Procurelens
How it worksControlsContact

Procure to pay for a group with several companies and currencies.

Enquiries, quotations, reverse auctions, purchase orders, receipts, vendor bills and payment runs in one application. Each step follows the approval flows, budgets and tolerances you set, and every change is kept on record.

Try the demoSign in

The demo opens a sample organisation with made-up companies, vendors and documents.

A purchase order, followed from raised to paid. Sample data.

Procurelens in figures

  • Reports16Each one exports to Excel
  • Accounting packages4Zoho Books, Xero, Tally or your ERP
  • People to release a payment run2The one who prepares it cannot release it
  • Documents with their own approval flows8From an enquiry to an urgent payment

From enquiry to payment

Eight steps, numbered as they are in the application's menu. Each has its own screen and a history of every change, and the documents that commit money go through the approval flows you set.

  1. Enquiries

    A department asks for what it needs, with an estimate and a budget code. The budget left is shown as the request is typed, and checked again when it is submitted.

  2. RFQs and quotations

    Procurement emails the RFQ to the vendors it chooses. Vendors quote in their portal, or the team enters a quotation that came by email. Amounts stay sealed until quotes close.

  3. Reverse auctions

    Where it helps, the vendors who quoted bid the price down live. Each sees its own price and rank, never another vendor's bid. A late bid extends the closing time.

  4. Purchase orders

    The award raises a draft order for approval: goods and services, a subscription, a usage-based service with a running balance, or an event. An order can be amended, short-closed or cancelled, with a reason.

  5. Receipts

    Each delivery is recorded against the order, with the quantity accepted and the quantity rejected. An order can take several receipts, and a receipt not recorded in time is chased.

  6. Vendor bills

    The vendor enters the bill in the portal, or your team enters it for them. One order can carry several bills. Each is matched against the order and the receipts, with TDS and GST worked out.

  7. Notes and advances

    Debit and credit notes and advances are set against the vendor's open bills, so the payment run pays only the balance.

  8. Payments

    Each week, accounts payable prepares a run of the bills that fall due. A second person releases it, the bank file goes to the bank, and each payment is closed with its bank reference.

Into your books

Approved bills, debit and credit notes, advances and confirmed payments are posted to Zoho Books, Xero, Tally or your ERP.

Quotations compared item by item

Each vendor's amounts line up by item, and the lowest on each row is shaded. Where quality matters, people score each quotation against your criteria, and the ranking weighs score and price at the share you set. The vendor at the top is recommended. Choosing another needs a recorded reason, and your policy decides whether it also needs approval.

  • Amounts sealed until quotes close
  • A reverse auction among the vendors who quoted
  • The reason for any other choice stays on the record
Quotations compared, as procurement sees them. Sample data.

Each bill checked against the order and the receipt

When a bill comes in, each row is compared with the order rate and with what was received and not yet billed. A row that differs is marked, and the amount the order and the receipts do not support is worked out. Tolerances for quantity, rate and amount are settings, and so is what happens to a bill that does not match: the mismatch approval flow, or back to the vendor.

  • TDS by section, and GST split into CGST and SGST or IGST
  • Due date from receipt of the bill or from the invoice date
  • Bills without an order for utilities, rent and the like
The three-way match on a vendor bill. Sample data.

One payment run a week, released by a second person

On the day you set, the bills that fall due are gathered into a run. The person who prepares it cannot release it. After release, the bank file is downloaded for your bank, and each payment is closed with the bank's reference, typed in or read from the bank's response file. Each vendor paid is sent a payment advice.

  • Urgent payments outside the run, with their own approval
  • An MSME vendor's bill falls due within the days you set
  • Notes and advances already set off, so only the balance is paid
A weekly payment run before release. Sample data.

Controls that are settings, not code

Your policy is kept on one screen. It is set for the whole organisation, and a company that works differently keeps its own value. A change applies to documents submitted from then on; anything already in approval keeps the steps it started with.

  • Approval flows

    Any number of flows for each kind of document. A flow applies when its conditions hold: amount, company, department, category, over budget, match result and more. Its steps go to the department head, the budget owner, a role or a named person, each with the working days allowed. Approvals are delegated while someone is away, and a step that waits too long is escalated.

