Say Goodbye to Manual Data Entry by Automating Purchase Order Process

Is your business still generating purchase orders manually? If so, you know how time-consuming, labor-intensive, and tedious these processes can be. These time-consuming tasks are more than just an office annoyance – they lead to costly delays, strained supplier relationships, and missed business opportunities. In today’s competitive landscape, relying on outdated manual processes isn’t simply inefficient; it’s a blind spot that could be hurting your bottom line.

As manufacturers and distributors spend significant amounts to streamline operations – the need for purchase order (PO) automation becomes critical so leaders don’t make decisions blindfolded. Automating specific tasks associated with purchase orders is a linchpin for organizations to streamline workflows, optimize adaptability, and unlock revenue potential.

Challenges of Manual Purchase Orders

Email Overloads

Global professionals send billions of emails daily, many related to POs. This constant communication is time-consuming, inefficient, and prone to errors. Searching through endless email threads for purchase order approval is a time consuming affair. As of April 2023, the United States was the country with the highest number of emails sent daily, with almost ten billion emails being sent. The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan, Belgium, India, and Germany each sent 8.3 billion daily emails. As of April 2022, a staggering 231 million emails were sent worldwide within one minute.

Importance of Automation in Modern Business Processes 

In today’s dynamic market, agility is key. But for many businesses, clunky manual processes like purchase orders (POs) act as anchors, dragging down efficiency and hindering growth.  They want to utilize technology to improve quality and transparency, reduce operational costs, and deliver great customer experiences. The problem is that while most organizations use technology to get better, the results remain woefully short. Why? Procurement professionals still need to pilot or adopt automation while managing purchase orders. 

Automating purchase orders paves the way for quick, error-free processing. Suppliers get clear orders, leading to accurate invoices and on-time deliveries. Organizations can also leverage artificial intelligence, data analytics, and machine learning to analyze historical data, identify patterns, and achieve a single source of truth. According to a survey by McKinsey, ‘procurement as the owner of the single-source-of-truth platform for external cost’ was the highest priority for high-value analytics. At the same time, most survey respondents said they lacked technology platforms that could perform thorough, integrated, real-time data processing. The survey featured that less than 20% of their organizations’ available procurement data was currently used.

What is Purchase Order Automation?

Purchase order automation means leveraging technology to streamline and optimize a business’s creation, processing, and management of purchase orders. It enables organizations to automate the entire purchase order lifecycle, eliminating the need for manual, paper-based processes – from initial request to the final payment. It helps organizations save time and effort and reduces the risk of errors with manual data entry.

Key Components of Purchase Order Automation

An automated purchase order system helps businesses track orders, approve invoices, and process payments without manual effort. Some tasks that are typically automated in a purchase order process include:

Streamline your requisition process: Automatically capturing purchase requests from different sources (e.g., email, e-commerce platforms)
Approval workflows: Routing purchase orders for automatic approvals based on pre-defined rules and spending limits
PO generation and sending: Automatically generating and sending purchase orders to vendors
Data integration: Integrating purchase orders with other systems like ERP and accounting software
Supplier communication: Sending automatic order updates and reminders to vendors

Importance of Automation in Modern Business Processes 

In today’s dynamic market, agility is key. But for many businesses, clunky manual processes like purchase orders (POs) act as anchors, dragging down efficiency and hindering growth.  They want to utilize technology to improve quality and transparency, reduce operational costs, and deliver great customer experiences. The problem is that while most organizations use technology to get better, the results remain woefully short. Why? Procurement professionals still need to pilot or adopt automation while managing purchase orders. 

Automating purchase orders paves the way for quick, error-free processing. Suppliers get clear orders, leading to accurate invoices and on-time deliveries. Organizations can also leverage artificial intelligence, data analytics, and machine learning to analyze historical data, identify patterns, and achieve a single source of truth. According to a survey by McKinsey, ‘procurement as the owner of the single-source-of-truth platform for external cost’ was the highest priority for high-value analytics. At the same time, most survey respondents said they lacked technology platforms that could perform thorough, integrated, real-time data processing. The survey featured that less than 20% of their organizations’ available procurement data was currently used.