Best Purchase Order Software Of 2024

By Amrita Chakraborty, Technical Content Writer at SelectHub

Purchase order software serves to simplify and automate purchasing for both direct and indirect procurement while helping you improve control over your inventory management by streamlining orders so you can reduce overstocking.

If you’ve outgrown your current system or you’re looking to streamline purchasing for the first time, you’ve come to the right place. In this buyer’s guide, we’ll cover the benefits and features of purchase order software to help you find an ideal solution.

Executive Summary

• Purchase order software helps you automate workflows, such as order generation and reordering, to streamline purchasing processes.
• Core features of purchase order solutions include a rules engine, invoicing, spend analysis, sourcing and more.
• Create a list of questions for potential vendors before finalizing your purchase.

• What Is Purchase Order Software?
• Primary Benefits
• Key Features and Functionality
• Software Comparison Strategy
• Cost & Pricing Considerations
• The Most Popular Purchase Order Software
• Questions To Ask
• Next Steps
• Product Comparisons
• Additional Resources

These systems can also automatically update you on order statuses, so you can track purchases from creation to delivery.

Increase Spend Visibility

Integrated data dashboards and customizable reporting can increase visibility into spend across your organization.

With real-time updates on purchases, stock quantity and other important metrics, you can accurately track finances and inventory at any given moment.

Simplify Invoicing & Vendor Payments

Purchase order software can automatically turn purchase orders into invoices, saving you the effort of manually creating them. Create whole invoices or split payment invoices.

You can also use your invoices to pay suppliers directly through these systems and keep a log of payments. Generated invoices and in-system vendor payments can simplify your payment processes and keep everything in one place.

Reduce Errors & Improve Expenditure Control

Automated purchasing processes and invoices generated from purchase orders contribute to reduced manual errors. Past payment logs and upcoming due payment reminders also help you avoid over and underpaying or missing deadlines.

Increasing your spend visibility through dashboards and custom reporting can help you improve expenditure control over the long run by giving you an idea of where you can cut costs.

Key Features & Functionality

Software Comparison Strategy

Many purchase order systems offer similar core capabilities, but picking one best suited to your needs can be a struggle regardless.

Start by considering your unique requirements for the purchase. Consider:

• How many users need access
• Whether your employees will need extensive training or if they’re already familiar with purchase order software in general
• Where your current pain points are and what you need to best address them
• If you anticipate needing to scale one year, five years or 10 years down the road
• What systems you need the solution to integrate with
• Which features you can’t work without
• What user reviews, industry guides and colleagues recommend

If you can, take your shortlisted products for a test drive. Many vendors offer demos and free trials, so you can evaluate their systems’ real-world applications.

If you’re still not sure where to begin your software comparison, reference our Lean Selection methodology.

Cost & Pricing Considerations

Purchase order software vendors often use similar pricing structures. There are a handful of cost factors you should keep in mind during your selection journey. The most common pricing structure for these systems are tiered subscriptions:

• Subscription Model: Vendors often price these systems using monthly subscription models, where you pay X amount per month. You can often get a discount by opting to pay an annual subscription.
• Subscription Tiers: Tiered pricing packages for purchase order software are also common. The tiers often take into account the number of users allotted and out-of-the-box capabilities included. More users and robust functionality equals higher tier pricing.

Subscription models and tiered pricing models aren’t the only components that will influence your total cost of ownership. While talking with vendors, make sure to discuss:

• Customizations
• Implementation
• Data Migration
• Integrations

While many purchase order solutions are cloud-based and priced using subscription models, you can find on-premise solutions if you prefer.

Keep in mind, you usually pay a one-time or infrequent license fee and handle security, maintenance, data migration, implementation and integrations internally, making on-premise platforms more expensive upfront. But they can be cost-effective long-term.

The Most Popular Purchase Order Software

If you’re ready to begin shortlisting vendors, you can jumpstart your selection process with our analysts’ list of the most popular purchase order software.

Note: These are our inventory management solutions with the highest-rated purchasing capabilities.

Finale Inventory

Finale Inventory is an inventory, purchasing, order tracking, accounting and eCommerce solution rolled into one. It’s a cloud-based platform suitable for any size business with various per-user pricing packages to scale with your company.

Some of its core purchasing features include automated purchase order generation, definable reordering thresholds and intuitive reordering capabilities to calculate sale frequency and inventory forecasting.

Create a new purchase order using Finale Inventory’s order management module. Source

Cin7

Cin7 is a cloud-based inventory platform with tiered packages for any organization size. It’s a suite catered to broad inventory needs, including but not limited to:

• Inventory management
• Order management and fulfillment
• B2B eCommerce
• Reports and forecasting
• POS capability
• Production management
• Sales quoting
• Payment portal

Its rule-based engine helps automate purchases by generating and sending purchase orders when stock levels reach a predefined threshold. You can also set parameters to automatically request inventory transfers between warehouses.

View open purchase order details, including stage, inventory number, percentage paid and more, in a single dashboard with Cin7. Source

Unleashed Software

Unleashed Software, deployable on the cloud or on-premise, is an inventory, purchase, production and sale management system for companies of any size. It integrates with other cloud platforms to provide a single source of truth.

Its purchase order functionality lets you track cost records, store supplier information, customize documentation and create set-it-and-forget-it bulk orders. It also provides split purchasing, low-stock notifications and automated reordering capabilities.

Create split receipts for purchases using Unleashed Software. Source

Questions To Ask

Before approaching vendors, gather your key stakeholders and ask guiding questions to better understand your internal requirements. Here’s a list of some questions to get you started:

• Is it vital for us to be able to add our current suppliers to the system’s catalog, or can we explore new sourcing avenues?
• What’re our current process problems that we need a new system to resolve?
• Will a basic package meet our requirements, or do we need something more robust?
• How many employees need to use the system? What’re their primary roles?
• What’s our budget?

Once you’ve evaluated your internal needs, you can start asking your shortlisted vendors questions. Here are some questions to get you started:

• Does the software offer role-based and purchasing rules customizations?
• Does the software integrate with other systems, like accounting software and inventory management platforms?
• How many suppliers does the software’s catalogs have on file?
• How many years of experience does your company have?
• How do you ensure data security for your customers?

Next Steps

Purchase order software can simplify and automate your purchasing while providing valuable insights into your spend. You can purchase these solutions as standalone products or as part of more robust ERP or supply chain management systems.

Are you ready to start your search for a platform suited to your company’s needs? Check out our comparison report for insight into the top software leaders and their products.

Good luck!

Product Comparisons

• Finale Inventory vs. Unleashed Software
• Finale Inventory vs. Cin7
• Cin7 vs. Unleashed Software

Additional Resources

• Inventory Management Software Systems Features and Requirements Checklist
• What Is an Inventory Management System? Types You Should Know About
• Differences Between Inventory Systems in Retail, Manufacturing and Distribution
• Cloud Inventory Management Software: What It Is and Top Solutions
• Best eProcurement Software Solutions From Leading Companies
• Best eSourcing Software Tools
• Sourcing Software for Real-time Business
• Top Expert Software Selection Tips To Pick the Best-fit Software