purchase order software

Upgrading your free Purchase Order Software is easier than you think

We had a couple support tickets from people using the free version of SpendMap in a multiuser/network environment, asking if they have to apply the recent update to each PC workstation.

No, you only need to run the update once, on the PC/workstation of your choice. All other workstations will be updated auto-magically when they run SpendMap the first time after the upgrade, at which time SpendMap will pull the new files down from the server to the individual PCs.

Please update your free Purchase Order system at your earliest convenience, as we would like to eventually stop supporting version 11.64.

Thanks!

Success Story: MCS Wins with Free Purchase Order Software

Managed Care Systems (MCS) was struggling to control their Purchasing, inventory and budgets with a patchwork of outdated systems.  Having grown to over 300 employees, MCS was overdue for an upgrade.  Unfortunately, there was no budget for a new e-procurement system, but that didn’t stop Eric Jeffers, who is responsible for the Purchasing Department at MCS.

“Our old system was written in-house a bunch of years back and it was starting to fall apart,” says Eric.  “The IT Department didn’t want to invest resources to fix it, so we kept limping along.  Plus, as an add-on to the Help Desk system, it was really just an over glorified word processor to start with; it could print a PO and keep some history, but there was still a ton of manual effort and duplicate data entry for each order, and it didn’t track inventory or provide any budget controls, which were big problems.  We were constantly going over budget because the managers who were approving orders couldn’t see the status of budgets real-time.  And we were running out of stock all the time, which meant a big panic, rush orders and extra charges for expedited deliveries”.

So when Eric found SpendMap with its real-time budget and inventory controls fully integrated with its world-class Purchasing functionality, he was optimistic to say the least.  “I have been working in Purchasing departments for 15 years and this is by far the best purchasing software I have ever seen,” says Eric.  “You can’t imagine how disappointed I was when I was told that we had no budget left for a new system and I had to wait until the following year”…

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It’s time to upgrade your Free Purchase Order Software

If you are still using last year’s release (v11.64), you can now upgrade your Free version of SpendMap to the latest release (v11.98).

The new release includes more than 20 new features and capabilities, in addition to various minor fixes and performance improvements.  Please update your system at your earliest convenience, as we will eventually stop supporting version 11.64.

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

For complete details and instructions for upgrading your system, please select the menu HELP > CHECK FOR UPDATES, then follow the red hyperlink that you will see at the bottom of the Main Menu in SpendMap.

Best regards,

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

Supplier Pricing for Items in Free Purchase Order Software

Cathy in California asked why the pricing that she entered in the Standard Price and Standard Cost fields in the [General] Folder of the Item Master File weren’t copying over to new Purchase Orders, Requisitions and other documents.

Those fields are used for other purposes.  If you want pricing to default on new orders based on the selected item, you can set that up in the [Supplier] Folder of the Item Master File, where you can enter pricing from one or more suppliers, in addition to other related information such as freight charges, if that information is known in advance…

Supplier pricing in free Purchase Order Software

If you don’t want to enter separate pricing for each supplier, that is, if you just want to enter a single price to default on new POs regardless of who you are ordering from, then just enter “*” (an asterisk) for the supplier code, and the price will be used for all new Purchase Orders and other documents, regardless of the supplier.

TIP: If you ever change the price while entering a new Purchase Order, you can optionally update the Item Master’s default pricing right from the PO Entry Screen, so you don’t have to go back to the Item Master File to make the changes there as well.  To enable this feature, just use the “price update option” in here…
– PURCHASING > Setup system> Purchase Order settings > PO entry settings

Update for free Purchase Order System

An update has been posted to correct an issue in the free version of SpendMap whereby an “unregistered copy” watermark would print on Purchase Orders and other documents if the system was copied or moved to a different computer or restored from backup.

To correct this issue, just select the menu HELP > CHECK FOR UPDATES from within SpendMap to update your system.

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

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Update Server Offline Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The server that we use to distribute updates/patches for the Free Version of SpendMap will be offline Tuesday, March 26 between 6:00AM and 9:00AM Eastern Time.  You will not be able to download updates for your free Purchase Order Software during this window.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Best regards,

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

Windows 8 Support for Free Purchase Order Software

Windows 8The 2013 Release of SpendMap is here, with Windows 8 support and around 20 other new features.

So if you’ve been waiting for Win8 support before downloading your Free Purchase Order Software, the wait is over.  You can download the 2013 Release here.

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 2012 release).

For those already using the system, we are working on an update utility to bring your system forward to the 2013 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 couple weeks.

More Firewall Friendly

We also made the 2013 release more firewall and proxy server friendly and reduced the frequency that the system checks for updates, so if you had any trouble getting it going before, you might want to give it another try now.

If you need any help, please use our free Support Ticket System.

Thanks.

Approving suppliers in your free Purchase Order Software

Carl in the United Kingdom asked…

“Is it possible to give a supplier an approval? Ford example a new supplier would be categorised as ‘new’ then on return of a supplier questionnaire would moved to ‘approved’.  Perhaps this can be done in the category tab of the supplier (master file)?”

That is a great question, Carl.  It really depends on what you need to do with the suppliers that are pending approval.  For example, if you just need to identify who they are (e.g. print a list of suppliers in the approval process, or search for them while using the system), then using the Supplier Category feature would work well for that.

You can learn more about this feature in this section of the Online Help…
– PURCHASING > Master Files > Supplier Classifications

If, however, you need more functionality around the supplier approval process, then here are a couple other features to consider instead of (or in addition to) the Supplier Category…

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The Free-Procurement Project Turns 1

This week is the 1-year Anniversary of The Free-Procurement Project.

Free Purchase Order Software turns 1
That’s right, it’s been one year since we launched the world’s first totally free e-procurement system.

And even with our 20 years of experience in this business, we could never have predicted how much interest there would be in the Project.  So far, more than 5,000 people in over 100 countries have downloaded the Free version of SpendMap.

Our sincere thanks to the entire Free-Procurement community and all of you who helped make this project a success!

All the best,
– The Free-Procurement Project Team

Multi-Company Setup in your Free Purchase Order Software

Brian in Nevada asked about setting up multiple companies in the free version of SpendMap…

“The program is on its way, and I love it so far. I do have another need. I run 2 different companies…They are truly separate companies, payables, orders, everything.  Can I add a second company to the live version of SpendMap, or can I install a second version? What is possible?”

You have both options.  You can install a separate system/database for each company, or you can set up both companies in one system, and then use some of the features in SpendMap to segregate your data.  For example, you could use a different sequence of Purchase Order numbers for each company (i.e. different PO Number Sets) so that you can, for example, filter reports to only see POs for one company at a time.  Similarly, if you have separate suppliers, items and/or account codes for each company, you could use the Master File Catalogs feature to create separate Master File lists for each company.

TIP: If you go this route, you may want to restrict users to their company’s Purchase Orders, suppliers, account codes, etc., so that they can’t accidentally select something from the other company.  Or you can let them access data from both companies if you prefer.

Restrict user access in Free Purchase Order Software

So it comes down to how “separate” the companies really are.  If they are truly separate and you will never want to run reports and otherwise view data for both companies at the same time (e.g. Show me a list of Purchase Orders across both companies), then by all means create two separate copies of the database, with a separate shortcut/icon for each system on your desktop.