Audits don’t just expose missing receipts, they reveal missing proof: approvals, budget codes, fund allocations—the evidence that spending didn't follow policy. Often, that gap traces back to one habit: buying without a structured process, instead of procuring with clear rules and oversight.
Buying is the act of purchasing items quickly, often informally and without following all internal policies. Procurement, on the other hand, is a structured process that ensures every purchase is planned, approved, and documented according to company policies. While buying may be faster, procurement provides visibility, compliance, and control—helping organizations manage spend effectively and avoid costly gaps.
Here’s an example of buying: someone orders laptops on a credit card to fast-track the purchase. A manager gives a verbal or email okay that never makes it into the official records. None of it is serious until totals don’t add up and finance is left explaining “miscellaneous” spending that no one remembers authorizing.
Ardent Partners studies show around 30% of purchases bypass procurement, not due to fraud, but convenience. People take the shortcut because it’s easier, assuming reconciliation will catch any issues later.
Buying may get the job done, but it leaves no documented trail of the process. Digital procurement builds that record by design. Without it, finance isn’t proactively managing spend—it’s reacting to it after it happens.
Buying seems quicker because it skips the checks that enforce spend control. The downside: it also skips the audit trail that proves compliance. The procurement process fixes that, and with the right structure and automation, it moves just as fast, or even faster!
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Buying |
Procurement |
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A manager approves a last-minute purchase for event materials via email to avoid delays. When the invoice reaches finance, there is no record of an approved request or purchase order. This can result in overspending, lack of accountability, and delays in reconciliation. |
The purchase request begins in an automated workflow linked to a cost center, including a pre-commit budget check. Approvals occur via a mobile app or Microsoft Teams, and the approved request automatically generates a purchase order. When AP posts the invoice, the link to the approver and budget is intact, and the invoice matches the PO—ensuring spend was controlled before commitment. |
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To get supplies to classrooms quickly, a teacher orders items on a credit card. The expense posts to the general ledger, but it isn’t linked to the correct STEM grant. When finance reviews the books, they can’t confirm how grant funds were spent, creating gaps in transparency and reporting. |
With procurement software, a teacher submits a classroom supply request through the system. The purchase is routed for approval and automatically linked to the correct STEM grant and budget. When the expense posts to the general ledger, finance can instantly verify compliance and maintain clear, transparent records. |
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An operations manager makes a one-off purchase from a random online vendor because it appears less expensive. But the company already has a contracted supplier with pre-negotiated pricing and discounts. The items arrive—but the company pays more overall, loses contract savings, and has no records. |
With procurement software and PunchOut catalogs, the operations manager simply selects items from the school’s contracted supplier list—with negotiated pricing and discounts applied automatically. The system routes the request for approval, logs the audit trail, and creates a compliant purchase order. The order ships quickly and there’s a complete audit trail. |
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Month-end arrives, and finance spends hours chasing purchase orders, invoices, and paper receipts across multiple locations. Documents are often missing or incomplete, making it difficult to confirm that the goods were actually received, leading to overpayment. |
With procurement software, each transaction has a complete audit trail—request, approval, PO, goods received, and invoice with AP automation handling invoice data extraction and exceptions. By month-end, finance is reviewing, not piecing together scattered processes, lost documentation, and overpaying |
Leading benchmarks from The Hackett Group show that automation at the point of purchase helps top-performing procurement teams reduce maverick spend, achieving up to 59% more potential savings.
On a similar note, a 2025 PwC report found that automation in procure-to-pay processes can reduce cycle times by up to 80 percent while strengthening audit trails. Faster cycles mean tighter cash flow and fewer late-payment headaches, all with accessible records when auditors call.
The trend doesn’t stop there. McKinsey’s latest research reports 25-40 percent efficiency gains when organizations move from manual oversight to structured procurement, driven by automation and artificial intelligence (AI). Purchasing managers and controllers can redirect their time toward work that truly moves the needle: negotiating vendor contracts, optimizing spend, forecasting, and providing actionable financial analysis.
Together, these results outline a simple truth: automation pays for itself. Automated procurement reduces leakage, accelerates approvals, and turns finance teams from compliance chasers into strategic operators. For mid-sized organizations, that’s the kind of ROI that’s visible in both audit reports and the bottom line.
Fraxion turns policy into practice. Every request, approval, and purchase order moves through a workflow, making compliance the default, not the exception.
Manage approvals wherever work happens—via the mobile app or in Microsoft Teams—so no one needs to chase signatures or forward emails. Requests link to budgets or specific grants or funds, ensuring transparent tracking and approvals. Staff can request to purchase through PunchOut catalogs, keeping pricing and policy aligned without slowing anyone down.
Invoices flow through AP automation for easy, accurate data extraction. Matching invoices to purchase orders and goods received notes is simple and centralized. Every step leaves a record—the documents, any requests for additional information, the approvals—tied together in one digital audit trail that’s ready when it matters.
This automated structure is what helped aTyr Pharma, a public biotechnology company, replace paper-based purchasing with automated approvals and real-time audit trails. With Fraxion, their finance team gained full visibility, reduced manual intervention, and entered every audit fully prepared.
Finance leaders choose Fraxion because it drives policy compliance and enables complete spend visibility and control.
Book a demo to see how Fraxion builds accountability into every request, approval, and purchase.
Many purchases bypass manual procurement processes as employees assume it will be faster. But as Fraxion’s data shows, those shortcuts lead to maverick spend, manual rework, and lost visibility and control. Structured procurement automation eliminates the trade-off—approvals move just as quickly, while every step is compliant and leaves a clear audit trail.
Procurement automation isn’t limited to large enterprises—it’s increasingly essential for mid-sized organizations and industries that operate under strict budgets, funding, and compliance rules. Fraxion is designed specifically for those environments, scaling controls and visibility without adding complexity or the need for extra headcount.
Procurement automation improves audits by capturing every request, approval, purchase order, invoice, and cost allocation in a complete digital audit trail. Instead of gathering evidence months later, finance can show auditors real-time proof that every purchase followed policy and validate each transaction with purchasing records.
Structured procurement won’t slow operations when it’s implemented the right way. Modern systems like Fraxion enable requests, budget review, and approvals directly via a mobile app or Microsoft Teams integration. Employees get the benefits of simplicity and speed while finance gains effortless visibility and control, and together it blends agility with accountability in one streamlined workflow.
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