PROACTIS Features

PROACTIS is a suite of software modules that are ideal for controlling spending and streamlining the purchasing cycle, providing organisations with a complete ‘purchase-to-pay’ solution. The following list includes most of the important PROACTIS functions, grouped into four main areas of operation:

Purchase to Pay modules:

Purchasing

Automates and streamlines the purchasing cycle and provides staff with a procurement self-service portal, with integrated approval workflow and budget and commitment checking. Manages the full Purchase-to-Pay cycle.

Requisitioning

Requisitioning can sometimes be a slow and awkward process, made slower if the original request is short on detail. Combined with workflow, PROACTIS makes the process of raising, amending and approving requisitions easy to manage. Users will find that they can select products from an electronic catalogue, submit their requisitions for approval, and monitor the progress of the requisitions as they move towards becoming actionable purchase orders.

Purchase Cards

Purchase Cards are a business equivalent to the personal debit or credit card. Issued either to staff (as ‘walkabout plastic’) or to suppliers (as ‘virtual cards’), they provide an electronic method for an organisation to pay its suppliers. Staff can use them to purchase goods from suppliers directly, as if they were using a personal card, and suppliers can receive payment on the card issued to them on receiving an order. PROACTIS matches authorised orders against purchase card statements to provide an e-procurement solution that is paperless and safe from card misuse.

Reporting

The power of the report writer lies in its ability to transform all the purchasing data from the Spend Control system into a variety of reporting views, thereby giving users instant access to essential information. Users are also able to control how data is displayed, set parameters to define the appropriate data for each report, and view segments of reports in a variety of ways.

Invoice Processing

Although standard financial software is able to handle invoice data once it has been keyed in, the real cost of invoice processing – in money and time – comes with the attempt to capture information from traditional paper documents in the first place. Essential information, such as purchase order numbers and supplier names, is often missing after keying in, making it difficult to process invoices quickly, if at all. With an increase in suppliers organisations can soon lose control of their invoicing procedures. PROACTIS solves these problems by combining document scanning, workflow, and automatic data transfer to a standard accounting system. Orders, receipts and invoices are automatically matched, thereby overcoming two of the major problems that beset paper-intensive systems: set-up time and cumulative inaccuracies.

Employee Expenses

PROACTIS replaces paper-based expense claims with an electronic equivalent. Lists of legitimate claimable items, sections for claim details, and simple point-and-click authorisation allow employees to submit claims easily and accurately and managers to check and authorise claims quickly.

Document Scanning & Imaging

Although electronic procurement is able to eliminate traditional paper processes, there may be instances where it is necessary to retain copies of documents, especially invoices. PROACTIS uses modern scanning and imaging technology to copy documents, thereby removing the need for manual keying in of information. Without requiring expensive investment in new scanning technology, PROACTIS uses standard desktop scanners to integrate document images into the procurement process. Authorisation is made simple through automatic invoice matching, with unmatched invoices easily being directed to the appropriate staff members.

Dashboard

Dashboard supplements the power of the PROACTIS procurement and reporting functions with the versatility of a multi-view management tool for managers of different departments. Summary views will enable department, procurement, store, finance and other managers to see the information that comes under their responsibility. Essential for any credible spend control strategy,  Dashboard makes it easy to tailor views in various formats and from different sources, thereby providing managers with the right information for them to work effectively.

Catalogue Management

This module makes catalogue management easy, quick and efficient, unloading your staff of the burdens of what has historically been a complex and exhausting process and helping your company realise the full benefits of e-procurement. You will find that communications are improved, costs cut, and products, suppliers and orders linked intelligently and interactively. Staff will find it easy to search for and retrieve essential information; suppliers will find that their catalogues, no matter what the original format, can be uploaded into the PROACTIS catalogue; and managers will be pleased with the improved supplier management possibilities.

Strategic Sourcing modules

Stores

PROACTIS Stores records and controls stock items that are typically (though not exclusively) used to support internal activities (for example, stationery, cleaning materials, chemicals for a laboratory). PROACTIS differentiates between the properties of a stores item and a purchasing one, thereby enabling users to specify the relevant attributes to monitor and control.

Contract Management

Good contract management is essential for efficient procurement. With PROACTIS you can create your contracts at the start of the procurement cycle, with all essential details stored and to hand about the supplier, the term of the contract, and the prices and quantities of services and products. It is then easy to raise orders against the contract using the purchasing function.

In addition, PROACTIS gives you the strategic tools to analyse the progress, performance, and schedules of your contracts. Automatic reminders will ensure that renewal and review dates are never missed.

Supplier Relationships modules:

Supplier Management

This module enables intelligent analysis and interpretation of purchasing information, thereby making it easier to manage relationships with suppliers. Procurement strategists will be able to compare supplier with supplier by measuring performance against key performance indicators, and day-to-day users will gain valuable operational information about suppliers at the point of transaction.

Sales Invoicing

Financial effectiveness is critically dependent on invoices being raised in an accurate and timely manner. PROACTIS Invoicing optimises the automatic creation of sales invoices and credit notes, with administrators able to control who can raise what invoices to whom and users able to specify how invoices will be presented, both in electronic and paper formats. The financial integration toolset enables seamless integration with your accounting software.

Punch Out

This module enables users to search internal and external catalogues through a central web interface. Suppliers’ online catalogues may also be searched directly, in real time, for specific product and pricing information, which can then be fed into the e-procurement system. After items are selected, requisition information is fed into PROACTIS and then routed through the standard purchase-to-pay workflow. The purchasing company will find that Punch Out provides a simple method of reducing procurement costs, and suppliers will gain increased product exposure and sales opportunities.

Enterprise Integration:

Link

Integration between PROACTIS and most well-known ERP systems has already been proven. This is achieved using the PROACTIS LINK toolset, which combines Microsoft-based data transformation tools with industry-standard techniques to provide a generic interface.