Two key themes to consider when shopping and comparing purchasing software are control and convenience. 

Ideally, your purchasing software should allow you to create a controlled shopping environment so that people outside of the procurement team can access the software and order the products they need when they need them — and procurement teams don’t have to micromanage (or even really be involved in) the process after set-up. 

This environment should have established approved vendors (choosing exactly where users can shop), budgets (for proactive spend control), and purchasing rules (to limit items users can buy with company money). 

Then, any high-quality solution should be easy to learn and use so procurement teams can easily manage the platform and employees can get on board without lengthy, formal training. (A smooth user experience is critical for adoption and keeping people on the platform.) 

Lastly, consider the features that will allow you to adapt the software as you grow. Unless you anticipate zero organizational growth, you should assess scalability so you don’t have to migrate software later.  

We’re a procure-to-pay software brand — which means our system combines purchasing software and AP automation to support both sides of the coin — and we have five (plus) years of experience working with teams at all growth stages to help them improve and manage their purchasing processes. 

We’ve compiled this guide of top-rated purchasing software that checks these criteria so you can compare options and find the right solution. We’ve categorized our recommendations by team size, so you can scroll to the section that suits you best.

Table of Contents

• Our scalable solution for small & growing teams — ProcureDesk

• Options for small businesses — Tipalti, Order.co & Tradogram 

• Options for mid-size teams — Precoro, Procurify & Procurement Express

• Options for enterprises — Kissflow, Coupa & Jaggaer

ProcureDesk: Intuitive, Scalable P2P Solution for Teams at All Growth Stages

ProcureDesk is a complete P2P solution designed with the control and convenience we discussed above in mind. 

Our system combines purchasing and AP software so procurement and accounts payable teams can improve operational efficiencies, manage spending with budget trackers, and provide an intuitive shopping experience for employees. We offer our purchasing software without AP features for teams interested in those tools alone. 

ProcureDesk is popular for small and growing teams because our platform is easy to use and offers competitive pricing. That said, we also design custom packages for enterprise teams to support your workflows and accommodate specialized requirements as you scale. We’re loved by biotech and charter schools and construction companies but work with various professional services. 

Before onboarding, our team meets with you to: 

• Discuss the challenges you’d like to solve by switching to purchasing software

• Provide a personalized demo of ProcureDesk

• Plan set-up and onboarding 

Then, we offer complimentary white-glove set-up and training to get you started on the platform. All features are user-friendly and intuitive so that most teams can achieve organization-wide adoption in 30 days.

We’ll briefly review ProcureDesk’s key features in the sections below — for a more comprehensive overview, book a free demo with our team.

Tools to Create a Controlled Shopping Environment

ProcureDesk lets procurement managers centralize purchasing in a collaborative hub, so other departments and employees can shop at their leisure. We help you create this shopping environment during onboarding and show you how to change vendors and other settings. 

This setup involves three main components — adding vendors, budgets, and approval workflows. 

ProcureDesk integrates with 150+ vendor sites; we’ll help you add punchout catalogs and, if needed, build custom catalogs with products from other vendors you work with. You can add unlimited catalogs, and we don’t charge per catalog. 

Our platform provides a variety of ways to control spending. With ProcureDesk, you can:

• Set budgets by vendor or spend category.

• Create project-based budgets.

• Limit spending for specific departments or individuals. 

Next, you can design purchase request forms and establish approval processes. You can build PR forms with custom fields to gather more details about orders and requested items.

Lastly, you choose how our system routes requests. ProcureDesk automatically reviews all PR forms before they reach the procurement team. It can:

• Automatically approve certain purchases so procurement teams don’t have to intervene. 

• Deny purchases that exceed budgets or defy purchasing rules and notify the purchaser why the order was denied. 

• Route PRs to the correct member(s) of your team for approval. 

Then, we provide omnichannel approval tools so procurement managers can quickly field order requests — even on the go. We’ll send notifications via email, mobile app, and web-based platform. Managers can respond to requests directly through email notifications or the dashboard. 

After orders are approved, our system automatically converts purchase requests to purchase orders (POs) and routes them to vendors so users don’t have to hassle with redundant data entry.   

Once these rules are set, employees are free to shop within your budgets and guidelines; our system alerts procurement team members when they need to step in for order reviews. 

