Requisition Management Software- Streamline the Procurement Process Successfully

With the everlasting revival of technology, business culture today has evolved exponentially. This has caused a gradual shift in the approach towards business operations. We all know for a fact that one of the most crucial aspects of a successful business is effective procurement and all the duties within it. What makes it crucial is the amount of time and precision that it demands. This is where requisition management stands as a one-stop solution.

This write-up is here to give you insights into what requisition management is and how effectively we can streamline its processes with workflow automation.

What is Requisition Management?

For large-scale companies with multiple departments and a large workforce, there is an obvious possibility for blurriness and confusion with the amount of paperwork that goes behind it.

The purchase requisition is one such area where, in a traditional setup, several departments’ inputs and requests come in simultaneously. Having to manage this would be the most exhausting work. Hence, requisition management automation should be your primary step.

What is requisition management? Requisition management refers to the process of generating, processing, sanctioning, and tracking a purchase request, expense reimbursement, invoice request, or any order change request within a company.

Such a management system caters to the steadiness and integration of all the departments ensuring smooth working. It also navigates the cash flow in the organization as well as maintains a symbiotic rapport with the manufacturers, suppliers, or service providers.

What if we say you can manage all this with the help of a purchase requisition system? Yes, these processes can be streamlined through automation. It assembles all the requisitions in an instant in one space. The role of the employee just comes down to creating the request.

The request is then automatically carried forward to all consecutive processes like reviewing, approval/rejection, and tracking, along with the aid of notifications and reminders resulting in no delays. Let us look at this process in detail.

How does Requisition Software Streamline the Workflow?

Every company is unique in its organizational structure and dynamics. These electronic requisition systems can be modified and customized according to the company’s needs. Here are some of the major yet common stages in the process of requisition software.

1. Generating a Requisition

This stage is the initiating action that triggers the requisition management process to begin. The employee has to file the request for requisition for the purchase of the goods or services. The form on which the employee enters the details of the purchase is known as the requisition form. The form becomes the formal sheet of the request. On this sheet, all the details regarding the quantity, type, grade, and other parameters need to be entered. There is also a provision to enter the date by which you expect the goods to be delivered.

2. Reviewing the Requisition

The second stage is where the filled requisition is reviewed. The request from the employee is sent to the team manager, who is in charge of going through and verifying the details given on it. The manager here is responsible for assessing the request, analyzing whether it is within the budget, and also checking its compliance with the company’s ideals and standards.

3. Approving or Rejecting the Requisition

The requisition forms must be reviewed and approved by the manager. In case of any missing or incorrect data, the manager can send the requisition back and request clarification. The employee gets notified about the rejected requisition. Eventually, they have to make the necessary clarifications. After this, it is re-sent to the reviewer. When the edited details are agreeable, the requisition is finally approved, and if not the request will be rejected again.

4. Stock Analysis by the Inventory department

With the arrival of the purchase requisition, the inventory department takes over the process and cross-checks the existing stocks in the organization. In case the requested product or material is not in stock, the inventory team forwards this purchase requisition to the purchasing team.

5. Purchasing Department Screening

The purchasing officer validates the purchase requisition. The officer is responsible for scanning through the filed requisition, legitimizing the purchase, and sanctioning it by verifying the authorization from the inventory department.

6. Creating POs

Once the request is sanctioned by the purchasing department, it is converted into a Purchase order. It finally becomes an order to which ordering, purchasing, and delivery must be done to the respective requisition.

7. Receiving and Assessing the Delivery

When the order delivery is done eventually, the department checks the quality and quantity of the arrivals using the three-way matching process. This process is carried out to check whether the data on the order, delivery, and receipts match.

Why use Requisition Management Software?

Requisition management is a turbulent process, doing it manually can bring in consequences. This is because, as mentioned earlier, it demands a lot of time and accuracy. Requisition management software is the best solution you can always adopt. Not only with efficiency but also the amount of money that needs to be invested reduces marginally. It also improves the company’s overall control of the business processes.

To understand the effectiveness of requisition software, understanding the demerits of the manual system becomes important.

Drawbacks in Manual Requisition Management

Manual requisition management can be the most unproductive approach a company can adapt to. With this sort of management system, the piling up of request sheets, orders, and receipts can be stressful, and the delay and vagueness that follows challenges the organization’s productivity. The following are some major drawbacks of employing manual requisition management:

Longer Time to Process Purchase Requests

A manual setup of generating a purchase request would only be apt for a small-scale business organization, where the workforce and their requirements would be limited and trackable manually. But think about a larger-scale setup, which has to employ multiple levels of verification and approvals. This task will seem disoriented and wearing. The requisitions received have to be ideally carried through a chain of steps, as discussed above, across different departments for processing and approval, which is a protracted process.

In instances where any assigned person in the chain is unavailable or on vacation, the request has to wait on the desk for another day leading to further delay. Furthermore, if any clarification arises midway, the request is again brought to the requester. Hence, it can be concluded that the request-delivery time cycle in a manual requisition management system is longer.

