7 Min. Read

7 Best Purchase Order Software – Reviews & Pricing

June 26, 2024

In business, keeping tabs on spending and purchasing can be as easy or as complex as the systems that are in place to handle these activities. Organizations can no longer rely on verbal agreements and handshakes to make decisions about purchasing goods and services. Tools like purchase order software make these agreements trackable and trustworthy.

When it comes to purchase order management, what’s the best option for a specific business with unique goals and needs? The multitude of software options can make it more difficult to select the right platform.

In this guide, we’ll share why purchase order software is important and how you can narrow down your options to some of the best tools in the industry.

Here’s What We’ll Cover:

What is a Purchase Order?

Benefits of Purchase Order Software

Top Purchase Order Software Picks

Key Takeaways

More Purchase Order Resources

What is a Purchase Order?

A purchase order is a document that a buyer issues to a seller to detail the terms of a new sale. Although different from contracts, purchase orders are legally binding agreements between a buyer and vendor. These documents most often include the date, a unique purchase order (P.O.) number, the vendor contact, cost, quantity, and special notes or requests.

Who Uses Purchase Orders?

In the small business realm, business owners are the primary parties involved in the creation and management of purchase orders.

In larger businesses, purchase order creation processes might be offloaded to another employee who manages procurement, requisitions, or inventory.

Benefits of Purchase Order Software

There are many advantages to using purchase order software, including:

The ability to save time by replacing manual processes
Having documented agreements that are reliable and accurate
The ability to create and pay invoices easily based on information in each P.O.
Having a seamless way to track spending for team members in accounting

Top Purchase Order Software Picks

The purchase order process can be a tough one to navigate manually, since there are so many shifting parts and pieces. Management software is critical for staying organized, controlling spending, and encouraging transparency throughout different departments.

We’ve narrowed it down to 7 purchase order software systems that promise benefits to any size business or corporation.

1. Coupa Procurement

Coupa Procurement is a well-rounded purchasing suite that helps businesses take control of spending and purchasing with a customer-like experience and user interface. Coupa’s services include a full purchase order process in addition to key features such as:

Requisitions
Budgeting software
Spending and fraudulent activity guards
Inventory management
Contract management

Purchase order components provide maximum administrative oversight and control while allowing entire departments to boost transparency. With Coupa’s “suite synergy”, leaders can reduce cycle time and achieve compliance. Since pricing information is not publicly available, users may be required to register for a demo to receive a quote.

2. Spendwise

Spendwise is a web-based application designed to optimize organizational spending. The company’s founders were tired of using manual tracking, spreadsheets, and papers to monitor the entire purchasing process; as a result, they designed Spendwise to reduce time, alleviate administrative burden, and reduce human error.

With Spendwise, you can create, approve, and send professional purchase orders with a few clicks. The software reduces the time and effort spent on tracking received orders, managing bills, and running spending reports.

Spendwise offers a free 30 day trial–no credit card information required. Basic plans start at $9/month, with premier plans costing an average of $19/month with a maximum of 5 users. Enterprise level pricing is also available for larger corporations.

3. Precoro

Precoro eliminates manual work processes to save time, resources, and money. As a full-fledged procurement software, Precoro is all about removing delays in order to make purchasing seamless and secure.

The purchasing order aspect helps businesses replace things like Excel spreadsheets and PDF orders, which can be slow and easy to lose. Instead, it creates and sends purchase orders to suppliers automatically. Users can choose from an unlimited catalog of products and services, clear pending statuses, generate new purchase orders quickly, and leverage custom workflows.

Precoro offers three plan levels: small ($29/month), medium ($24/month), and large ($19/month). Pricing is based on number of users and decreases as more users are added. For enterprise level pricing, customers should contact Precoro for a custom quote.

4. Fraxion

Fraxion is a procurement and accounting software that differentiates itself from competitors with an emphasis on spending less money in the course of normal business. The goal is to help companies spend money with accurate tracking, approvals, and compliance to financial policies.

Fraxion’s buying features include:

Simplified purchasing
Purchase requisitions
Approval and workflow processes
Catalog procurement

The pricing structure is not publicly available. Fraxion’s website encourages users to reach out for a customized quote. The investment does include subscription fees, deployment services, and hosting support.

5. Xero

Xero is a holistic accounting software that handles bookkeeping, document management, invoicing, purchase orders, and everything in between. The online purchase order functionality can be personalized according to an organization’s branding and unique needs.

With Xero, users can create purchase orders using custom numbering, templates, and PDFs. The orders can then be sent and tracked all within the Xero platform.

Plan levels are designed to suit the needs of companies as they scale. The beginner level for early-stage businesses starts at $11/month per user, and the highest level for established businesses starts at $62/month. Each plan level includes an optional payroll add-on, which is one service not included in the software.

6. Procurify

Procurify is a leading procurement platform trusted by top companies and organizations all around the globe. With Procurify, the procurement process is made more manageable with proactive and real-time data that keeps users informed at each step in the chain.

Purchasing workflows is a unique feature that provides a visual roadmap of the entire purchasing process. This allows for more flexibility when it comes to notifications, analysis and reporting, communication, and reconciliation. Simplified search queries make it easy to locate the exact purchases and invoices that one needs at a given time.

Although Procurify offers plans for every level of business, specific pricing options are only available by request. The custom pricing structure is tailored to how many licenses are needed.

7. Beanworks

Beanworks by Quadient offers improved control, visibility, and oversight into the spending and approval processes. The platform is built on the premise of committed spend, which is the amount of money that a business has agreed to spend on goods and services necessary for operations.

With purchase order matching, Beanworks users can move quickly through approvals and automate key steps in the purchase order process. Automation matches purchase orders to specific invoices for easy payment and reconciliation. Additionally, users can integrate purchase requisitions in order to replace manual steps and spreadsheet updates.

Beanworks offers four plan levels: Starter, Pro, Premium, and Enterprise. Each plan level is only visible by request. The purchase order module is only available to Pro users and higher.

Key Takeaways

Purchase order management is an integral part of running a successful business. Without it, businesses may have a more difficult time keeping tabs on purchasing obligations, tracking approvals, and maintaining budgetary oversight.

The goal of any good purchase order initiative should be to spend responsibly in order to help the business grow and scale. By choosing a flexible software solution, there is greater likelihood that responsible and sustainable growth can take place.