E-mail Setup in your Free Purchase Order Software

email purchase order

>>> 07/29/2015 update – 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.  This post has details.  The balance of this post, below, still applies if you want to set the system up to use your own e-mail server or ISP.

Most people who use the Free Version of SpendMap want to send Purchase Orders and other documents to their suppliers by e-mail.

You can also enable various e-mail notifications, to let people know about important events, without them having to log into the system (e.g. “You have a new Requisition waiting for your approval” or “Your Requisition was rejected”, and so on).

For SpendMap to send e-mail to your suppliers and staff, you need to enable and set up the e-mail connectivity module, which is included in your free PO software.

Everything you need to know to get e-mail going is in the Online Help system, but I’ve taken the liberty of writing it out in detail here, to save you some time…

E-Mail Server Settings

Before we get started, it helps to understand that SpendMap is no different from any other e-mail client (e.g. Outlook, etc.) when it comes to sending e-mail. Just like Outlook needs to “connect” to your outgoing e-mail server to send messages, so does SpendMap. So you can probably borrow the settings from your standard e-mail software and plug those into the E-Mail Settings Utility in SpendMap, using this menu option…
– PURCHASING > Setup system > e-mail settings

Most people use the SMTP protocol (as opposed to MAPI), so I’ll assume SMTP for now. If you have any questions, or if you prefer to use MAPI and need any tips after reading the Online Help, please log a free support ticket.

>>>CORRECTION<<<  After we posted this article, we realized that the MAPI option might be better than SMTP for many smaller companies (the target market for the Free-Procurement Project).  If you have any trouble using the SMTP option outlined below, you might want to give MAPI a try instead.  Here’s another post with more details.

OK, back to what we were saying…

On the E-mail Settings screen, select “ISP or SMTP server” in the two fields at the top of the screen.

Then, in the block of fields labeled “SMTP” just below that, enter your outgoing mail server’s name or IP address. It will usually look something like “smtp.service-provider.com”. Again, you can probably get that from the Settings area of your e-mail software, or you might have to contact your service provider or IT Department.

Next, enter “587” for the port number, unless your service provider advises you otherwise.

Then enter the user account (or e-mail address) that you use to log into to your e-mail account, and the associated password in the adjacent field.

That’s usually all that is needed for SpendMap to connect to your outgoing mail server.

Other E-Mail Settings

Other than that, you will need to fill in the three fields at the bottom of the screen (Proper User Name, User E-mail Address, and SpendMap User ID). This will improve the formatting of the e-mail messages that your suppliers receive.  Again, the Online Help has details of what those fields are used for.

So those are the only mandatory (i.e. minimum) fields that you have to fill in. You may, however, want to review the other (optional) fields. For example, if you want to add some text to the cover page of the e-mail that goes along with each new Purchase Order to your suppliers, you can use the Boilerplate field in the center of the screen. If so, this blog post may also be of interest.

And it’s also quite popular to enable the setting to “Maintain a log of sent e-mail messages” but, again, all that stuff is optional. And again, the Online Help has all the details.

Test to Confirm Settings

Once the E-mail Settings are configured per above, it’s time to test that SpendMap is in fact able to connect to your outgoing e-mail server. Rather than processing a new PO to do this test, I prefer to just try e-mailing a report, which has less variables than processing a PO, so it’s faster/easier to confirm that it’s working.

So just run any report and select the “e-mail” option when it asks you “Where do you want to send the report?”. Any report will do, but personally I like to use a small report for testing, so maybe try the User Master File report, which you can find here…
– PURCHASING > Reports > Master file reports > Users master file

So, assuming the report shows up in your e-mail client, then that means that SpendMap is able to send e-mail.

Additional Setup for Specific Types of E-Mail

Once you have the e-mail feature working per above, you can enable the various types of e-mail messages in SpendMap.

Sending Documents by E-Mail

If you would like to e-mail Purchase Orders or other documents to your suppliers, please see this section of the Online Help…
– System-Wide Features and Information > Documents and Reports > Sending Documents Electronically

E-Mail Notifications

If you would like SpendMap to send e-mail notifications to your users when certain events occur (e.g. an e-mail to the Approver when someone processes a new Requisition, etc.), please see this section of the Online Help…
– System-Wide Features and Information > System-Wide Features and Utilities > Automatic E-mail Notifications

No shortcuts for PO Software

Seth Godin’s words are always worth repeating, but perhaps never more so than his recent blog post about shortcuts.

