at 30 days, when the request is automatically rejected. These settings can be personalized according to the needs of the process. It is possible to change the frequency of reminders and alerts, send them on a recurring basis, and allow for their selection within the process by a user.
Second approval
In case the total amount of the request exceeds a defined threshold, another approval by the “Second Approver” is required. This is useful in situations when the amounts are large and approval is required from managers or individuals with a broader perspective of the company or organization´s budget.
The process is defined by default to go through this second approval when purchases are larger than USD200, but this can be adjusted in a few steps, both to change the defined threshold and to add conditions that fit specific business rules.
Similar to the first approval step, the second one can setup time alerts.
Notify approval
Once the request is approved, the applicant receives an approval notification by e-mail indicating any additional comments by the reviewers.
Notify rejection
Similar to the approval, a rejection notification is sent to the requestor indicating any comments and reasons for the rejection.
How to further optimize the purchasing process?
Qflow’s flexibility allows for a great deal of process customization, such as adding conditions, tasks, or modifying the flow according to specific needs.
Moreover, you can add data or fields to the forms without a need for programming. Moreover, it is also possible to incorporate stages, to measure whether the response times are adequate, and even to define the process flow and a maximum time limit. This way, a user could control response times, receiving alerts in case a certain stage, such as approval, reaches the maximum time set for a response.
Finally, the tool can also be integrated with already existing company applications, such as ERP or CRM, allowing for a complete integration of processes. This can be done through integrations with REST or SOAP Web services.
Conclusion
The automation of purchase requisition processes with the Qflow BPM tool improves efficiency, reduces errors, fraud, and improves cost control. This software offers flexibility, customization, and process visibility, making it an excellent choice. The purchase requisition template is a good first step towards improving the process and ensuring long-term success.
You can try now our “Purchase request” template with Qflow’s free trial!
