Best Purchasing and Inventory Management Solution that Syncs With Quickbooks

If you run a small business, you’re probably using QuickBooks accounting software – at least in some capacity – to keep track of your finances. You may know that QuickBooks, no matter which version you are using, has a basic purchase order system that lets you create and track your purchase orders. While this feature is extremely helpful and convenient, you’ll see that as your business grows, so does your need for a more robust purchasing system.

What many businesses really need is powerful purchasing and inventory software that allows them to handle the procurement process in a single, easy-to-use platform. When you integrate Bellwether with Quickbooks, you can expect more efficient purchase order management and customizable approval workflows that streamline all aspects of the purchasing function.

What QuickBooks Can Do

No matter which version of QuickBooks you are using, you are able to:

• Create Purchase Orders
• Enter Vendor Invoices
• Track Stock Items

While this may be enough for a business just starting out or for specific business models, it does not create an efficient purchasing function for small businesses with broad inventories, or for those who plan to grow and require more powerful purchasing and inventory functions. 

What QuickBooks Can’t Do

Inventory Control

QuickBooks offers a basic inventory tracking function, however, it is not as robust as many businesses need. At the basic level, tracking your inventory can actually cost your business valuable time and money.

Bellwether’s software syncs with QuickBooks to track inventory across multiple warehouses and locations. This allows you to run your operations in less time and eliminate costly errors, which improves your inventory process, lowers your overall costs, and increases your profits.

Bellwether inventory management software extends the basic accounting features of Quickbooks to give users the ability to synchronize inventory items, vendors, purchase orders, and invoices.

Controlling Your Spend

Maverick spending gets a lot of businesses in trouble. Often times, the procurement department is using manual processes to keep track of their inventory, which can lead to items being checked out and not reported or mysteriously going missing. This can lead to unnecessary spending and bad purchasing decisions because the purchasing department simply doesn’t know what they do and do not have in stock.

By syncing QuickBooks and Bellwether, it’s easier to understand your inventory and know what you need to order and when. You can even plan for the future and uncover how often certain items need to be reordered.

Invoice Matching

When you create a purchase order, you need the ability to create an invoice with the exact same information. This process can be time-consuming and unnecessary with the use of purchasing software for small businesses. By syncing Bellwether with QuickBooks purchase order software, you can match invoices against purchase orders and delivery slips to ensure the accuracy of your invoice processing.

Unnoticed mistakes happen all the time in a fast-paced, busy office, especially when documentation isn’t properly cross-checked, such as invoices and purchase orders to ensure proper pricing, and the correct number of items. Never let mistakes go unnoticed again – start using a better procurement function that allows your staff to quickly and easily check delivery slips, invoices, and purchase orders. Minimize mistakes and losses while maximizing gains.

Eliminate Manual Processes

When you first started your business, the manual processes you used may have been effective enough. However, you’ve most likely realized that you are spending too much time searching for the correct documentation, or creating purchase orders and invoices that match.

With Bellwether’s cloud-based procurement software, you can create purchase orders in QuickBooks and store all of your data and documents in one system. You can then access your data quickly and easily from virtually anywhere using a computer or smartphone.

Eliminating paper or spreadsheet-based processes will allow you to handle the procurement function more easily and eliminates the potential for human error. If you like paper documents, you can always print out your procurement records for your own safekeeping as well.

Approval Workflow

In most businesses, purchases need to be approved based on funds. Often, that means sending a request for a purchase order to the finance department and waiting for approval. This is typically where a breakdown in workflow occurs.

Instead of waiting for someone to approve the workflow when you are using just the QuickBooks purchase order feature, Bellwether allows you to set criteria for approvals based on a specific budget. From there, the procurement staff can create a purchase order inside QuickBooks for which the items have already been approved and send it to the supplier. This reduces time, and improves the overall workflow and order efficiency.

Manage Supplier Contracts

While in QuickBooks, you can view the prices and certain information on the purchase order, but you cannot view the supplier contracts. These contracts are important for any business as they lay out the terms that the supplier must follow in regards to quality, delivery, and quantity.

As you know, when a supplier doesn’t follow the terms of their contract, your business is put in a sticky situation that can end up costing you even more time and money. Bellwether allows you to match invoices with purchase orders and manage supplier contracts easily so that you know exactly which vendors are the best for your business.

Vendor Catalogue

The purchasing process is much easier when you have the items you wish to purchase right in front of you. You will typically receive catalogs from vendors that list their products and details. Businesses using manual processes will need to store these catalogs for future use. QuickBooks does not offer a feature for inputting information from catalogs for you to see and find more easily in the future.

However, with Bellwether, you can store vendor catalogs for easy access in the future. From there, you can search for specific vendors or items and create a purchase order in QuickBooks using the information that has already stored.

Bellwether’s Seamless Integration with QuickBooks

Bellwether fits into your current workflow by integrating with the software you already use. Automation is key to the success of your purchase order process.

QuickBooks offers a few automations to help make your purchasing process more efficient. However, when it comes to the greater process of procurement, you need software that can do everything in one simple and easy to use interface. Remember, QuickBooks is accounting software, not procurement software.

Businesses are rapidly realizing that manual processes and spreadsheets are not efficient or effective enough for maintaining a successful organization, or optimizing profits.

To learn more about how procurement software can increase the efficiency of your business and save you money, contact Bellwether today.