Secure, cloud based, Purchase Order System, customised for your business.

Our system costs are made up of a one off system set up cost (to include any additional customisation required, beyond the standard) and an annual support figure (which includes hours of time to use as required). After that it’s just the monthly user licence cost (see section below)

Your subscription is for a minimum of 36 months. You can give notice in writing no less than 90 days from the date of the first 36 month anniversary, to cease the service. At the end of the period, you can elect to have your data transferred out (cost for this service will be determined on notice). If you elect not to extract the data the information will be deleted from our system 14 days from the end of the period. If you do not serve notice as above, the agreement will roll over for a further 12 months thereafter, until notice is served.

Our purchase order software solution is based on a concurrent user model. This is a type of licencing that allows multiple users to access the purchase order system simultaneously, as long as the number of users accessing the software at any given time does not exceed the number of concurrent user licences that have been purchased. This is in contrast to individual seat licensing, which requires a separate licence for each user who will be accessing the software, whether they use it or not.

Businesses evolve, as does the need to make alterations to systems to accommodate them. In these cases we can help our clients make practical changes after their purchase ordering system has been in use for a while.

Each system comes with a usable support ‘bank’ of a number of hours which can be used to make small changes to a supplied solution. If the changes required are more fundamental, we would quote for the development work in advance under Change Management with full details and costings to test and deploy.

No. However you can use the PO system perfectly well on a smart phone, as the system will re-scale itself to the smaller screen size- this will involve more scrolling. Users would normally use a phone for approving items such as Purchase Orders or Invoices. We would recommend using tablet size devices (7 inch) and above for raising PO’s.

Yes. As we developed the core digital purchase order software application from scratch ourselves, we can accommodate any level of additional customisation. This would increase the set up charge and possibly the annual support cost. Clients would always need to sign off full documentation related to customisation and the associated costs, beyond the normal. We pride ourselves in providing practical business tailored solutions.

We are also involved in producing totally bespoke software solutions for clients, still using the same basic system framework.

By involving key users at an early stage, they will feel the benefits of inclusion in the process of setting up a purchase order platform, and potentially become advocates to other staff members. In our experience they will often contribute important observations that ensure that all practical elements are taken into account at the design phase.

With our systems, from specification stage- where the client signs off all the customised functionality and features and final costs- the time to deliver a test system is about 4 weeks. They then get 2 weeks to do their own testing, to ensure that it meets the agreed specification. Once the test system is signed off, go-live can be achieved in 48 hrs.

Training is based on videos that are available to all users under the 'Help' section. As part of the standard package we record the test system handover session, as this features each client's own system features and functions, but with some test data in. This with some generic videos covering administration roles, are added to the 'Help' section at go Live date. We also supply (where relevant) workflow diagrams of the approval set up for each system, also available under 'Help'.

Yes. Each user will have a customised dashboard of key information presented to them on log in, dependent on the roles and permissions that they have in the system. Typically this will be in graphical and table form, such as My Outstanding Tasks, Outstanding Purchase Orders, broken down by type, which can then be accessed directly from this screen. There will also be information on the status of budgets (allocated, used and remaining) and any that are on a budget watch list, or due to expire. Power / Finance users will have access to system wide versions of the data.

Our cloud purchase order system is hosted on Azure UK platforms in the Azure UK South region with data backups to Acronis UK Cloud for resilience and reliability. For more information on our hosting platform or your specific data hosting requirements, speak to one of our purchase order software UK experts by giving us a call on UK freephone 0800 840 3336.

Yes, all of our software purchase order systems are hosted on our private UK cloud, powered by Azure Hosting platforms based in the UK and managed by our purchase order control system experts. Client's can elect to have their system installed on their own private cloud or on-premise at their site. Our po system software experts can install, manage and support your system with appropriate remote access to your own private cloud or on-premise platform.

Yes, you can. The main Purchase Order and Purchase to Pay systems have the capability of admin users being able to add new entities (companies) plus branches and departments as required, thereby keeping pace with business expansion. And each new company can have different workflow rules for the approval of items created, as well as different logos on the purchase order template.

Yes, you can. Metadata such as approved and sent Purchase Orders, and in our purchase to pay version, PO matched and approved supplier invoices and credit notes, can be exported as a CSV file. Accounts systems such as SAGE, Xero and Quick Books all have the facility to import CSV file data, and the export from our system would match the required format columns and headings in your version of your accounts system, for accurate import.

With our systems, each item line on a digital purchase order can have a different budget allocation. In addition created budgets can have different nominal codes or cost centres associated, meaning even more accurate allocation of funds, and the user does not have to contend with knowing which codes should be used.

There is a full goods receipting (delivery note) function, allowing for part, full and bulk line receipting against open Purchase Orders by supplier. The system knows which purchase orders for which suppliers have open lines for receipting and will automatically close PO's when fully receipted. Physical GRN’s – or delivery notes- can be imported, but if there is no physical document, there is an internal receipting facility that achieves the same process.

