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In today’s blog post I would like to summarise a recent Procurify spend management platform demonstration by Nick Poisson from Procurify.

About Procurify

Procurify is a spend management platform that helps organisations proactively manage spend to drive operational efficiencies and business growth. Procurify’s remote-friendly purchasing workflows centralize all purchases and manage all the steps of the procure-to-pay process. Companies request, approve and track the resources they need to move the business forward through real-time budget data, streamlined procurement workflows, and valuable spend insights. Procurify has managed over $7 billion dollars of organisational spend around the world and integrates with major ERP accounting systems such as NetSuite and QuickBooks. Founded in 2012 in response to the 2008 financial crisis, now 130+ employees strong. $34M in funding from Information Venture Partners, Runa Capital, Nexuw Ventures. 550+ Clients $18B+ Spend Managed $30k+ Locations Managed, 50+ Counties.

Procurify’s mantra is that “Great ideas take money, so manage it well”

So how exactly do they make that happen? Nick Poisson explains:

Get your team what they need, when they need it with a modern requisition process like Procurify. Everything in Procurify starts with a request or requisition. The request then goes through its approval process with as many layers of approval as needed. A lot of edits and collaboration can take place during the approvals stage, as it doesn’t just have to be a straight Yes or No for what happens next. Procurify keeps all communication related to spending in the user-friendly platform so everyone can stay in the loop and can ask questions relating to requisitions.

Procurify is a certified built-for-Netsuite partner

Procurify integration is approved by NetSuite, assuring security compliance and reliability. Procurify’s integration maintenance also includes ongoing future NetSuite version compatibility.

Procurify eliminates the headache of verifying invoices by connecting your purchasing workflows with direct synchronization with NetSuite. You can gain all the purchasing context you need in one system, including received documents needed for true 3-way matching. Procurify’s purchasing workflows seamlessly connect with a request to approval workflows. Requests can be flipped into purchase orders, and when goods are receipted in Procurify they are updated automatically to Netsuite as well.

A not so well-known benefit of the Netsuite integration

Another benefit of the Netsuite integration is you can quickly add new users. With the ability to add unlimited free Procurify basic users, you can save money on expensive Netsuite licenses because Procurify is designed for everyone to use, not just the finance team. Keep only the people you need in NetSuite, yet allow the whole team to submit requests with Procurify and set their user roles with ease.

Procurify and Quickbooks

Procurify does have an AP module, so you can put your bills and bill matching/approvals right into Procurify and they will get pushed to Quickbooks. Currently, Procurify supports both online and desktop versions of Quickbooks.

Procurify support other platforms as well

Procurify is suitable for midsize and enterprise-level organisations in a variety of industries. It’s can be used by companies all over the world, and native mobile apps are available for Android and iOS. Procurify will speak to other systems with direct or API connections (more direct connections are on their road map this year)

Procurify integrates with AppFolio Property Manager, Desktop.com, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Kinetic Financial Management, Kinetic, NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks, Sage 500, Sage 50cloud, Sage Business Cloud Accounting, Sage Intacct, SAP Business ByDesign, SAP Business One, Shift, Slack, Stripe, and Xero.

Another integration that is very helpful is the integration between Procurify and Slack.

The Procurify Dashboard

During the Procurify demonstration, Nick shows us an example of an admin user-level view of the Procurify dashboard. The dashboard is laid out very logically and has a clean modern look, a great example of user experience (UX) design. The motivation behind Procurify’s spend management platform design was for it to be a user-friendly requisition solution that remote and office-based teams would actually want to use. The interface is functional, attractive, and enjoyable, and it’s easy to find what you’re looking for in the platform. If you would like to see a quick demo of what it looks like please feel free to contact us for a demo.

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Nick points out the real-time budget facility section which has helpful and clear information displayed so you can visually keep track of project t or department budgets from a glance.

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Next Nick demonstrates the approval step

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A feature Nick is keen to point out is the free basic user. A basic user can request and receive, they do not have budget visibility, it’s just a simplified interface. This makes Procurify a very scalable tool with the ability to add extra users to most plans at no cost, especially when you have users that don’t need to buy a lot of stuff while keeping a consistent flow across the entire organisation.

