Ask a brand where procurement "ends" and you'll often hear: when the PO is approved. But an approved PO is a promise, not a pallet. The value shows up at the goods receipt — and whether that receipt updates your stock.
The broken handoff
Here's the common flow:
- Buy over email or WhatsApp
- Approve a PO in one tool
- Receive goods — and re-key the GRN into a spreadsheet
- Update stock manually, eventually
Every handoff is a place for the PO, the GRN and the supplier invoice to disagree. By the time anyone notices, payment may already be out the door.
Closing the loop
A procurement flow that moves goods looks like this:
- Plan with demand-driven reorder suggestions from real consumption and lead time
- Raise a PO with the right tax treatment and supplier terms
- Approve by value and category
- Receive with a GRN that writes inventory events directly — batch and expiry attached
Three-way matching (PO ↔ GRN ↔ supplier invoice) surfaces receiving discrepancies before you pay, not after.
Reorder without the guesswork
Gut-feel reordering swings between stockouts and dead inventory. Demand-driven suggestions use:
| Signal | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Consumption rate | How fast it actually sells |
| Lead time | How early you must reorder |
| Channel demand | Where the pull is coming from |
The result: you buy what sells, and the GRN puts it straight into a ledger you trust. See the full Procurement module for how it fits the rest of the system.