Admin users can not only add new users with defined roles and access permissions, as new staff are employed, but can change existing user profiles, as their job position or function changes.

We will import your existing suppliers via a template we provide you with. You can then add new suppliers, plus additional delivery and invoice addresses via the 'Add Item' icon. There is also the ability to set up different terms and conditions for suppliers, that then become part of the PO sent to suppliers.

Once the PO has been through the full approval process the system converts the template into a PDF and emails it automatically to the nominated contact at the supplier. There is the option for the PO creator (and other internal contacts e.g.,site managers) to receive a copy of the final PO when it has been dispatched.

No. We set up the workflows to suit your business. For most client systems Purchase Order approval workflows are based on company level rules (e.g. by Dept. / value) but there are also additional user rules that can be deployed on top of company rules.

You can order as many different lines as you require. Being web based the system also allows the use of cut & paste, so you can copy lines (say) from other sources. The price list import and search function adds an extra level of ease and accuracy when building a PO.

There is a Supplier Price Module that allows clients to import price lists from suppliers. The advantage is that product codes and descriptions and prices are current and accurate, which the PO creators can load at PO line level- they just fill in the quantity, helping speed up the PO process. The system also allows the update of individual price changes, and complete new price lists will overwrite existing ones, ensuring up to date information.

There are 3 normal purchase order categories – Company, Departmental and Project, and most clients have at least 2. They use Company for items such as stationery, and then either Department or Project based PO’s with their own associated budgets and account codes.

Yes you can upload and match supplier invoices to issued Purchase Orders in the full Purchase Order & Supplier invoice version often known as Purchase to Pay. A lot of invoices and supporting documents come into organisations as electronic files / attachments such as PDF’s these days, but you can also just scan the paper copy if that’s what arrives. You simply save the relevant document(s) to an accessible directory and use the 2 system icons – Upload Documents and Index Documents - to bring them into the system and apply the relevant metadata (indexing) to each as appropriate. Invoices can therefore be handled at Finance department level or in case of query can be routed back to the PO creator for action.

The purchase order software has a Budget Control Module that allows clients to set up  (via Add Item icon) company, departmental or individual project budgets on a periodical basis. PO’s can then be raised by authorised users up to the level of funds remaining in the budget. However, if the PO exceeds that figure, the system will not allow the PO to be raised and the user will need to refer to the system administrator. There is also the option to add a time ‘cut off’ for the availability of a budget, giving an additional level of control. At any time a breakdown on all budget status (amount used, amount remaining) is available as a saved search and a report.

The base system comes with 20Gb storage- which by the way equates to some 250k documents- but you can elect to increase the storage in 1Gb increments at a small monthly cost. To date even our largest clients have not exceed this initial limit.

Cloud B2B solutions are fully secure using individual client system SSL certification. SSL is an encrypted communication channel that renders all transactions between your browser and our servers impenetrable. The encryption takes place on your computer, allowing you to safely use the Purchase Order software from all Internet connections, home, office, or public connection. In common with all Internet activity you should however remain vigilant and observe sensible operational practices when using computers in public spaces. Every customer has their own database instance to ensure data isolation, meaning that no two customers will have their data stored in the same tables. We provide encryption as standard so your physical documents are protected (to AES 256-bit standard).

We can provide clients with details of server specifications to host the Purchase Order and Invoice Approval system. Clients however should be aware that they will have to support the infrastructure including back ups themselves, and client installed systems will attract an installation charge and a higher annual support fee, dependent on the size of system and number of users.

Support (working week) is provided via our dedicated online Web Portal, enabling nominated Client staff to filter and then report potential faults, with associated screen shots. The system is also used to request any changes you want to the system e.g., to users. Nominated users can also check their account and invoice details via the portal. With each system you get an allowance of hours that you can use for any issue (note: genuine software issues are not deducted from the support bank).

There are many advantages to using cloud based PO software:

A digital purchase order system that is located in the Cloud can be accessed securely, at any time, day or night from anywhere in the world via the internet. There is no software or hardware for a company’s internal IT team to have to install and support – the system is run as SaaS (Software as a Service) and all updates and security patches are part of the package.

Our systems are Transactional based (meaning instantaneous updating of the data base structure). If your software is transactional, then all users are working on the most up to date information.

Our purchasing software is suitable for small businesses as size is not the most important factor:

The need to keep a firm control on expenditure is a key driver for all businesses whether small, medium or large – our purchase order systems meet this need.

For many, especially in manufacturing, a large proportion of turnover may be spent on purchases of raw materials and associated items. We have business clients of all sizes, from manufacturing to construction and services. We also have clients in the educational sector, charities and even football clubs!

There are other products in the Cloud B2B portfolio including Contracts Management and HR OnLine. To get more information return to our home page. Our sister company The IPC Group also has a wide range of Information management services and solutions which can be found at ipcgroup.co.uk