You can monitor all orders and spending in the ProcureDesk dashboard. We show all POs with their status and provide real-time budget trackers so everyone always knows what’s left to spend. 

Vendor Management Tools 

Another way ProcureDesk streamlines the purchasing process is by simplifying vendor communications. 

Without a purchasing system, procurement managers must email vendors to check order status or communicate about order issues. Keeping email threads organized or referencing these communications can take a lot of work. Plus, email threads don’t grant other folks visibility into order status. 

ProcureDesk allows vendors to communicate with you directly on POs (and stores all communications). 

Vendor acknowledgment is essential for three reasons:

• With the current supply chain issues, you want the vendors to acknowledge that they can deliver the product per the requested delivery date.

• If there is a disagreement on the terms, it can be quickly resolved.

• Everyone (managers and purchasers) can track real-time order status and stay in the loop. 

The End-User Experience & Tools for Employees 

Now, let’s show you how easy this process is from the employee’s perspective.

All of your users are assigned a secure login; our system verifies users using SSO and gives managers strong access controls to limit user permissions.  

After users log into the platform, they can instantly see your procurement catalogs and all of the sites where they can shop. Then, they can click on the vendor they’d like to purchase with.  

Vendor sites open within the ProcureDesk dashboard, so all shopping happens in our system. Users can browse products and shop as they normally would. After adding items to their shopping cart, users can submit their cart for review in the same way they’d complete a purchase. 

After they submit their cart, our system prompts them to complete PR forms and provide more details about their requested items. 

Employees are instantly notified about the status of their request: they know if orders were automatically approved or denied or if they’ve been sent for review. Our system sends another notification after purchases receive final approval. 

Then, employees can track their orders through fulfillment and shipping until they reach their desks. They don’t have to email managers for updates and can see the status right on the PO.  

This flow grants far more independence than traditional methods, where employees have to: 

• Manually fill out and submit PR forms to procurement teams.

• Wait to hear back on approvals and order status.

• Modify requests or follow up on orders via email or messenger.  

Receipt Management

After receiving orders, employees can verify purchases in the system — again, without emailing procurement or AP teams to relay notes or order issues. 

Our system allows employees to upload receipts and log details about the order condition. If packages include damaged items or mismatched quantities, purchasers can report those notes for managers to reference. 

ProcureDesk sends in-app reminders to upload receipts and will even email employees if they forget.

Then, procurement and AP managers can see order receipts and use them to troubleshoot with vendors or reconcile invoices. 

Spend Management & Reporting 

ProcureDesk offers real-time budget tracking directly from the purchasing dashboard. All users — procurement teams and those purchasing items — can see real-time budget usage in the system, alongside POs and their details. 

Remember, our system automatically blocks new purchases once you meet budgets so team members can’t overspend. 

In addition, ProcureDesk includes a reporting suite with various spend analysis reports. You can review spending and identify purchasing patterns in multiple ways. The screenshot below shows graphs that break down spending by category, supplier, and user, but procurement (and AP teams) can create custom reports to analyze other performance metrics. 

Analyzing business spending is critical to optimizing budgets, establishing strategic vendor contracts, and increasing savings. You can see who your teams most commonly spend with and what items users frequently request; then, you can create contracts to procure certain items from certain suppliers — exclusively — for discounted rates. 

For example, say you work for a research lab and purchase most of your equipment from Thermo Fisher. You could contact them directly to negotiate partnerships, lower pricing, and better payment terms. (Then you can renegotiate contracts as you go.)

Understanding spending patterns and the budget each department requires also ensures that funds are appropriately allocated and that everyone has the supplies they need for their roles. This way, procurement teams don’t have to make exceptions (and spend money they haven’t planned to spend), and teams don’t have to go without until budgets open again. 

ProcureDesk’s AP Automation Suite

As mentioned, ProcureDesk is not just purchasing software — we’ve combined purchasing and AP automation to offer a full procure-to-pay solution. Procurement and accounts payable teams can work in the same system and easily collaborate. 

Here’s a quick look at how our AP features work: 

1. ProcureDesk allows AP teams to accept invoices via e-invoicing or vendor portal. Our system also connects with email accounts and lets users upload paper invoices to centralize documents. 

2. Our system uses optical character recognition (OCR) to analyze invoices and extract important information — like invoice numbers and line items — so ProcureDesk can source the matching PO and receipt. 

