Tackling Challenges in the Purchase Requisition Approval Process
Key takeaways
Purchase Requisition Approval Process
The purchase requisition approval process plays a key role in the procurement function of any business. This process ensures that procurement requests are met on time, thus facilitating a smooth conduction of all the operations. Moreover, the process exerts control and transparency over procurement activities. The purchase requisition process is the formal procedure for individuals or departments to acquire goods or services to maintain functionality. The requisition is fulfilled once the concerned authority approves.
Table of Contents
The approval process varies from business to business, however, an ideal approval process is influenced by the following aspects
- Internal policies – The policies and guidelines the organization or department sets.
- Sensitivity – The requirement of additional approvals such as IT or security.
- Business priorities – All the goods and services that are required for the core operations.
Being one of the core processes, purchase requisition approvals involve multiple departments and approvers. This can make it prone to inefficiencies. Let us discuss how a manual purchase requisition approval process is challenging and what steps can be taken to overcome inefficiencies.
Importance of Purchase Requisition Approval
The purchase requisition approval process is the last stage of the requisition process. The final stage of approval reviews the requests, followed by the granting of approval, resulting in the creation of purchase orders that will be sent to the vendor or supplier.
This approval is highly essential for ensuring the legitimacy of the requests raised. Through this process, all the necessary parameters associated with the requisition are evaluated and checked if they align with the budgetary limits and other policy regulations. Doing so helps in mitigating any sort of fraud or unauthorized purchase.
Pain Points in a Manual Purchase Requisition Approval Process
Most companies that run processes manually are prone to facing multiple challenges when it comes to requisition approvals. The process becomes widely open to errors, leading to the redoing of the same tasks over and over. Doing so also leads to delayed or even multiple approval cycles. Let us identify some of these challenges faced by organizations in the purchase requisition processing.
- Manual Approval Requirements – A manual approval process has its set of disadvantages. A manual-oriented process is majorly paper-based. Most often these papers end up forming bottlenecks, delaying the acquiring of approvals.
- Unstandardized Approval Flows – A manual approval process lacks a defined structure, making it more susceptible to inefficiencies. Paper-based and manual handling makes it more chaotic with multiple approval rounds.
- Data Silos – Unstructured processes like a manual purchase requisition approval process do not define how data must be reviewed, processed, or even stored. This may lead to data silos.
- Reliance on Emails – Manual processing is mostly email or paper-based, which could often go unnoticed or has to be constantly reminded about. The process, as a result, becomes stagnant and delays acquiring approvals.
- Incomplete Requisition Forms – Requisition forms if not done right can be one of the biggest challenges in procurement. Incomplete and inaccurate requisition forms bring no clarity to the requirements of the request initiator.
- Lack of Transparency and Accountability – Transparency and accountability are important factors when it comes to the effectiveness of the process. To be able to procure and deliver the right goods and services, transparency is a must. However, manual processing lacks processing.
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Build fully-customizable, no code process workflows in a jiffy.
Streamline Your Purchase Requisition Approval Process By –
- Map and document your approval process
- Identify bottlenecks
- Standardize your purchase requisition form
- Go digital and transform your process
- Unlock stack extensibility to bridge information gaps
- Define request assignments and notifications for faster approvals
- Document and share your optimized approval flow
Transforming the Process Using Cflow’s Automation Solution
An automated purchase requisition approval process is an efficient process flow that is void of any inefficiency. A workflow automation platform like Cflow has the potential to streamline the complete process, aligning all the participating entities according to the process needs. Offering both static and dynamic workflows, Cflow makes the process adaptable yet consistent in delivering the desired output.
With reduced manual input in the process, the process is less prone to inaccuracies or delays, making it easy to connect all the ends. This is possible with Cflow. Simple create workflows without using any code and add all the important stakeholders and approvers to the workflow. Once a request is initiated, the automated workflow carries the request through the different stages.
Cflow offers you –
- Workflow flexibility
- Reduces workflow maintenance
- Quickly adapt to changing circumstances
- Create and execute cross-enterprise functionalities
- Improve transparency and visibility into the process
- Enhanced supplier/vendor relationship
Final Words
Automation reaps several benefits to a business organization. Starting with improved process efficiency to enhanced decision-making. Businesses can effectively manage business operations with streamlined and automated workflows. Hence, leveraging a good procurement automation system like Cflow can enhance the purchase requisition process and speed up approval. Sign up to get started on Cflow and acquire a seamless purchase requisition approval process.
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