Automated system for orders

[fiza]

At the moment we have a paper based system for creating orders from which our Finance Dept create Purchase Orders. Person wanting goods fills in a form, that form goes to budget holder, budget holder signs and then, it goes to business manager for authorisation and finally finance.

 

How do others do it? We want a better way than passing a paper copy around.

[robyholmes]

We're also looking for this. It seems some FMS have it built in but our LA only support one and it doesn't have anything.

[Steve21]

I mean depending on how complex you want it, FMS already has that built in via restricted access where people can add POs and they need authorisation (Don't get me wrong it's clunky but it's there)

 

My latest place of work has an interesting way of doing it, not entirely sure how many schools would accept this route, but basically there's a pre-designed email template (think order form). You fill in what you want, type name in your section, email it to your linemanager/boss etc, they agree it and type theirs in their box, forward it to finance/business manager etc, if they don't agree it they don't forwad it. Finance only orders things from said budget holders who forward emails to them etc, so if you try to email it directly to them they'll ignore it

 

No paperwork required hurrah!

 

Steve

[6Foot2]

We moved away from FMS to Sage Online a couple of years ago. At that time we were told that we would be able to create purchase orders against our own cost centre(s) These orders will then be approved by a senior member of staff and then processed by Finance.

 

While this hasn't actually happened yet, I understand that it is still in the works and will be delivered soon.

[SpaceInvader83]

We moved away from FMS to Sage Online a couple of years ago. At that time we were told that we would be able to create purchase orders against our own cost centre(s) These orders will then be approved by a senior member of staff and then processed by Finance.

 

While this hasn't actually happened yet, I understand that it is still in the works and will be delivered soon.

This is how we've been doing it for a couple of years using Sage online, works pretty well, order against a cost centre, budget holder then authorises but it can be set to require second authorisation, we have this set for orders over a certain amount.

[fiza]

This is how we've been doing it for a couple of years using Sage online, works pretty well, order against a cost centre, budget holder then authorises but it can be set to require second authorisation, we have this set for orders over a certain amount.

We have SAGE Online , is this built in functionality?

[SpaceInvader83]

We have SAGE Online , is this built in functionality?

Sage 200c is the package we have and yes all built in, we've had it setup like this since we migrated over from FMS, so Sage did much of the config with the business manager.

[dmj]

A former colleague made one using google forms. Notifications were done by email.

The finance team would have to copy and paste into FMS, so it wasn't ideal, but the finance team found copying and pasting easier than copying from hand written notes.

 

There is something about approval workflows for manager authorisation here:

https://support.form-publisher.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005834245--Part-1-Set-up-an-Approval-Workflow-on-Google-Form

[Meldrew]

I'd love to go back to a paper based system rather than PS Purchasing which we're using now.

[neonetman]

We use an in-house PHP based system I wrote, which manages workflow from initial entry, through various authorisations, to eventually receipting the goods

[Edu-IT]

We use an in-house PHP based system I wrote, which manages workflow from initial entry, through various authorisations, to eventually receipting the goods

Would you consider sharing?

[neonetman]

Can't see why not.... I'll have a quick run though to clear out anything sensitive then post it up