Purchase Order Workflow Template

The frustration and inefficiency that comes with managing piles of paperwork is no longer an unavoidable obstacle to go through when it comes to purchase order management.

By establishing an automated process to manage your purchase order workflow, you can seamlessly track progress in real-time and shorten purchasing cycles.

This checklist is designed to guide a buyer and supplier through the purchase order creation and approval process and integrate with your existing systems to automate as much of the process as possible.

Let’s get started.

Enter the details of the purchase order in the form fields below. 

You can automatically populate all purchase order information through our integrations with procurement software including ProcurementExpress.com. 

Supplier details

Purchase order details

Now that you have recorded the basic details of the purchase order, create the purchase requisition so the request can be reviewed and approved by your manager and the finance department. (More information on that in task #5.)

You can upload or link to the purchase requisition form below. 

Click here for more info on what to include in a purchase requisition form and to download free templates. 

In this section, there are two approval tasks. One for your manager, who will be automatically assigned to the task if you filled out the “Your manager’s email” form field in task #3.

The other approval task – Approval: Finance team – is there for you to get your finance team’s approval regarding the purchase requisition. To assign them, create a “Finance team” group in your organization. Then, in the template editor, add the group to the finance team’s approval task.

By doing that, the finance team will always be automatically assigned whenever you launch this checklist again!

Nice, the purchase requisition has been approved. You can now go ahead and create the purchase order that will be sent to the supplier for approval. 

You can automate this step be integrating your accounting, procurement, or document management software such as Xero, ProcurementExpress.com, or Zoho Books with Process Street.

Inform the supplier the purchase order is ready for approval.

You can use the email template below to instantly send the supplier that it’s time for them to approve (or reject or reject with comments) the purchase order.

The approval task in this section has been automatically assigned to the supplier if you’ve added their email in the “Supplier contact – Email address” form field in task #3.

Confirm the date that the goods will be delivered on. Hopefully, it matches your proposed date of delivery:

Proposed date of delivery: {{form.Proposed_date_of_delivery}}

Now that the purchase order has been accepted by the supplier, send all relevant details to the receiving department so they can know exactly what to expect when the order is completed. 

You can use the email template below to contact them. 

Lastly, file the purchase order for your internal records. You can add a link to where the record is located using the form field below. 

• Oracle – Workflow for Creating Purchase Orders and Releases
• SAP – Workflows for Purchase Orders
• Kenneth Loi – All You Ever Need to Know About Purchase Orders
• PurchaseControl – Purchase Order Process Steps
• PurchaseControl – Difference Between a Purchase Requisition & Purchase Order
• Neil Kokemuller – How Does a Purchase Order Work
• ProcureDesk – Purchase Order System: Benefits of Purchasing Automation