The purchase order process is described as a sequence and experienced as a relay, with the baton passing between purchasing, whoever receives deliveries and payables. The steps themselves are straightforward. The two handoffs are where things are dropped, and knowing which they are tells you where to put attention before buying anything.
The six steps
A need is identified and requested. The request is approved. A purchase order is raised and sent to the supplier. Goods or services are delivered and the receipt is recorded. The supplier invoices and the invoice is matched and approved. The order is closed when received and invoiced quantities reconcile. Each step has a clear owner except, in most organisations, the fourth.
Handoff one: purchasing to receiving
The order exists and somebody has to record what arrived. In organisations where deliveries are taken by operational staff, this step frequently belongs to nobody, and its absence is the single most common cause of unmatched invoices. Fixing it is a conversation about whose job it is, not a software purchase.
Handoff two: receiving to payables
Payables needs the receipt to complete the match, and if it is late or missing the invoice waits. Where receipts are batched weekly, invoices sit for a week for no other reason. Recording receipts at the point of delivery, on whatever device is to hand, removes a delay that costs nothing to remove.
Questions people ask about purchase order process
Who should own the overall process?
Somebody senior enough to arbitrate between purchasing and payables, since most of the friction is at the boundary rather than inside either function.
When should an order be closed?
When received and invoiced reconcile with ordered, or when somebody decides the remainder will not arrive. That decision should be recorded with a reason.
What about services with no delivery?
The receipt becomes a confirmation that the work was done, recorded by whoever commissioned it. Services are where untracked commitments most often build up.