Do you know how much your company is spending to purchase the goods and services it needs to operate? Keeping track of your corporate spend can be a real headache, especially if you’re doing it the old-fashioned way.

But just as we use software to create and manage spreadsheets or do design work, there’s now procurement software that automates the process of purchasing supplies and keeping track of corporate spend.

The best part is, you don’t need to manually sift through hundreds of line items in an effort to make sense of your spend, or figure out what you do and don’t need to buy.

Procurement software automates the process, making it easy, so you can focus on what you do best – running your business. Here’s what procurement software can do for your business.

Automate Mind-Numbing Manual Processes

Procurement operations traditionally involves a ton of processes that are tedious to perform and keep track of manually. Doing so isn’t just mind-numbing for your procurement team, it can also really hold back the process of approving purchase orders.

Instead of paying someone to painstakingly upload purchase order documents, attach, email, download, print, sign, and then re-scan, re-upload, re-attach and email back the completed documents, doesn’t it make sense to automate that entire process?

Procurement software can streamline all parts of the process, to save you time and money. In addition to automating purchase orders and order tracking, it can send notifications to alert team members of pending purchase orders.

Eliminate Non-Preferred Suppliers

The more suppliers you have, the more contracts you have to keep track of, and the more resources you need to put towards keeping track of them. And, frankly, not all of those vendors are going to be top-notch.

Procurement professionals can use automated procurement software to narrow down your vendors list to the best of the best. You’ll be better able to keep track of your relationships and contracts, and better equipped to leverage the financial benefits of corporate buying power, such as discounts based on volume.

Many procurement automation programs award points to suppliers to track their performance in real time, to reduce risk, save resources, and get you better deals. And because transactions are completed faster, you’ll enjoy a shortened business cycle, too.

Keep Contracts Handy

Another great benefit of implementing procurement software is visibility. Contracts don’t need to be spread out across various departments, left in the hands of different employees who might not even know each other, and maybe not even backed up to the digital system.

You need to be able to access all of your contracts in the same place – a central, cloud-based repository that allows you to see at a glance who you have contracts with.

Update your contracts by using a free contract template so you can make sure you have covered all of your bases legally for a more robust and secure contract that benefits all parties.

That’s especially important if mergers and acquisitions have affected any of your partners, clients, or vendors, as is almost certainly the case. You might have duplicate contracts you didn’t even know about, or overlapping contracts that need to be dealt with.

Procurement software can flag potential issues, help you stay in compliance with any contracts you’re a party to, and it can keep track of expiring contracts so you know when it’s time to start planning a new deal.

Reduce Costs and Increase Productivity

Procurement software cuts down on the amount of time your procurement professionals need to spend on purchase orders, invoicing, approvals, and payments, and can even allow you to put low-value purchase ordering into the hands of the ordinary employees who need those supplies, so you can keep your procurement management expenses to a minimum.

Automating tedious tasks that were once performed manually frees up staff to work on more important stuff, so your team can become more productive, and make you more money.

With less paperwork, you’ll save money on the costs associated with paper-based processes and the need to store physical hard copies. That’s less paper and ink to buy, as well as fewer filing cabinets and less wear on the printer/copier.

You’ll also spend less time and money correcting errors, as procurement management software removes much of the human capacity for mistakes from the equation.

If you’re looking for a way to streamline processes, save money, and increase productivity, your business needs procurement software. Don’t let your team spend another day tearing their hair out over tedious manual processes. Automate your procurement processes today.