The purchasing cycle in construction, from ordering materials to payment, is not easy. A well-managed procurement is often considered a major contributing factor of a successful project. Construction professionals have to source high quality materials and engage services within a specific budget, while also complying with regulations at the same time. Therefore, ensuring accuracy, timeliness and quality throughout the procurement is essential for the success of the project.

Thus, to ensure the purchasing cycle is managed effectively and smoothly, standardising and systemising the cycle should be a priority.

Doing so would decrease overall cost as there will be a decrease in waste. Furthermore, with a more standardised approach, communication among stakeholders will improve, which will decrease the risk throughout the purchasing cycle, particularly risks that have the potential of delaying project delivery and driving up costs.

The following are identifiable stages you can use to standardise your construction business purchasing cycle:

1. Quantity Take Off

2. Material/Equipment List Approval Submission

3. Material Requisition

4. Material Approval

5. Quotation Comparison

6. Supplier Selection

7. Purchase Order (PO)

8. Material Delivery

9. PO/DO/Invoice Matching

10. Approval and Payment

11. Record Update

As mentioned before, the purchasing cycle is complex, but it plays a crucial part in the project’s success. With the number of stakeholders involved, managing them means going through a lot of MR, PO, DO and invoicing documents—all of which may involve manually recording these documents into spreadsheets reports.

It’s time-consuming and rarely sustainable in bigger budget and complex construction projects.

It is essential to have visibility and accountability on material spending, and at every step of the purchasing cycle.

This is so that mistakes or potential errors can be identified and addressed by the stakeholders, who otherwise would run the risk of making spending decisions without knowing how their decisions affect the project’s bottom line.

The best way to ensure your purchasing cycle is standardised is to use a digital procurement platform, such as Speedbrick COMPOSE. It allows all stakeholders to perform construction material purchasing tasks on one platform.

Some of its helpful features are:

• Available historical price trends

• Automatic monthly material report generation

• Seamless accounting software integration

• Overbudget alerts

With Speedbrick COMPOSE, your procurement process will be enhanced as the software

• Provides real-time actionable insights

• Increases visibility and accountability across the board, managing stakeholders efficiently

• Allows convenient and efficient procurement, also eliminating duplicate efforts