Buying into a better process: how SAP Business One boosts procurement

Read this to see how SAP Business One helps you optimise purchase planning and control costs. 

Procurement has evolved beyond purely transactional tasks—it’s about strategic partnerships and purchasing decisions that underpin your capacity to meet customer demand. Whether you manufacture, distribute and/or sell goods, the timing and precision of your procurement processes have a significant impact on your bottom line.

A global survey conducted this year involving more than 460 procurement and operational leaders found 84% consider digitalisation important to achieve performance gains. The primary objectives of digital projects for purchasing professionals include: automating processes, improving data quality, achieving cost savings and improving compliance.

Integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is ideal for small to medium businesses who want to transform procurement. The responsiveness of your procurement is connected to how well your entire operation is coordinated.

SAP Business One is a powerful enterprise solution that supports mid-sized companies to optimise whole-of-business management with must-have features to enhance purchasing practices.

Reduce bottlenecks while improving the flow of data your team depends on

What and when you purchase is contingent on demand and production schedules, and in turn affects how you manage inventory, sales, finances and distribution. As your business gets bigger, there are more opportunities for mistakes, shortfalls of stock, and delays—unless you have accurate data and fool-proof workflows. 

Doing procurement well in a digitally-enabled business is about visibility and cohesion across all business functions. SAP Business One ensures information about purchasing, sales and inventory status is centralised for easy access. 

That leads to better planning, fewer bottlenecks, and more confident and reliable decision-making. The solution can streamline and automate repetitive tasks to save time and reduce errors. 

For instance, within SAP Business One approval workflows can be controlled with pre-defined rules, to speed up purchasing while enabling business leaders to keep tabs on spending and cash flow. 

Leverage Technologies customer NOJA Power was impressed by how SAP Business One made data entry and collaboration simple, including oversight of high-value orders. Group Managing Director, Neil O’Sullivan, “Quite often I’m required to approve certain value purchase orders or sales orders on the go, and I’m able to do that with my app.” 

Streamline and automate purchase orders with SAP Business One

A mainstay of procurement is the need to manage purchase orders (POs). Within SAP Business One purchase orders can be created and sent directly to vendors in a few simple steps. If a back-to-back order is required, a purchase order can be generated directly from sales orders.

When creating POs in the system, you can:

• Use multiple currencies.
• Include multiple item categories: services, materials and products.
• Use internal purchase requests for new or existing items.
• Apply predefined price lists and discounts automatically.
• Create blanket orders.
• Easily enter shipping and billing details.
• Manage purchasing across multiple branches of a business.

Depending on the shipping location, SAP Business One will determine the correct taxes to be applied. You can also review international orders by using the ‘landed costs’ feature that calculates all import and export-related expenditures to help you understand and manage costs. These costs might include freight, insurance, handling fees and duty. 

Data from POs can be transferred to help your team quickly issue goods receipts and invoices. The system can also automate the creation of accounts payable invoices—procurement or finance team members simply reference the PO when they receive a vendor invoice.

Build a clearer picture of suppliers and spending patterns

Getting better value for your business and nurturing a strong network of suppliers is a key considerations for your procurement function.

However, the cost is a multi-dimensional attribute. Nowadays, businesses that are looking for ways to gain a competitive edge and meet customer expectations need to factor in price, sustainability, quality, and immediacy. Finding the right supplier will depend on your customer base and go-to-market strategy. 

It pays to have a comprehensive system that helps you capture and review vendor information with ease. SAP Business One helps you to compare suppliers, prices, and negotiate more effectively. This includes a wizard to generate purchase quotation requests where vendors can publish offers online, which you can evaluate using multiple criteria.

The Material Requirements Planning (MRP) Module in SAP Business One assists with purchase planning by matching supply and demand to recommend purchase orders for optimal inventory levels. Demand can include forecast demand as well as actual demand (sales orders) in the system. Lead times, minimum order quantities and economic order quantities are all taken into account when recommending purchase volumes. 

You can view your history with a vendor and the entire purchasing process via a graphical interface in SAP Business One, enabling you to audit and analyse your supplier relationships to see where you can reduce costs or get a better deal. 

The system’s excellent reporting features help you identify your top vendors, keep track of what you’ve bought and what is owed, and conduct purchasing analyses with real-time data. On-Time in Full (OTIF) Reporting is a useful tool to help manage your supplier relationships and expectations.

SAP Business One is the enterprise solution you need for full transparency into purchasing activities, suppliers, costs and how buying decisions impact your entire business performance. 

Interested in digitising your procurement processes using SAP Business One? Speak with an experienced Leverage Technologies consultant by phoning 1300 045 046 or email info@leveragetch.com.au.