Generating Purchase Orders - Orders made over the Internet or a Phone

A

ayo452

#1
I am standardizing our purchasing, part of which is setting requirements for purchase orders. My question has to do with internet purchases or other off the shelf type orders. I think email order confirmations should be sufficient for records as they list catalog numbers, descriptions, estimated delivery dates and usually a tracking number. However my office manager would like to fill out a purchase order after the fact (which is never sent to the supplier) just for our records. This seems like inaccurate record keeping to me as an auditor would review these purchase orders assuming they were actual agreements with the supplier. How do companies document orders made over the internet or the phone?
 
Elsmar Forum Sponsor
#2
Re: Generating Purchase Orders

First of all, Welcome to the Cove! :bigwave:

Either way would work, provided there is enough information detailed in the record. Many companies will use purchase orders as an internal tool for costs analysis and budgeting. Putting the information on the P.O. might make the information more consistent and easier to find than dealing with email confirmation, or printed order forms off the web. Different companies will display the information differently, and it might be harder for accounting to properly perform cost analysis. Although filling out the P.O. may seem like extra work (and it might be), it may very well be less extra work than the accounting person trying to look through emails and what not trying to find answers to questions.

I am not sure I like the idea of doing it after the fact, however. It seems there is a potential to miss information, and once you've gotten out of the site, that information may be lost forever.

Hope that helps....

Again, welcome.
 
G

Gmzita

#3
Re: Generating Purchase Orders

At our Company - the majority of purchases are done through a Purchase Order, including those on Company Credit Cards via in person, over the phone or the internet unless the Accounting Dept. is issuing a check (that would get documented via the Check Request Process). My understanding of why is that when the Credit Card Statements come in at the end of the month, they need to be reconciled against what was purchased and by which department for annual budget purposes.
 

Golfman25

Trusted Information Resource
#4
I am standardizing our purchasing, part of which is setting requirements for purchase orders. My question has to do with internet purchases or other off the shelf type orders. I think email order confirmations should be sufficient for records as they list catalog numbers, descriptions, estimated delivery dates and usually a tracking number. However my office manager would like to fill out a purchase order after the fact (which is never sent to the supplier) just for our records. This seems like inaccurate record keeping to me as an auditor would review these purchase orders assuming they were actual agreements with the supplier. How do companies document orders made over the internet or the phone?
Sounds like a waste of time to me. Duplicative effort is never ideal. Why does she want a separate record?
 
A

ayo452

#5
She has requirements other than the quality system to consider, I'm assuming it's an accounting requirement. I think she mostly wants all purchases on a standard format to be neat and tidy. I should probably mention we are a very small company.
 

Ronen E

Problem Solver
Staff member
Moderator
#6
Hi,

May I suggest you add a provision in your purchasing procedure(s) to set up a purchase log - could be a table of sorts - and log every purchase as a line item. This would be on top of issuing a PO for "normal" purchases (not too much work IMO), and for the rest it would provide the standardised database that accounting etc. could utilise. To stay efficient, have a good think through what are the minimum required details that should be logged.

Cheers,
Ronen.
 

Golfman25

Trusted Information Resource
#7
She has requirements other than the quality system to consider, I'm assuming it's an accounting requirement. I think she mostly wants all purchases on a standard format to be neat and tidy. I should probably mention we are a very small company.
In a very small company you don't need a lot of bureaucratic paperwork. I wouldn't knock yourself out. If she wants to waste her time re-writing something that has already been ordered, so be it. Make it an either/or situation. The email is actually a confirmation of the order, not a PO. Something like "records of purchases can be a standard written PO or an email confirmation."

For large formal purchases we have -- PO, confirmation, packing slip, invoice -- as a paper trail. But for smaller orders (say under a few hundred dollars) we'll just have the confirmation, packing slip, and invoice (if not paid via credit card).
 

hogheavenfarm

Quite Involved in Discussions
#8
We were in the same position. What we found was some freeware that did the job nicely, integrating the phone call with a quick po on the fly. Both Sage ACT and SpendMap are free in small use quantities and do a very good job of this.

Disclaimer - I neither work for nor represent either company - just passing on something to look into.
 
K

krayworth

#9
We also use Sage ACT! as our customer relationship management, or CRM, program and integrate it with the quoting program. For purchase orders and invoicing, we have been using pcMRP.
 
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