  • Budget check

    Budgets are held by code and financial year, and can be uploaded from Excel. You choose what happens when an enquiry would go over budget: nothing, a flag and the over-budget approval flow, or a refusal.

  • Tolerances

    How far a bill may go above the quantity received, the order rate or the order value before it counts as a mismatch, and whether a mismatch goes for approval or back to the vendor.

  • Lowest-quote rule

    How many quotations an award needs, what happens when fewer arrive, and who may choose a vendor other than the recommended one: with a reason, always with approval, or never.

  • Payment day

    The weekday of the payment run, or payments on any day. Whether the credit period runs from receipt of the bill or from the invoice date, and how soon MSME vendors are paid.

Policy and controls, as an administrator sets them. Sample values.

Who does what

Each person starts from a role. You can change what any role may do, or add your own, and each person works only in the companies they hold.

  • Requester

    Asks for what the department needs, follows it through approval and ordering, and records what was delivered. Can ask for an urgent payment, with a reason.

  • Department head

    Approves requests against the department's budget codes, sees the department's documents and scores quotations when asked.

  • Procurement

    Sends RFQs, runs reverse auctions, compares quotations and awards the vendor. Issues, amends and short-closes orders, and invites new vendors.

  • Accounts payable

    Enters and checks bills, sets TDS, returns a bill to the vendor with the reason, raises debit and credit notes and prepares the payment run.

  • Finance controller and CFO

    Approve above the limits you set, release payment runs prepared by someone else, manage budgets, and read every report and the audit trail, company by company or consolidated.

  • Vendor

    Quotes, bids, accepts orders, reports deliveries and sends bills and credit notes, from a phone or a desk. Sees each payment with its bank reference. A change of bank account is approved by two people on your side.

Posted to your books

Each company posts to its own accounting package. Approved bills, debit and credit notes, advances paid and confirmed payments are posted as soon as they are approved or confirmed, or held in a queue until someone posts them, as you choose. An entry that fails stays in the queue with the reason.

  • Zoho Books

    Posted through the Zoho Books API, in the data centre your organisation uses.

  • Xero

    Posted through the Xero API.

  • Tally

    Sent to the Tally gateway on your network, or downloaded as XML to import.

  • ERP

    Sent as JSON to an https address you give, signed with a shared secret, or downloaded as a file.

  • Mapped once for each company

    Expense accounts, tax codes, TDS sections and paying bank accounts are mapped once. A vendor not found in the package can be created there.

  • Email and Excel

    Emails to vendors and approvers go through your own mail server. Vendors and budgets come in from Excel, bank response files are read for references, and lists and reports go out to Excel.

Security and audit

Every change to a document is kept with who made it, when, and the value before and after. Sign-ins, refused access and every change to settings, flows, people and money go to the audit trail.

  • Roles are sets of permissions, and each person sees only the companies they hold.
  • A second step at sign-in with an authenticator app, for each person who turns it on.
  • Sign-in stops for 15 minutes after five failed attempts, and an idle session ends after 45 minutes.
  • Two people for the steps that move money: releasing a payment run, and a new or changed vendor bank account.
  • Nobody approves what they raised, unless your policy allows it.
  • A second vendor with the same GSTIN is refused.
  • Bank account numbers and the keys of connected services are sealed in the database and shown only by their last four characters.
  • Changes made by imports and scheduled jobs are marked as such, so a person's own changes stand apart.
  • The Super Admin who manages your subscription never sees your books.
Every change on a purchase order, with who and when. Sample data.

See how it would run for your group

The demo signs you in to a sample organisation with made-up companies, vendors and documents. Switch between the sample people from the top bar to see each role's screens.

Try the demoCreate your organisationSign in

To set Procurelens up for your companies, talk to us.

What is included

  • Approval-flow builder with conditions, steps, delegation and escalation
  • Budgets by code and financial year, uploaded from Excel
  • Vendor onboarding with documents, and bank changes approved by two people
  • Purchase orders for subscriptions and usage-based services, with a running balance
  • Debit and credit notes and advances set against bills
  • Urgent payments outside the run, with their own approval
  • Roles built from permissions, and two-step sign-in
  • A record of every change, and an audit trail
  • 16 reports, each with an Excel export
  • Several companies and currencies, with a consolidated view
  • A vendor portal that works on a phone