How does this relate to the world of Purchase Order Software and e-procurement?

Far too many software vendors push the message “easy, easy, easy” during the sales process.

And as a result, far too many nice people become frustrated and disappointed when they get around to actually implementing their new Purchasing systems, only to find out that there’s actually a little work involved (sorry folks, this isn’t a word processor that you can just install and start using).

Seth’s closing remarks are worth repeating here: “It will take you less time and less effort to do it the (right) way than it will to buy and try and discard all the shortcuts“.  Well said, Seth.

But the good news is, as you work to get your free Purchase Order Software up and running, there’s lots to look forward to.

Measure twice.  Cut once.

TIP: If you’re ready to start implementing the free version of SpendMap, please see “Time to Implement” in the Getting Started Documentation that came with your free software.

 

Retiring Last Year’s Free Purchase Order Software (v11.64)

It has been over three months since we announced the free upgrade for last year’s release of the free version of SpendMap (v11.64), so now the time has come to officially stop supporting the old version.

Going forward, we can only provide support for the latest release (v11.98).

If you’re not sure which version you are using, just select the menu HELP > ABOUT.

For instructions on how to update your system, from within SpendMap please select the menu HELP > CHECK FOR UPDATES.  This will not actually install the update.  Rather, if you are using the old version, this will expose a red hyperlink at the bottom of the Main Menu in SpendMap…just click the hyperlink to see full upgrade instructions.

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

Thanks,

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

Barcode and Faxing Modules in Free Purchase Order Software

Due to licensing restrictions related to the third party software that we use in SpendMap for sending faxes and printing barcode labels, which limits the number of copies that we are allowed to distribute, unfortunately we will not be able to include faxing and barcode label printing in the Free Version of SpendMap.

Please note, however, that you can send Purchase Orders and other documents to your suppliers using the E-mail Module instead, and you can still scan your suppliers’ UPC barcodes to simplify your inventory transactions if you wish, and you can print your own barcode labels using third party software (you just can’t print the barcode labels using SpendMap itself).

We were hoping to include the same functionality in our Free Version as we offer in our Paid Version, but unfortunately we just couldn’t get approval to give the faxing and barcode label printing technology away for free with the rest of SpendMap.

Sorry folks, we tried.

Update for free Purchase Order System (various fixes and new Online Help)

An update has been posted to correct a few minor issues in the free version of SpendMap, as well as various improvements to the Online Help.

At your earliest convenience, please select the menu HELP > CHECK FOR UPDATES from within SpendMap to update your system.

As always, this “patch” will NOT update your version number or change any features.

If you have any questions, please use the free support ticket system.

Regards,
– The Free-Procurement Project Team

PS.  Have you told anyone about us lately?  Please help spread the word.  Thanks!

Is free Purchase Order software right for you?

Barry in Washington, D.C. commented that we might want to be a bit more forthcoming about the differences between the Free and Paid versions of SpendMap. free vs. paid purchase order software

Sorry about that, Barry.  We didn’t mean to hide anything.

In a nutshell, while they are functionally very similar, the Free Version is a Windows/desktop application that was designed for small businesses and small buying groups in larger organizations, while the Paid Version is a web-based (browser-based) system that is more suitable for midsize and large organizations (since it runs in your web browser with no software to install, it’s easier to deploy to a large number of users).

Technology aside, there are also differences in the way that we sell, implement and support the two products.  For example, the Free Version is all set up for SMBs to do a self-evaluation, while we offer a more “consultative” sales approach for our larger customers who are considering the Paid Version (bigger companies tend to have more complex needs when it comes to their e-procurement systems, which often makes a self-evaluation impractical).

Similarly, the Free Version assumes a do-it-yourself implementation using the various resources that we provide with the free software (e.g. online help, video tutorials, online support system), while our larger, paying customers get to work directly with our Client Services Group and have access to our full line of Professional Services, such as priority phone support, web-based and on-site training, implementation consulting, and custom programming services.