Making a request as a basic user is quite easy. You start by making a request, choose your department, and add the details of the item needed. This can be for both goods, services, or subscriptions. The basic user can fill out all the details to the best of their knowledge, and during the approval stage, the details can be changed if there are mistakes in any of the details such as account codes.

A free basic user can see the order status screen so they can keep track of their order status, which helps cut down on emails regarding their order with the procurement team or office manager. They can also upload files to the request which further allows for clarification and flexibility.

This method of the basic request works for most user situations, another option is to build out a product catalogue, bulk imports, direct integration to amazon online shopping (US), Staples (US), and other direct vendor portals are on the road map (ex. Officeworks here in Australia).

Explore How to save time and money with procure-to-pay automation

Product Catalogue

The product catalogue is great for pre-approved items. Nick shares his own real-life example of managing to spill coffee on his keyboard at least once a year. He asked his manager if he could order a nice new fancy keyboard, and his manager tells him “No you can pick one out of the catalogue”. This product catalogue comes in handy for IT spend, and especially software. Nick tells us another real-life example of teams looking for new software, and going out and signing up for the software, when it turns out the company already has something similar. With the product catalogue it will be more clear what software the company already has access to and request a new user account.

For growing teams, the product catalogue is great for building new team member bundles, such as a welcome pack of new company swag. The product catalogues are uniquely curated for each company, and a helpful way to build out your most common items is to ask your vendors for your most purchased items, and then add them to the product catalogue.

One of the benefits of separating the purchase order requests from the requisition requests is the ability to mix and match vendors. The approvals are also pre-determined in the system (and very customisable), making this a lot more helpful for the end-users.

For approvers, when requests are made they will receive notifications on email, their mobile app, in the system, and also in Slack (if using) and the notifications are “de-blinked” meaning when you click a link it will take you straight to the correct page in Procurify. Notifications take you exactly where you need to be…No more hunting!

Accountants, managers, and end-users are also impressed with the fact that every change that gets made in the system, and all communications about orders are updated in an audit log, so there is never any wonder as to who changed things. This also translates to the Procurify mobile App, a definite advantage of Procurify over the competition.

Consolidating vendor orders

Feedback received from purchasing teams was that a lot of time is wasted sending out individual orders to vendors. With order consolidating, you can instead send out consolidated orders less frequently saving both time in the day and costs on shipping, or bulk order discounts. So even if your team isn’t a huge procurement department, with consolidated orders, they can act like they are.

Auto receive

Nick points out a feature called auto receive which can be turned off for things such as subscriptions.

Sending Purchase Orders to Vendors

When purchase orders are complete, you can generate a PDF to send to your vendor, or you can email the purchase order to the vendor from within Procurify, and also include files within the email.

Automated ordering

There is the ability to set up automatic purchase orders for approved orders, saving time if you don’t have a centralised purchasing person.

Receiving

Nick mentions the flexibility for receiving items and services, with the ability to put in decimal places, and how this is a missing link for programs like Quickbooks and where Procurify comes in handy.

AP in Procurify

Invoices can be sent to the Procurify inbox, where OCR technology reads the invoice and puts the information straight into Procurify. Bill approvals can be handled in a number of ways, you can set up no bill approval, every bill needs approval or smart variant approval. It’s a great system since you know that purchases were approved beforehand, 3-way matching has been done with receiving, so if the numbers match, it doesn’t need to be forced for approval. If the numbers don’t match there can be tolerances added for flexibility where appropriate.

Data exports

Prepare CSV spreadsheet reports for things like order items, purchase order items, expense report history, travel history, budgets, receiving history, and more. There are some great canned reports for Orders by Department, and Orders by Vendor which can really help with spotting trends with actionable data. Nick uses an example of looking at total orders from a vendor and using that data to help negotiate future discounts. You also have the ability to create your own report formats.

At the end of the Procurify demonstration, we are invited to ask more questions and request further information. If you would like any part of the Procurify platform to be demonstrated, please feel free to reach out for an obligation-free demonstration.

Read about ACMO's Partnership with Procurify

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