Procurement software is a tool that helps a business see what it buys, get better prices from its suppliers and keep paying those prices afterwards. ("Procurement" is simply the formal word for buying the goods and services a business needs to run.) Does a small business need it? If you buy the same things regularly from more than one supplier, and nobody's job is to check what those suppliers charge, it is probably worth a look. If you only use a couple of suppliers and spend very little with them, probably not.
This guide is for owners and finance leads of UK businesses with 20 to 250 staff and no dedicated buyer, in food and drink, manufacturing, construction, wholesale, hospitality and beyond.
What is procurement software?
Procurement software does three jobs. It shows you what you actually buy, product by product, rather than as supplier names and totals. It helps you get better prices, usually by asking several suppliers to quote for the same things. And it helps you keep those prices, by checking that suppliers go on charging what they agreed.
Large organisations have long used this kind of software, but those platforms are priced and built for companies with a procurement department. Smaller businesses have mostly gone without, and the job lands on the owner or finance lead, on top of everything else.
Why do small businesses overpay suppliers?
Rarely through carelessness. Usually it is one of three things.
- Nobody has time to check. Pulling a year of supplier invoices together by hand is slow, dull work, so most businesses never ask suppliers to compete on price. Suppliers know it.
- Quotes don't compare like for like. One supplier prices per box, another per case, a third per item. Until every price is converted to the same unit, you cannot see who is actually cheapest. (More in our guide to comparing supplier prices like for like.)
- Prices creep up invoice by invoice. Even after a good deal, small rises slip through one invoice at a time. Without checking each one, the saving quietly disappears.
None of this shows up in your accounts as a problem. The invoices get paid, and the overpayment simply becomes part of what things cost.
What does Purchasing Portal do?
Purchasing Portal is procurement software built for UK businesses like yours. It takes you from a pile of supplier invoices to a price you can hold suppliers to, in four steps.
1. Connect or upload your invoices
Connect your Xero account, or simply upload PDFs, spreadsheets and CSV files. The Xero connection is read-only, which means Purchasing Portal can look at your purchase invoices but never change anything. The AI (artificial intelligence: software that can read and make sense of documents) then reads every supplier invoice line by line, in any layout, including scanned PDFs. There are no templates to set up. (Using Xero? See how to turn Xero purchase invoices into a spend analysis.)
2. The AI matches products and works out the true price
Every supplier describes the same item differently. One invoice says "NITRILE GLV BLUE LGE 100", another says "Gloves, nitrile, blue, L (10 x 100)". The AI recognises these as the same product, then converts every price to one comparable unit, such as per item or per kilo. That true price per unit is the only fair way to compare suppliers. You review the matches before anything goes to a supplier, so you stay in control.
3. Run a tender
A tender just means asking several suppliers to quote for the same list of things, so they compete for your business. Purchasing Portal drafts the request for quote (the document asking suppliers for their prices) from your real spend. Suppliers quote on one clean, structured form with pack size and lead time built in, so every quote comes back in the same shape. The quotes are lined up side by side at true cost per unit, with a plain-English recommendation on where to push. Run it yourself, or have our team run it for you. (More in how to turn a pile of invoices into a supplier tender.)
4. Lock in the price and keep it
Once you agree prices, every future invoice is checked against them automatically. Any charge above the agreed price is flagged, so you can challenge it rather than quietly pay it. This is called invoice price compliance, and few businesses manage it by hand.
It works on anything you buy regularly: packaging, PPE (protective clothing and equipment) and consumables, raw materials and components, fuel and freight, waste and facilities.
A worked example: one glove, four prices
Take disposable nitrile gloves, which almost every business buys. Here is how four suppliers might invoice the same large blue glove.
| Supplier | How they price it | Headline price | True cost per glove |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northgate Supplies | Box of 100 | £4.95 per box | 4.95p |
| Brightline PPE | Case of 1,000 | £46.00 per case | 4.60p |
| Carrow Safety | Box of 200 | £9.60 per box | 4.80p |
| Hartwell Trade | Per glove | £0.052 each | 5.20p |
On headline prices, Hartwell Trade looks cheapest, because a fraction of a penny sits next to prices in pounds. Per glove, the order flips: Brightline PPE, with the biggest headline number, is the best value, and Hartwell Trade is the dearest. The dearest costs 13% more than the cheapest, and on the invoices it does not even look like the same product. Purchasing Portal does this for every product and supplier across a year of invoices. (Illustrative example. Suppliers and prices are invented.)
Does my business need it?
Procurement software is likely to be worth it if most of these sound familiar:
- You buy the same things regularly from more than one supplier.
- Nobody's job is buying, so it falls to the owner, the finance lead or whoever has time.
- You have not asked your suppliers to quote against each other in a year or more, or ever.
- You agreed prices once, but have no easy way to check each invoice against them.
It is probably not worth it if:
- You use very few suppliers and already know their prices well.
- Your total spend with suppliers is tiny, so even a better price would not cover the cost of the software.
- Very little of what you buy is bought regularly, so there is nothing repeating to compare or tender.
Not sure which list you fit? Look at a few of your own recent invoices. That is exactly what we do in a demo.
What does it cost?
The software starts from £99 a month, with no platform fees.
If you would rather not run it at all, Parallel Purchasing, our procurement consultancy, can run the whole process for you on the same software, with nothing up front: the fee is a share of the saving.
FAQ
Do I need to know about procurement to use it?
No. Purchasing Portal is built for owners, finance and operations people as much as for professional buyers. The AI does the reading, matching and comparing, and the recommendation comes in plain English.
Will it change anything in my accounts?
No. The Xero connection is read-only, so Purchasing Portal can read your purchase invoices but cannot change anything. You can also skip the connection altogether and upload PDFs, spreadsheets or CSV files instead.
Does anything go to a supplier without my say-so?
No. You review every product match, and can correct it, before anything goes to a supplier. Nothing is sent until you approve it.
Is my data safe?
Purchasing Portal is UK GDPR compliant (UK GDPR is the UK's data protection law), and your data is held in the UK and EU.
Most small businesses overpay their suppliers simply because nobody has time to check. Book a demo, bring a few recent invoices, and we will show you, on your own numbers, what a tender could return.
See what you really pay per unit, on your own invoices.
Book a demo →Matt Armitage runs Parallel Purchasing, a procurement consultancy for UK food and bakery SMEs, and built Purchasing Portal to put the same analysis in owner-managers' hands.