Again, these are just the main differences between the Free and Paid Versions of SpendMap.  For more details, we added a new subsection called “Is this right for you?” to the Getting Started Documentation that comes with the free software.  Just select the menu HELP > CHECK FOR UPDATES, then exit and re-run SpendMap.  The new section is right at the top of the Getting Started Documentation.

Hope this helps.

Keep your Purchase Orders out of your supplier’s Junk Mailbox

Are you sending Purchase Orders to your suppliers using the e-mail feature in the free version of SpendMap?

If your e-mailed POs are getting caught in your suppliers’ Junk Mail filters, you might want to try adding some text to the e-mail cover page.  Without some content in the body of the e-mail, the e-mail will include only an attachment (the attached PO) and one line of text (the default e-mail footer “Get your FREE Purchasing Software at…”, which also includes a hyperlink).  In some cases, a one-line e-mail with a hyperlink and an attachment will be enough to trigger a supplier’s SPAM filter.

So consider adding some text to your e-mail cover page for Purchase Orders, using the field called “Boilerplate for POs/Releases/RFQs”, in the E-mail Settings utility, which you can find here…
– PURCHASING > Setup system > e-mail settings

Here’s some sample cover page text to consider…

—

Dear Supplier,

Please process the following orders/confirmations.

If you have any questions, please contact us before processing this order.

Also please add this e-mail address to your “safe sender” list or address book, to help ensure that you get our Purchase Orders going forward.

Thank you,

ABC Company – Purchasing Department
(other contact info here)
(avoid adding hyperlinks like e-mail addresses or your company’s URL, as additional links can increase an e-mail’s SPAM score)

Buying services with your free Purchase Order Software

Joe works in the housing development industry in New Jersey and was wondering if he can use SpendMap to buy electrical services.

Sure thing Joe.  SpendMap can be used to manage Purchase Orders for all kinds of services, just as easily as physical products.  And there’s actually not much difference in the process.

So using your example of buying “one hour of installing electrical outlets”, you might want to set up a unit of measure as “HOUR” in the Units of Measure Master File, and then you can use that UoM on the PO. So just like you would buy 1 EACH of a physical product, you would buy 1 HOUR of the service.

Another Unit of Measure that I see people use commonly for services is “LOT”. That is, rather than specifying the number of hours as the quantity for the order, they would buy “1 LOT” of services (e.g. Quantity: 1, Unit: LOT, DESCRIPTION: Complete installation and configuration of PC). This obviously makes sense when the number of hours is unknown and/or if there is a fixed price for the complete service. You can actually see a sample of this in the Evaluation Copy of SpendMap…just log in as the user “FULL”, and check out PO #10026 in that user’s PO Work Area.

With respect to the Item Master File, you may or may not decide to use that for services like this. For example, if you want to keep track of the history of all the times you bought that “electrical service”, by all means add an item to the Item Master as “Misc. Electrical Services” or something like that, and then pick that item each time you order those services, after which you can see the history of that service using this…
– PURCHASING > Status & Inquiries > Item History

That said, it’s also quite common to not use the Item Master for services, and just do a “one-off” instead. You can learn about that in the subsection “Using One-Offs”, in this section of the Online Help…
– System-Wide Features and Information > Master Files > About Master Files

Finally, you may want to consider the receiving process when buying services.  Many SpendMap customers do use the Receiving Module to indicate that the services that they purchased were “delivered” (i.e. completed).  While there’s no physical product to receive, you are nevertheless receiving the service, so you might want the status of the Purchase Order to reflect that, and of course if you’re using the optional Invoice Approval Module, you’ll want to know that the service was in fact delivered before paying the invoice, just like a physical product.

That said, it not uncommon to skip the receiving process for services.  If that’s your preference, you can just wait for the invoice to show up and you can do a two-way match (PO > Invoice) instead of a three-way match (PO > Receipt > Invoice), or you might want to check out the Auto-Receiving feature in SpendMap, which can automatically receive Purchase Orders for services on their delivery dates, without having to enter receipt transactions manually.  You can learn more in this section of the Online Help…
– RECEIVING > Utility > Auto-receive POs