This is called three-way matching and is more convenient than two-way matching because it incorporates the receipt. With two-way matching, AP teams still have to source receipts to reconcile invoices.

3. Then, our system flags invoices with matching issues or discrepancies and routes them to an AP team member for troubleshooting. You can customize these settings to route invoices to managers or specific team members. 

4. Next, our system pushes matched and approved invoices to your connected ERP or accounting system to prepare payment. (You can also set invoice approval workflows to route matched invoices to a member of your team before preparing payment.) 

ProcureDesk integrates with popular accounting software like QuickBooks, Sage, Netsuite, Xero, and other AP software like Bill.com and AvidXchange. 

5. Finally, after payment is sent, the invoice status automatically updates in ProcureDesk. AP teams know which invoices still need attention and can avoid double work.

Pricing & Getting Started

Our customizable purchasing tool can support your entire procurement process, provide better controls over purchasing and spending, and save procurement teams hours (upon hours) each week. 

We help you set up the software to meet your current requirements, and our system grows with your evolving business needs. 

We offer a purchasing software package, a full P2P package, and custom enterprise plans. 

Both packages include ten user seats, complimentary onboarding, and a 14-day free trial:

• Our procurement package is $518/month — this plan covers all the core features for purchasing automation, including requisition, purchase orders, receipts, order tracking, and spend analysis. 

• Our full P2P package is available for $850/month. 

Schedule your free ProcureDesk demo to see if we’re the best solution for your organization.

Options for Small Businesses

Here, we’ll list a few of the most popular purchasing software for small businesses. When choosing these names, we considered ease of use and pricing above all else.  

Tipalti Procurement

Tipalti is a software provider that offers purchasing, AP automation, and expense management software solutions. Their procurement hub, Tipalti Procurement, has tools to create a controlled purchasing environment, automate workflows, and support procurement teams in the tasks they still manage. Overall, this software is regarded as easy to use, and it offers scalable packages that support “teams of 20 or 2000.” 

Notable Features 

• Purchase request management 
• PO approval workflows 
• PO management 
• Supplier management 
• Contract management 
• Advanced reporting dashboard to support spend analysis 
• Integrations with accounting software & other business applications 

Pricing 

Tipalti’s starter plan, which includes all procurement features and a few AP tools (like flexible bill approval and ERP integrations), is $129/month. 

Tipalti also offers two upgraded plans, Premium and Elite, which offer access to more features and customization options. Tipalti does not share pricing for these plans and offers quotes per customer.

Order.co

Order.co is a nice option for small businesses that purchase primarily on e-commerce sites. They also offer virtual cards (with restrictions) so employees can purchase subscriptions, book travel, or pay for other purchases as needed.  

• Procurement teams can create one combined catalog with all approved products across the sites where employees commonly shop. 

• Then, employees can access this catalog and see everything they can purchase. They can build shopping carts with all products and send them to procurement teams for review.

• Once carts are approved, Order.co converts the PR to a PO and automatically sends orders across vendors, so procurement teams don’t have to complete this last step manually. 

Order.co may not be the best option for small teams working with vendors, as it lacks vendor management tools and may not be the most scalable. That’s why we’ve slotted them into this category. 

Features 

• Custom purchasing catalogs 
• Virtual cards with spend limits 
• Budget tracking & spend management 
• Approval workflows
• Purchasing management & automated order processing 
• Order tracking 
• Reporting dashboard to analyze spend data  
• AP tools, including a bulk payment feature (so you can send funds to all vendors at once)
• Integrations with accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Sage Intacct), LeafLink, and Workday 

Pricing 

Order.co does not share pricing on their site, but reviews suggest it offers good value for the money. 

Tradogram

Small businesses like Tradogram because it’s the only procurement software with a free plan, and users say upgraded plans are affordable. Like ProcureDesk, Tradogram also offers AP automation to streamline invoice processing and payment workflows — serving as a full P2P management solution.  

Tradogram lets you build custom catalogs, add punchout catalogs, set budgets and approval workflows, and monitor all purchasing and spending in your system. It also provides strategic sourcing tools to help procurement teams identify cost savings opportunities and establish contracts. 

