Re: Purchase Orders vs Purchase Cards

There is one other option I know of: There are purchase aggregation sites that organizations (school districts in my case) use to aggregate purchases from multiple locations to get a better deal and then purchase through the aggregator. In that case, the requisition goes through the approval process but ultimately the P.O. is generated at the aggregator site on behalf of the ordering district. The P.O. is electronically transmitted to the district so the P.O./encumbrances can be created on the district system and the order is processed by the aggregator. Receiving/invoicing can be handled by either the aggregator or the district. These types of aggregator organizations are becoming quite popular in school districts so it would also be important to build a flexible interface between your system and aggregator systems so you can accommodate of the "off site" requisitioning/purchasing/receiving and invoicing. Any one of those processes could be optional for the district to handle.

Pete


Nathan Andelin wrote:

Are organizations still writing Purchase Orders? Or, are they buying with Purchase Cards? My gut feel is that most organizations are issuing Purchase Cards (Visa, Mastercard, etc.) to employees, assigning various credit limits to cardholders, and having people order directly from vendor web sites, rather than going through a PO approval process. But I thought I'd ask.

I'm in the middle of designing a database for a Purchase Order system - part of a new IBM i Financial Accounting system. Purchase Orders have long been a standard component of enterprise financial accounting packages, but I sometimes question their relevance in a world where so many vendors are putting up shopping cart applications on their web sites.

Thanks,

Nathan.