Blog
Purchasing, explained plainly.
What purchase orders are for, how approvals should work, and the controls that stop money going out twice. Written for the people who run purchasing in small and mid-sized organisations.
Purchase order basics
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Purchase order basics
Purchase order vs invoice: what’s the difference?
Who sends each one, what it says, and how the PO number ties them together.
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Purchase order basics
Purchase requisition vs purchase order
One asks your own business for permission, the other commits you to a supplier.
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Purchase order basics
How to write a purchase order
Every field a purchase order needs, and the steps from quote to sent order.
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Purchase order basics
How to number purchase orders
One sequence, never reused, never edited: a numbering scheme that holds up.
Approvals and authority
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Approvals and authority
Approval limits and the delegation of authority
Who may commit how much, written down and checked before the order goes out.
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Approvals and authority
Sequential vs parallel approvals
When to route a purchase request up a chain, when to ask several people at once, and the hybrid in between.
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Approvals and authority
How to set approval limits for your team
Ten steps to an approval matrix your team can follow, with an example to adapt.
Controls and audit
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Controls and audit
Three-way matching, explained
Check that the order, the delivery and the invoice agree before anyone pays.
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Controls and audit
How duplicate supplier payments happen, and how to stop them
Five common ways a supplier gets paid twice, and the control that catches each one.
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Controls and audit
Segregation of duties in purchasing
Four duties, different hands: how a small team separates who asks, who agrees, who checks and who pays.
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Controls and audit
How to write a purchasing policy for a small business
The ten sections a short purchasing policy needs, and how to make it stick.
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Controls and audit
How to onboard a new supplier
What to collect, what to check and what to tell a new supplier before the first order.
Choosing software
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Choosing software
Why purchase orders in email and spreadsheets break
Where the template-and-inbox setup fails, and the minimum a replacement must do.
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Choosing software
How to choose purchase order software
What to look for, what to ask about pricing, and how to test a tool with your own requests.
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Choosing software
How to move purchase orders out of a spreadsheet
Freeze the numbers, clean the lists, pick a date and switch in two weeks.
South Africa and the UK
Mittral compared
What each product does, from its own pages, side by side.
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Comparison
Mittral vs SitelyPO
A general approval and PO workflow, or a PO tool built around construction crews and job budgets.
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Comparison
Mittral vs ProcurementExpress
Budgets, invoices and accounting sync from $415 a month, or requests, approvals and POs with a free plan.
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Comparison
Mittral vs Precoro
A self-serve approval and PO workflow, or a full procure-to-pay platform sold by quote.
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Comparison
Mittral vs Zahara
A focused request-to-PO workflow, or a full accounts payable platform from order to payment.
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Comparison
Mittral vs Tradogram
A self-serve approval and PO workflow, or a procure-to-pay platform with invoices, receiving and payments.
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Comparison
Mittral vs Spendwise
Procure-to-pay with receiving and invoices from $9 per user a month, or requests, approvals and POs with a free plan.