How do you manage internal ordering? The process of submitting an order, getting it approved by a manager if necessary, and then sent to finance?
I'm sure there must be a reasonably priced system out there that can do this but I'm not finding it.
Want it to run completely seperate from any accounting package.
Sharepoint and workflows?
I know you said separate from finance packages, but we use the web ordering system that's part of PS Financials. Works great, people can login and submit orders where they can be approved by their manager and then by finance (or as many levels of managers as you want).
@GrumbleDook's suggestion of Sharepoint is good though if you want it completely separate.
Erm, For externals, we do the order via phone/fax, using a PO template (Excel based). Save it in an exclusive "IT Services/Accounts/FYxx/PO" folder, named uniquely by PO ref code, generated by ourselves. Then once done we take it to finance and give it to finance.
For internal transfers (paper for depts, toners, printers, leads, misc), we do the same thing using a different excel sheet, stating who's budget the money is coming from, to where, how much, type, code and quantity of goods ordered, date etc. Then we take the sheet with the goods, and no sign the sheet, no get your goods. Simples. Save a unique copy in the "Internal" folder, stack up the printed signed copies, take them in batches to finance.
Works very nicely. Simple, straightforward and no dodging of payments. We decided 5-6 years ago that IT Services being used as a charity and having our budget raided by all and sundry for new kit without recompense was not the way to go. We both came from Industry, and to be fair, it's rare we get any complaints about the system now they're all used to it. Makes them think a bit about usage when they get the bill, as they KNOW they've paid for it, and how much. Heh.
I made something using Visual Studio Lightswitch - will be moving onto SharePoint the moment I can drag our people away from county council email.
Probably took about 5 hours of good work, allows anyone to log a order which they then pass onto their head of department who can approve the order, the bursar then prints off a mail merged document (takes it right out of the database) gets the head to sign it.
That sounds ideal! I've sent you a PM regarding this.Originally Posted by jamesfed
Just show you how messy the ordering processed are at schools thought.
Pardon?
How so? Don't get me wrong, I think it's mostly shot-off...all departments/teachers ordering things, all from different suppliers...it can be very messy. Nobody except IT Services have thought "now, hang on. If we all put our heads together and used our collective IQ's, we could bulk order from a couple of suppliers for everything we need, and negotiate a far better price."
But then I find that applies from schools, to councils, to most companies/organisations to some level...little collective sense, no thought to combining and leveraging buying power.
We've hammered the bills down here quite significantly by applying some thought to the process. Most satisfactory.
We use Capita's FMS (not the cheapest but does EVERYTHING), staff have access to raise an order. Finance officer auth's it and emails off a PO number! make an order before 12 and it goes the same day and good are here the next morning.
Works well for us.
Last edited by RichB; 24th April 2012 at 10:30 AM.
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