Thursday 5th March, 2015

Invu, a document management solutions provider and Redshift Research, an independent research house, have published research on Purchase Order Processing (POP) among UK small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The research revealed that 50% of finance professionals are unhappy with their current purchase ordering process, and that 47% of these believed that corrective action was a priority.

The study identified a lack of visibility in the purchase requisitioning process that resulted in finance workers spending on average 8 hours per month dealing with employees contacting them to ask whether or not a purchase requisition had been approved.

It also found 35% of UK Finance Workers in SMEs said they had multiple methods for delivering purchase orders to suppliers. Email was the clear winner, with one third (33%) preferring email as the sole method for delivering purchase orders.

The study highlighted that 64% of UK Finance Workers in SMEs are not using dedicated software as part of a Purchase Order process.

Ian Smith, General Manager at Invu comments,

"Time pressure is a massive concern for SMEs who are primarily focused on business growth. Streamlining the Purchase Order process is one step SMEs can take to help alleviate pressures on finance workers and ensure their time is spent more effectively."