The Problem of Creating Purchase Orders for Store Local Purchases

The procurement modules in large ERP systems are great for buying in bulk and keeping stock supplied for your larger purchasing needs.  Usually items are shipped to a receiving dock and are received into the ERP system by the receiving personnel.  This makes doing AP matching viable for these purchases.

What do you do with the items that your local store needs that are not shipped to a warehouse for distribution?  What about when the items are not part of a current contract or even needed on a contract? A store may need light bulbs for their light fixtures, for example, and the local manager has the authority to place an order for them without getting them in his regular warehouse deliveries.  This type of local purchase does not need approval beyond the store manager.  Waiting for a long process to establish a local supplier of light bulbs could leave the store in the dark before the process completes.

You still want these local store purchases to have an approval process that is tracked for audit compliance and a way to know what your commitments are.  How do you deal with these purchases now?  Wouldn’t it be great to have a local purchasing solution that doesn’t require a receiving department and still allows you to know:

Who approved the order

What your total corporate commitments are

Where you purchased something before for when you need to purchase them again

A solution is coming – stay tuned for more information soon!