Touchless Purchase Orders Save Time and Money

About the Program

Category: Financial Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

In 2005, Johnson County, a suburban county with a population in excess of 500,000 and a total 2005 budget in excess of $600 million, noticed that Purchasing Division staff was spending a considerable amount of time processing small dollar purchase orders. Unfortunately, since competitive procurement policies did not require purchasing staff involvement on these small dollar purchase orders, they were not adding any value to the process, and were essentially pushing buttons in the financial system to turn approved requisitions into purchase orders. A decision was made to study this issue and figure out a way to take Purchasing Staff out of the purchase order creation process on the small dollar purchases. The solution involved modifying the financial system to enable “touchless” purchase orders (orders that did not require any involvement by purchasing staff).