Last Update: August 2025
When your procurement tools fall short, the costs add up fast.
Duplicate invoices, off-contract purchases, slow approvals, and disjointed supplier records all chip away at your margins. And if your finance team is stuck dealing with clunky legacy systems, there's no easy way to get visibility into what’s being spent, where, or why.
In 2025, the best procurement tools are built to change that. They give you control, clarity, and confidence across your entire procure-to-pay process.
If you’re aiming to reduce costs, manage vendors more effectively, and gain control over spending, these are the seven procurement tools worth having on your radar.
Clear oversight and spend visibility across operations is vital to making informed decisions and identifying cost saving opportunities. You can gain insight into how your business spends, which vendors your team purchases from, the frequency of purchases and total spend by category.
Procurement software simplifies the vendor onboarding process by standardizing how suppliers are added, approved, and maintained. This ensures your team only works with vetted, compliant vendors.
Once approved, vendors are easy to manage. Every purchase is automatically routed through the correct supplier channels, helping you keep spend within contract and under control. Having clear vendor lists and built-in purchase rules helps you avoid accidental or off-contract buys.
Over time, the system tracks vendor performance and spend volume, giving you the data you need to make better decisions. You can see which suppliers consistently deliver on time, which ones go over budget, and where consolidation might save you money. These insights also strengthen your negotiation position. With a full picture of past activity and trends, you can approach renewals or renegotiations with confidence and facts.
With so many choices on the market, it can be difficult to figure out which tools to invest in. We’ve simplified the selection process for you. Here are 7 must-have software features that your procurement and vendor management solution should provide.
Take a look at Fraxion’s complete set of procurement solutions for proactive spend management.
Purchasing activity happens across the entire organization, not just in the procurement department. Employees make frequent purchases for software, supplies, and services, and each one impacts your budgets and policies.
Cloud-based procurement software lets your team carry out their responsibilities within a proactive spend management framework. It enables constant collaboration, keeps them updated, ensures effective vendor management, and guides their purchasing decisions.
Compared to on-premise tools, cloud solutions are more affordable, easier to manage, and continually improved through automatic updates (your IT department will thank you).
If your procurement software’s vendor tools are also available via a mobile app, your team is even better equipped to be more efficient and conscious about costs.
Such platforms enable users to request, claim, review and approve purchases and expenses, wherever they are. Your team can easily access system-configured currencies, tax rates, budgets, approved vendors, and cost centers from their mobile devices.
This way, processes are efficient and expedited. It helps your organization maintain proactive spend control and enable a responsible spending culture.
Processing paper-based purchase orders (POs) leaves companies exposed to inaccuracies, lost purchase orders and massive delays that can lead to higher costs.
A PO system gives employees the ability to centralize purchase orders, check the status of purchases and match POs to requests, invoices, and receipts.
Teams can generate and track purchase orders digitally, attach relevant documents, and monitor status updates in one central platform. Each PO is automatically linked to the corresponding request, invoice, and receipt, reducing manual work and supporting better audit trails.
This kind of visibility ensures every transaction is compliant and aligned with budget expectations. Digitizing the PO process is a foundational step for companies looking to scale.
Mistakes happen. The wrong item gets shipped, a vendor sends too many widgets or maybe you ordered 10 monitors but now you suddenly need 15. These scenarios are all too common in the procurement process.
Many systems let you change orders but keeping track of these changes, especially after the 9th or 10th revision, can be challenging.
Look for a procurement tool that links all your change orders together and maintains the integrity of your approval structure. You’ll need change authorizations and a seamless audit trail so you can manage risk and easily keep track of:
With this feature, you stay informed of all activities associated with the PO revisions.
Does your team still process and pay invoices manually? If so, your workflow is moving slower than it should be, leaving you at a disadvantage.
AP workflow management allows organizations to track, approve and process invoices much faster and much more affordably. Two or three-way invoice matching is simplified, accelerated and efficient, reducing your purchasing cycle and processing costs.
Use procurement software to automate the entire procure-to-pay cycle and reduce the burden on AP teams. It won’t only save time but reduce the risk of overpayment and duplicate invoices.
Having access to procurement tools that let you analyze spending by employee, department and vendor gives you the power to identify saving opportunities and make better decisions.
These tools help uncover price discrepancies, surface your top-performing vendors, and highlight areas for consolidation. When it’s time to negotiate contracts or adjust budgets, you’ll have the data to back every decision.
Spend analysis gives you a strategic advantage. You’ll no longer have to make decisions blindly. It turns reactive procurement into a strategic function, one where every dollar spent is tracked, measured, and used to inform smarter, cost-conscious choices.
Rogue spend costs companies millions of dollars each year. Having an effective procurement tool in place to eliminate maverick spend could exponentially increase your saving potential.
Internal catalogs let you maintain approved vendor catalogs, price lists and set up templates for repeat purchases and fixed ordering. Users can easily shop and review product details within a configured purchasing framework.
PunchOut enables you to shop from a vendor’s online catalog from within the procurement software’s interface. Users enjoy a familiar online shopping experience that provides integrated access to millions of products. You can rest assured that all purchase requisition, approvals, budget checks and purchase order generation processes are automated and compliant with business rules and policies configured in your procurement software.
Managing procurement shouldn’t feel like a constant catch-up game. When your tools can’t keep up (whether it’s tracking vendor performance, enforcing policies, or preventing off-contract purchases), overspending starts to happen.
Fraxion helps you stay in control before, during, and after every transaction. From real-time budget checks and automated approvals to centralized purchase orders and powerful vendor management features, Fraxion gives you the visibility and control to detect and stop rogue spend.
It’s all about accountability, and it’s the difference between reactive purchasing and strategic, policy-aligned procurement.
Want to see how Fraxion can simplify procurement while protecting your bottom line? Book a custom demo today and get a closer look at how our all-in-one platform helps you manage spend proactively.
Top procurement software features include cloud-based access, mobile functionality, automated purchase order and approval workflows, AP invoice processing, real-time spend analytics, and PunchOut/internal catalogs. These features work together to improve efficiency and support better vendor management.
Procurement software reduces maverick spend by enforcing purchase workflows and budget checks before approvals. Tools like internal catalogs and PunchOut integrations help guide spend to approved vendors and pricing.
Yes it can. Most modern procurement platforms integrate with ERPs and accounting software to sync data like vendors, budgets, purchase orders, and invoices. This ensures seamless financial reporting and eliminates the need for manual data entry.
Procurement software manages the front end of the purchasing process (vendor selection, requisitions, approvals, and purchase orders). AP automation focuses on invoice processing and payment. Many procurement platforms include AP features, such as Fraxion, offering full procure-to-pay automation.
Absolutely. While often associated with large enterprises, modern procurement tools like Fraxion are designed for growing businesses. Fraxion helps mid-sized businesses enforce policy compliance, manage budgets, and scale processes.
Spend analysis tools give you a real-time view of where money is going, by department, vendor, or category. This data uncovers inefficiencies, supports vendor negotiations, and helps your team make smarter, cost-conscious decisions.
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