Be warned that Tradogram’s free plan only supports five monthly transactions, so unless your purchasing volume is super low, you’ll likely need to upgrade to their paid package. You can think of the free plan as a trial to explore platform features and build vendor catalogs. 

Features 

• Unlimited number of suppliers & catalogs
• Purchase requisition management 
• Purchase order management 
• Budgeting tool 
• Approval routing 
• Reporting 
• Vendor management 
• Project management 
• Inventory management 
• Expense management 
• AP tools, including:
  • Invoice tracking
  • Two- & three-way invoice matching
  • Integrations with accounting software

Pricing 

Tradogram offers two plans and custom packages for enterprise teams. 

• The free plan grants access to various purchasing and AP tools and supports unlimited vendor catalogs, but it limits users to five transactions per month. 

• The paid plan is $168/month and supports unlimited transactions. It also grants access to more advanced features, like multi-level budget tracking. 

Options for Mid-Size & Growing Businesses

In the following sections, we’ll discuss options for growing teams. When choosing these names, we considered feature access and scalability. 

Precoro

Precoro is a nice P2P system for growing teams due to its vast feature set, automation tools, and integration capabilities (it can integrate with vendor sites, messaging apps, spreadsheet tools, accounting systems, and more). It also includes multi-currency features and tools to support teams with remote employees and multi-loc brands. 

Despite its more extensive toolset, Precoro is still reportedly easy to use and set up. The only downside is the limitations with punchout catalogs. The platform has hundreds of features to support workflows, but users say you can only add two punchout catalogs, so you might run into roadblocks as you scale. 

Features 

• Supplier catalogs 
• Purchase requisition management
• Approval workflows 
• Purchase order management 
• Spend management 
• Supplier management
• Inventory management
• Reporting
• AP tools, including:
  • PO, invoice, and receipt management
  • Three-way invoice matching
  • NetSuite integration

Pricing 

Precoro is also a good option for small and growing teams due to its pricing structure. Pricing is based on the number of seats you need (but they offer all users all of their features). 

• The small business plan supports up to 19 users and costs $39/user/month. 

• The upgraded plan is for businesses with 20+ users, and Precoro provides custom quotes based on team size. 

ProcurementExpress.com

Procurement Express is another highly-rated option for mid-size companies, with a complete procure-to-pay toolset. All packages combine purchasing and AP features, but they offer tiered plans to suit different needs. We slot them in this category because they provide nice multi-brand and multi-currency features to support international teams. Not to mention, pricing falls on the more expensive side.

Procurement Express started as a purchasing solution before adding AP functionality. It has always had strong punchout catalog features, PR and PO management, and automation tools. It also offers budget tracking and spend analysis reports. 

Overall, Procurement Express is user-friendly and easy to learn, but users note a lack of flexibility when setting up purchasing and approval workflows. 

Notable Features 

• Purchase request management & tools to create custom PR forms 
• Punchout catalogs 
• Custom catalogs 
• RFQ/RFP features (to request quotes from suppliers) 
• Approval workflows
• Budget tracking 
• Vendor management 
• Reporting dashboard 
• Mobile apps 
• AP automation tools, including:
  • Invoice scanning 
  • Three-way invoice matching
  • Integrations with accounting systems 

Pricing 

Procurement Express offers three plans and custom enterprise packages: 

• The most basic plan can support up to $10K in monthly purchases. It lacks certain AP features but includes the essentials to create a controlled purchasing environment and monitor spending. Notably, it lacks access to punchout catalogs. This plan costs $365/month.

• The “better” plan costs $730/month and grants access to (some) punchout catalogs and AP integrations. It supports $1M in monthly spend. 

• The “best” plan includes access to all Procurement Express features and punchout catalogs, supports up to five companies, comes with dedicated onboarding, and supports $10 million in monthly spend. This plan will run you $1825/month.  

Procurify

Next, we have Procurify — you might be interested in this tool if you’d like to provide virtual spend cards for employees. Besides Order.co above, Procurify is one of the only purchasing software with this native benefit. 

Procurify is a full P2P solution and is recommended for larger teams primarily due to pricing. 

It offers a robust toolset to create a centralized purchasing hub, streamline purchase approvals, track budgets, collaborate with vendors, and manage vendor contracts. Its packages also come with an AP toolset to automate invoice reconciliation. However, packages for even small teams start at $1K/month, so this option is best for teams with larger budgets. 

