What if knowing everything about Purchasing wasn’t enough? Sure, all Purchasing and Procurement pros worth their salt can rattle off any and all important information about vendors and tracking deliveries.

But what if you had to explain it all to someone tomorrow? Could you make it easy enough for someone to take your seat for a day — and survive without getting hammered from all sides?

That’s why it pays to take a few moments to formally record the routines and procedures that are like second nature for you.

That way, should you need to step away, your operation won’t fall on its face.

The best place to begin: vendors.

Who are you working with? List all the vendors your company has done business with over the past 12 months — the good, the bad and the ugly. Who belongs on the list for future purposes? Who does not? Share this information with higher management, since they might hear some squawks from dropped vendors.

How are they doing now? Set up a simple (emphasis on simple) means of logging and rating vendors’ performance. It should be easy to read, easy to fill in, easy to follow — and should be free of editorial comments. Why? It’s likely there will be times you’ll want to share these records with vendors.

What should you track? The simpler, the better. Focus on:

• Delivery: As requested; late; early
• Prices/terms: As expected; different
• Quality: Good; rejected

All entries should be checked and initialed by the person receiving the shipment.

Other criteria:

Use numbered receiving reports and purchase orders. This makes it easy to detect if one has been overlooked or left out.

Build up a bank of vendor info. Stash vendor catalogs, price lists, printouts from Web sites, brochures, etc., in a common spot, where anyone can find them and refer to them.

Who can sign what? Create an easy-to-read list of who can sign off for different levels of budget purchases. For example, office manager – $500, A/P manager — $1,000, CFO — $2,500, etc.

Tags: delivery, purchase reports, purchasing, vendors