Online purchasing software to integrate with Quickbooks?

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Anonymous
 (VP, Corp Dev) | Mar 4, 2013

We are a small business (10 employees) across two locations. Right now, I am the only person who can create purchase orders and the approval process is manual. I am looking for an online solution that would allow several users to create purchase orders, send them on for approval electronically and then receive shipments against purchase orders. All of this would need to integrate with Quickbooks.

I found TrxLink, SpendMap, Expensewatch and B-pack through some research online. Does anyone have experience using these or other online solutions?

Thank you.

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Campbell Management Advisory S
Valerie Campbell CPA CGMA
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Title: Owner
Company: Campbell Management Advisory Services
 (Owner at Campbell Management Advisory Services) | Mar 5, 2013

Quickbooks can create and send purchase orders. Is your concern that you only have a single user license? Or is your problem that you don't know how to turn on the purchase order capability in Quickbooks?

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Anonymous
 (VP, Corp Dev) | Mar 6, 2013

Thanks for your reply. I am ultimately trying to streamline the purchase, approval and receiving functions - ideally, I would like it all to be on the cloud and get away from our paper system (which is made more challenging since we are in different physical locations).

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Roundedthird
Nicole Lucarelli
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Title: Partner
Company: Rounded Third
 (Partner at Rounded Third) | Mar 6, 2013

While I have not used these specific packages, I am a Sourcing and Procurement consultant who has implemented and worked with several similar packages.

Most of the answer depends on your requirements. I took a quick look at these packages, they do differ in the functionality they offer beyond automated Purchase Orders. Are you interested in also automating sourcing, expense reporting, online catalogs, sales orders. These capabilities can provide great inefficiencies for small companies. Even if they are not needs today, but think about what you will need in the short to mid term future.

Of course costs and implementation complexity should be considered.

Whatever package you select, it should have reporting and analytics capabilities. In any size company, it is important to know not just what you are spending for budgeting purposes but how you are spending it. How many vendors do you use? How are they selected?

While these concepts may not be of urgent concern today, I believe that instilling discipline in the procurement area early can help you grow efficiently, reducing unnecessary spend, and leaving as much operating capital available for investment in the company.

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