Prominent Features in Helen Purchasing Management System for schools

It is obvious that Purchasing Management plays a vital role in the operation of all educational organizations. However, the traditional way to manage purchases, which requires a lot of paperwork, has become ineffective. It is now necessary for schools to digitize this process (Read more). 

Understanding this, Helen team has developed Helen Purchasing Management System (Helen PMS) Feature as a module of our School Digitization Solution. The system can help school administration with Budget planning & management, Purchase order management, Contract management & Reports. 

Budget Planning & Management 

When it comes to budget, planning and management are of great importance. However, in fact, budget planning has been a tough task for most school managers. This is because they have to consider a lot of expenses, as well as allocate and control the spending of each department or grade. 

Understanding the difficulties, Helen team has incorporated Budget Planning & Management feature into our Purchasing Management System. This enables school administration to:

Set budget for each department, grade, or type of expenses

School managers can plan for their spending in total and then allocate them into each department, grade, or type of expense. This makes their planning more detailed, therefore, the risk of overspending or underspending will be much lower. 

Set payment methods 

Payment is an undetachable part of all purchasing processes and it is beneficial for schools to plan how they are going to pay their suppliers. To be more specific, setting payment methods will help school admins and staff deal with suppliers in a consistent way. 

Monitor spending in detail

School administration can supervise how much they have paid for different categories in a specific timeframe. This is to make sure that they are spending on track. 

For example, school managers can monitor the CAPEX of each month during the school year 2020-2021. This helps them check whether they are overspending or underspending regularly and timely. 

Assign roles

Budget management requires the involvement of different personnel within a school. Accountants, Purchasing Staff, and Manager will all need to access the system. 

With Helen Purchasing Management System, different roles can be assigned to each employee including: 

• Requester: staff submitting purchase request to admins
• Reviewer: line manager reviewing the request
• Approver: school manager approving the request
• Accountant: responsible for accounting tasks  

Assigning roles can contribute to a more efficient operation as everyone can collaborate with one another and the managers can control all changes. 

Purchase Order Management 

Purchase Order (PO) is another critical part of the purchasing process. And usually, there is a lot of paperwork in PO management, resulting in risks of document loss or inaccuracy.

In contrast, Helen Purchasing Management System helps streamline the process by allowing users to: 

Create PO with full information

School’s Purchasing Staff can create various PO with all necessary information such as vendor, items, cost, contract, attachment, payment method, etc. in only one portal. 

By uploading and keeping all data in cloud-based storage, employees can save time and improve their working efficiency. Besides, the data will also be ensured accurate and up-to-date. 

Assign PO to specific personnel 

There are many people involved in a PO. With Helen Solution, each purchase order can be assigned to different employees with different roles such as requester, reviewer, and approver. 

As a result, the responsibility level of all relevant staff can be increased, leading to more efficient management. 

Track PO status

In Helen Purchase Management System, POs can be labeled as Draft, Awaiting, Approval, Awaiting Payment, Paid, or Archived. This will help school administration track the status of each PO and take action timely if there is any arising issue. 

Contract management

Contracts are documents that require careful management as any problem associated with them can damage the school’s reputation and finance.

Understanding the high need to manage contracts carefully and effectively, Helen team has incorporated this feature into our PMS. Thanks to Helen Cloud-based System, schools will be able to: 

• Document and track information much more easily. Instead of having to look for a piece of paper in a big file cabinet, users now can search for the information of contracts in a matter of seconds, within 1 click. 
• Manage all information related to a contract, especially PO/PR. This helps schools effortlessly manage documents and fulfill their obligations in time. 

Reports 

Helen Purchasing Management System assists school managers to: 

• Generate reports flexibly by month, expense types (CAPEX, OPEX), school year, grade, timeframe, department, etc
• Customize reports

As a result, school managers can have an overview of the budget, expenses, and remaining balance. They will be able to stay updated about the spending level of schools and take action timely. 

For instance, if there is overspending in Semester 1, the admins can check which department it belongs to. After that, they can review their purchasing plan and reallocate the budget accordingly. All in all, they can control the budget and all purchasing activities. 

If you find this interesting, leave us a demo inquiry at: https://helen.edu.vn/contact-us/
Or you can learn more about Helen here.