In this article
What is Procurement?
How does it work?
See it in action
FAQs
What is Procurement?
Procurement is a standalone feature integrated within the Supplies module, designed to streamline your purchasing process. It allows you to easily track, order, and receive supplies. You can create purchase orders to submit directly to your vendors and then update the order as you receive and restock the items.
Many organizations we work with have been requesting a procurement feature to "close the loop" on their supply tracking. With the Supplies module, users can flag when items need to be reordered and then restock it when those items come in. Procurement closes the loop by allowing you to create and track the status of the supply orders.
How does it work?
Procurement works in conjunction with the Supplies module. As checks are logged within Supplies and items hit their reorder point, those items can be flagged in Procurement. Purchase orders can be created and sent to vendors. Once items are received, the order can be updated and the supply locations can be restocked.
See it in action
Below are some training videos for each step in Procurement. You can also sign up for a webinar overview, or reach out to your Customer Success Manager for a one-on-one walkthrough. If you don't currently use our Supplies module, you can book a demo with our team to learn more.
- Step 1: Set up vendors
- Step 2: Set up products
- Step 3: Create purchase orders
- Step 4: Receive and restock orders
FAQs
What are the key benefits of the new Procurement feature?
With Procurement, organizations can:
- Create PDF purchase orders to send to their vendor(s).
- Track orders and items are received, backordered, canceled, and returned.
- Convert package units automatically between the order amount and the supply amount. So if you order a case of bandaids from the vendor, but issue boxes of bandaids to your supply locations, the math will be done automatically.
- Order the same product from multiple vendors based on availability and price.
What do I need to get started with Procurement?
In order for Procurement to work, the items in Supplies must be linked to Products within Procurement. Items are what users see when counting or resupplying their units (e.g. "4x4s"). Products are what is ordered from the vendor (e.g. "Uline™ Sterile 4x4 Gauze Pads”, "Dynarex™ 4x4 Gauze Pads”, etc.). Each item can potentially have multiple products linked to it, since you may order from multiple vendors.
Procurement users have the ability to add and edit products within the system. But our team is available to help bulk load products into your system for you once a simple template is filled out. Please contact us to get this process started.
Does PSTrax integrate with any supplies distributors?
We currently integrate with Life-Assist's product catalog to provide real-time pricing and availability and allow orders to be submitted and tracked from within PSTrax. Learn more about the Life-Assist integration here.
What does Procurement cost?
Procurement is included with the Supplies module at no additional charge. If you prefer to just use the Supplies module without the Procurement feature, contact us and we'll disable it for you.
How does the new feature improve the purchase order creation process?
Procurement allows you to create POs to place orders with your vendors. You are able to track the status of each PO to see which items have been received or not received (backordered, cancelled, etc.).