A good purchase order software makes sure your business gets the inventory it needs from suppliers easily and quickly.
It streamlines the procurement process, allowing you to rest easy your business will get the products you need at a later date.
There are many different purchase order software out there, though. Which one should your business go with?
Luckily, we’ve taken a look at dozens of purchase order software and reviewed them for quality, efficiency, and reliability. Below are our reviews breaking down the top five purchase order software we looked at.
But before we jump into the list, it’s important to understand what exactly a purchase order software is.
• Flexible and easy-to-use
• Great interface
• Helpful alerts
• Email and mobile approvals
• Try it today!
What is Purchase Order Software?
To understand the software, we must first understand what purchase orders are.
A purchase order (PO) is a document that buyers send to suppliers. The document is a request for products and/or services to be delivered and furnished by the supplier.
Here’s a good example of one below:
There are a few good reasons why businesses issue purchase orders.
For one, they’re legally binding. That means that once a buyer issues a PO to the supplier, and they receive their products and/or services, they must pay the supplier.
This allows the buyer to purchase items on credit then, which is very helpful for them.
They also help provide a record for exchanges between buyers and suppliers. These can be referred back to in case of any disputes—legal or otherwise.
Purchase orders can also be used by lenders and other financial institutions to provide loans and other types of financial assistance to the buyers.
A purchase order software is merely software that furnishes and sends purchase orders digitally as well as physically. This gives your business the opportunity to send POs over the Internet or, if you want, to print out the PO and send it via mail.
The 5 Best Purchase Order Software
- Coupa Procurement – Most flexible purchase order software
- Quickbooks – Best purchase order software for Quickbooks users
- Procurify – Best purchase order software for customization
- Xero – Best price for purchase order software
- ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus – Best purchase order software for IT teams
Below are our reviews and recommendations for the five best purchase order software out there. Each one has its own unique benefits and drawbacks.
The one you ultimately choose might differ from another company. That’s okay. The important thing is you choose one that’s good for your process and needs.
#1. Coupa Procurement – Most flexible purchase order software
• Flexible and easy-to-use
• Great interface
• Helpful alerts
• Email and mobile approvals
• Try it today!
They offer a flexible, easy-to-use purchasing system that doesn’t sacrifice quality for affordability.
It’s simple: The interface walks you through the procurement process with its dead simple search bar. They even alert you to products being sold at discounted prices. This allows you to save even more money and stretch the value of your dollar.
It brings the simplicity of an ecommerce store you use daily like Amazon and brings it to the world of procurement.
For services, their statement of work forms are incredibly straightforward. Even your greenest employee can fill them out with ease.
Couple that with their email and mobile approvals process, and you can bet your workflow will be more streamlined when it comes to procurement.
Pricing is obscured on their website. However, Coupa offers a free live demo of their product including a live Q&A so you can have direct access to a representative. They’ll be able to provide you with more information regarding pricing. You could also contact their sales team through a form on their website.
#2. Quickbooks – Best for purchase order software for Quickbook invoice users
• Great for Quickbook invoice users
• Automated billing and invoicing
• Receive payment immediately
• Prices start at $12.50 / month
• Try it today!
As such, it’s a solid choice for any current Quickbook users.
Using their intuitive, user-friendly interface, Quickbooks allows you to easily create high-quality purchase orders. They even furnish unique purchase order numbers.
Each form can be customized to your business’s brand including logo, colors, and information.
Once the order is complete, Quickbook automates the process for you. They’ll turn your purchase order into a bill you can then send to customers complete with items, prices, and quantity of the orders.
And since it’s already integrated with their invoicing solutions, you’ll be able to receive payment from customers as soon as they receive the bill and make a payment.
It’s the automation that really makes Quickbooks shine, and why I recommend it so highly. Nothing beats being able to set it and forget it.
Pricing and plans start at $12.50 / month for the Essentials plan. The features included with each are as follows:
While the Essentials plan should be more than enough for smaller businesses, I highly recommend going with the Plus plan. That comes with more users and permissions, as well as inventory management and a very handy tool to help you handle 1099 contractors. Great for growing businesses.
#3. Procurify – Best purchase order software for customization
• All-in-one procurement solution
• Excellent and fun user experience
• Track budgets
• Free demo
• Try it today!
Their focus is primarily on tracking and managing your team’s spending. They do so through a very user-friendly dashboard and mobile interface.
Speaking of which, they easily have the most pleasant user experience of any purchase order software on this list. Billed as the “purchasing software your team actually wants to use,” their dashboards are simple, straightforward, while still offering all the features you’d want to see in a good purchase order software such as budget tracking, customized approvals, and metrics reporting.
