The usual argument for cloud delivery is access from anywhere, which sounds like a convenience. In purchase orders it is the difference between a goods receipt recorded at the moment of delivery and one recorded, or forgotten, in an office days later. Since the receipt is the step everything downstream depends on, that convenience turns out to be the whole benefit.
Receipts where deliveries happen
Deliveries are taken at loading bays, on sites and at back doors, by people who are not sitting at a terminal. A system reachable on a phone lets the receipt be recorded at the moment the delivery is signed for, against the order line, by the person who actually saw what arrived. Every day of delay after that is a day an invoice cannot match.
Approvals away from a desk
The second gain, and the same mechanism. Approvers who travel or work on sites can release an order in minutes rather than at the end of the week. This matters most for purchase orders, because an approval waiting is a delivery not ordered, which is an operational delay rather than merely an administrative one.
What you now have to decide
Access control, since visibility becomes a configuration rather than a fact about who is in the office. Who can raise orders, who can approve, who can see prices and supplier terms. These questions had implicit answers before and need explicit ones now, and the migration is a good moment to write them down.
Questions people ask about cloud purchase order system
Do operational staff need full accounts?
Usually a limited role that can only record receipts against orders. Keep it simple, because complexity here reduces compliance at exactly the step you need most.
What if there is no signal at the delivery point?
Look for offline capture that syncs later. Loading bays and basements are common dead spots and this is worth testing rather than assuming.
Is cloud necessary for this?
Not strictly, but reaching a system from a phone at the delivery point is much simpler when it is, and that is where the benefit comes from.