Project Status

Cool New Stuff Coming to your Free Purchase Order Software

We’re getting ready to roll out the 2016 release of SpendMap, version 14.

Don’t miss any of the important announcements – follow our Blog using the field on the right side of this page.  You can unsubscribe any time.

There’s lots of cool new stuff coming your way soon, including new Excel-based reports that you can add additional fields/columns to, new and improved budget tracking features, attachment capability to complement the internal notes in the Item and Supplier Master Files, and much more.

We can’t wait either!

 

Upgraded e-mail features in your free Purchase Order Software

We made two fairly significant improvements to the e-mail features in the Free Version of SpendMap (including v12.65)…mail-GREEN

1) Encrypted E-Mail

SpendMap now supports encrypted (SSL/TLS) connections to the mail server.  Better security aside, we have been finding that more and more e-mail providers (like Google’s Gmail) no longer support unencrypted connections.  If you previously had trouble getting SpendMap to work with your e-mail system, please try again after upgrading.

Note the new “Secure Connection” setting under the Server Name or IP Address field, in…
– PURCHASING > Setup system > e-mail settings

Please note that to send e-mail, SpendMap now requires the Microsoft .NET Framework v4.0 or above to be installed on the PC (available since 2010).

We normally don’t make changes to published versions of SpendMap but we made an exception in this case due to recent changes at Google and the increasing number of requests for this feature.

2) Free, Built-In E-mail Service

The free version of SpendMap now includes a free, built-in e-mail service, which you can use instead of configuring the system to use your own e-mail server or ISP.

Just enter “SpendMap” in the Server Name or IP Address field in E-mail Settings to use this free service (don’t worry about the other SMTP settings as they will be ignored when using the built-in e-mail service).  The Online Help for the Server Name or IP Address field has additional details.

For new downloads of the free version of SpendMap, the Evaluation Copy is preconfigured to use this new e-mail service.  If you already have SpendMap installed, your settings will not change automatically but you can manually change the Server Name or IP Address field per above if you want to use this free service.

Free Version now has Purchasing, Receiving and Email Integration modules

Going forward, we’re going to be giving away the Purchasing, Receiving and Email Integration modules.

If you’re already using the free version of SpendMap with different modules, your system won’t change.  New downloads, however, will have these modules.

If you have any questions, please use our Support Ticket System.

Upgrade your Free Purchase Order Software to 2014 Release

If you are using last year’s release (v11.98), you can now upgrade your free version of SpendMap to the 2014 release (v12.65).  You can check your current version number using the menu Help > About.

The new release includes more than 30 new features and capabilities, in addition to various performance improvements.

The upgrade utility will bring forward all your data, history, settings, etc., so you will not lose any of your work in SpendMap.

Easier Upgrade Utility

Unlike last year when you had to run an external EXE to perform the v11.64-11.98 upgrade, you can now perform full-version upgrades from within SpendMap, using the menu HELP > CHECK FOR UPDATES.  However, it is a two-step process – first you need to select HELP > CHECK FOR UPDATES to download a patch to your v11.98 system that has the full-version upgrade capabilities built-in, then you need to select HELP > CHECK FOR UPDATES a second time to upgrade to v12.65.

To review complete details and instructions before actually upgrading your free Purchase Order Software, just select the menu HELP > CHECK FOR UPDATES from within SpendMap to download the patch, log back into the system, then follow the red hyperlink that you will see at the bottom of the Main Menu…

Upgrade your free PO Software

Best regards,

The Free-Procurement Project team
Totally FREE software that automates Purchase Orders and a whole lot more
Powered by SpendMap

New 2014 Release (v12.6) is Now Available (new installations only)

We’ve updated the new system installation package for the free version of SpendMap (now called SpendMap-2014-SETUP.EXE).

The 2014 Release (version 12.6) includes 30 new features as well as performance and usability improvements.

If you need any help installing the software, please use our free support ticket system.

New Systems Only

This is for new installations only and cannot be used to update your system if you’re already using the Free version of SpendMap (the 2013 release, v11.9).

For those already using the system, we are working on an update utility to bring your system forward to the 2014 release.  The update utility will retain all your data/history, so you won’t lose any of your work when you upgrade.  Just follow this blog to be notified when the update utility is ready, which we expect will be in the next few weeks.

QuickBooks Integration for your Free Purchase Order Software

QuickBooks is the most popular Accounting system in use by the Free-Procurement community, so we thought we’d give you a little bonus gift with the 2014 release of SpendMap.

We’ve built direct integration with QuickBooks to push approved invoices (bills) and expense reimbursement transactions directly into your QuickBooks database, without the need for batch file exports and imports.

So, for example, once you have approved a supplier’s invoice for payment, SpendMap will create a pending Bill in QuickBooks, so you can cut a check to the supplier and post the transaction to your G/L, with no duplicate data entry.

Direct QuickBooks integration is coming soon, along with 20 or so other new features and capabilities, in the 2014 release of the free version of SpendMap.

SM_qb_logo

100th Blog Post for the Free-Procurement Project

100th Blog PostThis is our 100th Blog post.

We’ve been working hard to give you helpful information for you to get the most out of the free version of SpendMap.  We want to help small businesses improve their Purchasing processes, with more than just free Purchase Order Software.

If you have any feedback for us or if you’d like to suggest a topic for an upcoming post, we’re all ears.

And if you like what we’re doing to help small businesses, please show your support for the Free-Procurement Project and help spread the word.

It has been fun working with you so far and we look forward to making more friends as we work on the next 100 posts…

– The Free-Procurement Project team.

Free Purchase Order Software Goes Mainstream in 2013

2013 year reviewIt seems that you’re in pretty good company by choosing the free version of SpendMap.

In 2013, just over 17,000 people in 170 countries read our blog, resulting in just over 60,000 page views.

Of those, around 10,000 decided to download their free copy of SpendMap.

And it didn’t stop there.  Most of you elected to learn the system on your own using the free video tutorials, resulting in over 20,000 views on our YouTube channel, for a total of just over 60,000 minutes of viewing time.

But we also answered more than 500 free support tickets, for people who still had questions.

We feel honored that so many people put their faith in us, considering that free Purchase Order Software is still quite new to the industry.

If you are impressed with what we’re doing and would like to give back, please help spread the word to keep the momentum going.

Thanks for a great 2013 and all the best in 2014!

– Your friends at the Free-Procurement Project