Their approval flows are highly customizable. You and your team will be able to design an approval process that’s perfect for your business. You can also set customized notifications on desktop and mobile for an even more streamlined experience.
Of course, when it comes to purchase orders themselves, they have a great process for that too. Your entire team is able to see the status of each procurement order. This allows for more communication and breaks down potential roadblocks along the way.
And with their mobile app, you’ll be able to make purchase orders no matter where you are. Employees can even receive notifications for any updates or changes in orders. Perfect for remote and distributed teams.
Unfortunately, their prices are obscured on the website. However, your team can request a free demo from Procurify to try it out. A sales team rep will be able to give you a quote based on what your company needs.
#4. Xero – Best price for purchase order software
• Award-winning software
• Complete purchase orders quickly
• Automated invoicing
• Prices start at $9/month
• Try it today!
Using your inventory items, Xero helps you complete purchase orders quickly and efficiently. Like many of the other offerings on this list, they also allow you to customize your purchase order to reflect your company’s brand.
Like Quickbooks, they also help you convert your purchase orders into invoices or bills. The difference, of course, is that they do it through Xero’s accounting software rather than Quickbooks.
As such, Xero is a great choice if you were using Xero already. Plus, the price point at $9.00 / month is very lucrative.
They also offer a free-trial option. This allows you to dip your toes in the water before making the decision to jump in. The free trial lasts 30 days, which should be more than enough time for you and your team to get a sense of whether or not you’d like to go with it.
There are a few downsides though. For one, the learning curve for Xero is a little steeper than the other ones. A few reviews online from customers say that the interface can be difficult to use. Also, they sometimes throw unexpected upcharges on you if you’re not careful.
#5. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus – Best for purchase order software for IT teams
• Great for IT teams
• Automates tech purchases
• All-in-one dashboard
• Free demo
• Try it now!
It’s no surprise then that they offer a great purchase order software as well.
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus optimizes and automates your IT purchases. In a single dashboard, you’ll be able to utilize their massive product and vendor catalog to make orders and furnish billing for each one.
Of course, making purchase orders isn’t the only thing you can do with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus. It’s also a fully-fleshed out IT help desk software that helps you with things such as:
- Reporting/analytics
- IT app management
- ITSM workflows
- Asset inventory reports
- Help desk reports
- Self-service portals
- Project management
- Service catalogs
…and more.
ManageEngine also offers two different types of solutions too. You can sign up for the service to be provided on the cloud, or you can download it for on-premise.
They do offer a demo for teams to test out and dip their toes in the water before jumping in. And you can also get a quote that’s “tailor fit” to your business’s needs and goals.
Methodology for Choosing Purchase Order Software
When choosing a purchase order software, there are a lot of different criteria you might want to consider.
In our reviews above, we took a look at three different factors we found were most important in a good PO software.
Automation
Automated features such as invoicing and billing, as well as notifications to all relevant stakeholders are crucial to a good purchase order software.
It’s the set-it-and-forget-it method of ordering inventory from vendors. You don’t have to worry about the minutes of the process. You’ll be able to easily facilitate the relationship between vendor and buyer with ease.
You’ll also be able to place a purchase order, and the software will automatically send the purchase requisition to the right stakeholder for approval. When it’s approved, it automatically goes to the vendor.
No more following up with people to see if it was sent. That’s the beauty of automation.
Comprehensive catalogs
To satisfy the needs of your team and employees, you’ll want a purchase order software that gives you access to the products you need.
(Also water is wet)
To that end, you’ll want a PO software with a comprehensive catalog of popular products. It’ll give your team a quick and easy way to get anything from office supplies to tech products. These catalogs can be furnished from suppliers, or they can be managed by a procurement team on-site.
Either way, you want to get access to the items that you need.
Budgeting
A good purchase order software shouldn’t break the bank. Not only does that mean its price point should be right, but the software itself should also help you and your business stay within your budget.
This can be done in a number of ways. The most common way is probably through a budgeting tool that’s customized to your business’s goals and needs.
You should be able to set the dollar amount for your budget, and the tool should be able to work with multiple different budget types as well. After all, your business doesn’t just have one budget for everything. It’s like subdivided by projects, teams, and divisions in your company.
Your purchase order software should facilitate that.
• Flexible and easy-to-use
• Great interface
• Helpful alerts
• Email and mobile approvals
• Try it today!
Conclusion
Here’s the list of our recommendations again.
- Coupa Procurement – Most flexible purchase order software
- Quickbooks – Best purchase order software for Quickbooks users
- Procurify – Best purchase order software for customization
- Xero – Best price for purchase order software
- ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus – Best purchase order software for IT teams
If you’re looking for the best one, we highly recommend Coupa Procurement. However, it ultimately depends on the needs of your business.
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