Notable Features 

• Virtual spend cards (with limits)
• Catalog management 
• Purchase requisition management 
• PO management 
• Budget tracking & spend controls
• Reporting dashboard
• Mobile apps 
• AP automation tools, including
  • Receipt management 
  • Three-way invoice matching
  • Reimbursement management 
  • Integrations with ERPs, accounting systems & project management platforms 

Pricing 

Procurify now offers custom quotes on a per-customer basis, but we can assume pricing is more expensive due to their previous (publicly displayed) package rates. 

The small business plan starts at $1k/month, and packages for mid-size teams start at $2k/month.

Read more: Best Procurify Alternatives: 2024 Buyer’s Guide

Options for Enterprise Businesses

In the last sections, we’ll talk about options for global brands. We considered flexibility, features to support international teams, and available consulting services when deciding who to include here.   

Kissflow

Kissflow is our first option for enterprises because it offers more than just purchasing software; it is a full workflow automation solution. 

Broadly, Kissflow is a low-code platform that supports and automates different business processes. They have software solutions for HR teams, IT professionals, web developers, finance, and — you guessed it — procurement. You choose the modules you’re interested in; then, you can develop Kissflow’s templates to support your specific requirements.   

Procurement Cloud is a super flexible purchasing software you can configure to support even the most complex processes. Kissflow offers essential features like PR and PO management, punchout catalogs, and budget tracking. Then, you customize the software to create a controlled purchasing and approval flow. 

It’s worth noting that Procurement Cloud is one of the more difficult platforms to set up due to coding requirements. You’ll need a developer to tailor Kissflow’s template to your specifications and make changes to the platform as you grow. 

Notable Features 

• e-Procurement tools & assisted buying
• Hosted & punchout catalogs
• PO management
• Strategic sourcing
• Contract & vendor management
• Inventory management
• Reporting & spend analytics
• Mobile apps
• Webhooks & API
• AP automation tools, including
  • Three-way matching
  • Integrations with popular accounting software

Pricing 

Kissflow offers two plans:

• The Basic plan with limited features (this supports simple use cases and internal users, but does not include external users or private clusters). This starts at $1,500/month.

• Custom enterprise plans — with full feature and platform access. Kissflow offers custom quotes for this plan. 

Coupa

Coupa has experience with global brands such as Uber, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestle, AstraZeneca, Salesforce, the American Red Cross, MGM Resorts, and more. 

They offer a variety of products and consulting services, including source-to-pay and procure-to-pay solutions, virtual cards, supply chain management, AP automation, and treasury management. Their platform also uses AI-powered features to automate workflows, pull detailed reporting insights, and guide procurement strategies.  

Notable Features 

• Purchase order software
• Purchase requisition
• PO collaboration tools
• Open Buy
• Budgeting tools
• Purchasing fraud detection with spend guard
• SOW-based spend management
• Supplier management
• Contract management
• Inventory management
• Reporting
• Mobile apps
• AP automation tools, including:
  • Two- and three-way invoice matching
  • ERP integrations

Pricing 

Coupa does not publicly share pricing; you must contact them for a custom quote if interested in their solution.  

Read more: Best Coupa Procurement Alternatives

Jaggaer

Jaggaer is a popular spend management and procurement solution for enterprises because it offers robust P2P software and dedicated consulting services to improve procurement processes and guide decision-making. 

The platform includes strategic sourcing and spend analysis to help you improve cost savings, support supply chain resilience, and manage supplier relationships. Like Coupa, Jaeggaer also boasts AI-powered features to automate workflows, control spending and purchasing, and pull valuable insights from reports. 

Jaggaer may be more challenging to learn and get off the ground, but their team offers guided onboarding to support adoption. 

Notable Features 

• eProcurement
• Strategic sourcing
• Supplier network
• Supplier management 
• Contract management
• Supply chain management
• Inventory management
• Reporting & spend analytics
• AP automation tools, including:
  • Global e-invoice compliance
  • Invoice digital capture
  • Integrations with ERPs & accounting software solutions

Pricing 

Jaggaer offers custom quotes per customer. 

Want to explore ProcureDesk’s procurement platform more in-depth? Schedule a personalized demo to talk with our team about what you’re looking for in purchasing software and see if we’re right for you.