Prone to Errors, Duplication, and Risks

Human activities tend to undergo errors all the time. Handling and following up on simultaneous purchase requests can cause confusion and mistakes. With a lot of paperwork, emails, and delivery, the degree of inaccuracy and duplication is high in a manual requisition system. In some cases, even wrong approvals can be administered, increasing the risk of unnecessary orders and expenses.

Inconsistency and Cost Control Issues

In most cases, the manual requisition management system has often proved to be inconsistent. In certain situations, employees often fail to produce a purchase requisition and tend to make direct purchases generating only invoices where payment needs to be made. This makes the expenses go out of hand.

Difficulty in Tracking and Standardization

Most of the manual procurement management is fulfilled through paperwork, Excel sheets, and emails. Tracking and controlling all of these will constantly remain challenging. It is also difficult to standardize the processes which are paper-based in general.

Navigation and Visibility

A series of paper-based piles are difficult to handle. It again becomes a nightmare to track and most often the status of the request might not be visible or accessible when needed. In the case of cost control, the visibility of the cash flow is not transparent all the time.

Compliance Reporting can be Hectic

In this system, there is always a necessity to keep track of all your email approvals, expenses, orders, and receipts, for all the purchases that have been done. If asked for any proof of the purchases made, you will have to rummage through all of them individually.

In case of an automated system in place, the higher official need not consult the requester for any such documents, but rather can directly access those from their desk.

Complex and Labor-intensive

Receiving requisitions, forwarding them for approval, then contacting the stock team followed by the purchase team, eventually placing the order, and finally procuring the item is labor-intensive. A team for procurement has to be appointed for this, which again increases the labor force, leading to more complex workflow and dynamics.

No Automated Notifications and Reminders

With the absence of an automated notifications and reminders system, the in charge has to manually seek and track the status of the procurement process. On the contrary, on requisition management software, reminders can be set up and it sends necessary notifications regarding approvals, task deadlines, and also regarding expired deadlines. This becomes an effective way to carry out all the tasks in the chain of procurement.

Features to Look for in a Procurement Software

Along with zero paperwork, zero human involvement, visibility, and also cost reduction, there are a few other technical features that need to be paid attention to while choosing software for procurement automation.

From all the available procurement software, it is always best to look for the right one that would match your organization’s needs and style of working. A solution that can easily provide all of the basic features along with the option to customize should be high on your priority list. Here are some of the features that you need to consider while automating your requisition management system.

1. Instant Reporting

The jammed and over-piled up requisitions and the respective delay caused can be located with visually appealing reports immediately.

2. Automatic Three-way matching

Always go for a solution that will offer you an auto three-way matching of your requisitions. This will ensure that the details of the order, delivery, and receipts are matched, further, it verifies and finalizes the order in an instant. A huge amount of time and labor is saved with this feature.

3. Cloud-based Storage

Centralized storage will offer a platform to streamline all the processes like storing, assessing, accessing, and also approving the requisitions.

4. User-specific Permissions

With role-based access, the transparency and security of the information are maintained when required. Certain data will be user-specific and it is conditional access to certain devices or apps.

5. Vendor Index

Vendor records available within the software make it easier for the employees to find and choose the right ones without investing much time. The system will automatically take you to the vendor’s page through your business account.

6. Approval Workflows

Approval workflow is a crucial aspect of your automated requisition management. These workflows streamline the processes with multiple purchase requests, vendors, and stakeholders for seamless approval.

7. Flexible Budget Creation

Each requisition might demand a different budget structure, and it could also vary from department to department. These budgets can be given access control to specific departments as well.

8. Automated Notifications

An automated notification system is a must in such a software application to ensure the seamless working of all the departments.

Additional features would be a cherry on top if it will better the working environment for your employees and also promote coordination between departments. Automation software that promises consistent profitable results needs to be your choice.

Centralize your Procurement Through Cflow

Cflow is one of the top procurement automation platforms available for your organization. Cflow, designed to majorly focus on easy navigation, makes your requisition management intuitive and seamless. With zero coding it has a deep sense of clarity and streamlined workflows. This platform offers you a space that is integration-aided with more than 1000 necessary business tools and promises to streamline effortlessly.

With Cflow you can:

• Process your purchase request right from generating a requisition request to getting manager approval.
• Create, store, and review receipts whenever necessary. Simultaneously, keep track of all your dealers and the billings.
• Do seamless review and approval of purchase orders in no time with the mobile procurement platform.
• Experience easy generation of receipts, request for payment, or return through this automation.
• Plan and optimize the logistics and inventory for your procurement process.
• Generate invoices and make payments with systematic and easy functions. Fraud and duplication are automatically eliminated from invoice approvals.
• Effortlessly manage vendors and suppliers, with automated features like contract negotiation, cost control, and mitigating vendor risks

Acquire experience in effective procurement with the automated requisition management system of Cflow. With the amount of work that is being done daily, it is almost impossible to keep track of it even without a minor error. Why risk wasting resources when you can automate on such a challenging frontier? Let automation take away the heaviness off your sleeves.

Hurry up and indulge yourself and your workforce in much more profound, coherent, and consistent operations. Sign up for free on Cflow now!