Evaluating budget controls in procurement platforms

Evaluate a procurement budget control by checking when a purchase uses budget, how that amount changes and what happens when the limit is exceeded. Follow transactions through the process; an available-balance screenshot cannot answer those questions.

Trace the amount

Set up a fictional departmental budget in Australian dollars. Submit a request near the end of one period, approve it in the next, create a PO, invoice part of it and cancel the balance.

At each step, record the document date and status, budget code, amount used or reserved, available amount and person allowed to approve an overrun. Repeat after changing the request amount and splitting the cost between two codes.

Do not add the request, PO and invoice totals together without checking how the platform moves one purchase between stages. Doing so may count it more than once.

Budget Allocation Timeline Across Procurement Stages

Compare documented timing and limits

Procurify says pending requests affect the budget active on the current date, while approved order items are allocated by full approval date. After a PO is created, its spend appears in Purchased; later stages include Received and Billed.

Its documentation also identifies exceptions: miscellaneous costs added at PO creation and items created during bill creation follow different allocation timing. Use a cross-period request and an added cost to check the figures.

Precoro documents Total, Used, Reserved and Available amounts. Reserved covers future recurring documents. When requisition budgeting is activated, a requisition can affect Used before a PO exists. Precoro directs customers to support to activate requisition budgeting.

Precoro's budget guidance has sections on budget limits and overruns, and its workflow guidance covers setting up an overbudget approval step. Check which rule and approval steps are configured for the documents you use. Ask finance how purchases made outside the platform are added to or reconciled against the budget.

Budget Control Features: Procurify vs Precoro

Key Budget Metrics in Precoro

Test the limit

Create one request below the remaining balance and one above it. Record whether the second is blocked, warned, routed for approval or allowed. Change an approved amount and check the budget and approval route again. Include tax, freight and currency if they affect the amount your organisation controls.

Have the budget owner reconcile the displayed figures with a transaction export. Agree on who handles overrides, cancellations and period changes before choosing a platform.