Using Jira or Confluence as a Purchase Order system

Hiten August 9, 2018

Hi All,

Our Finance team are looking to implement a purchase request and order system and I wondered if this could be done via a Jira project and custom workflow or via Confluence.

The steps that finance need are as follows

  1.  Purchaser creates a 'Purchase Requisition' - this is a request which is submitted to finance who will consider the request and either approve, reject or flag for further discussion
  2.  Finance issue Purchase Order (PO) Number - once the purchase req has been approved Finance issue a PO number which is then communicated to the vendor
  3. Vendor approves PO and good and services are delivered
  4. Once good and services are delivered purchaser inform finance at which point they can issue payment and the transaction is complete.

I would like to be able to set this up in Jira as it would allow the requestor to attach quotes etc but I would also like it to be somewhat automated. e.g when a requisition is created the finance team are automatically notified. When Finance approves, rejects etc then the purchaser to be notified.

Finally if possible to be able to report on this

Has anyone created anything similar in Jira? Any advice or help would be very much appreciated.

We also use Confluence and if it is easier to do in confluence I would also be interested. As you can do custom workflows in Jira I thought it would be the better option.

 

Thanks!

4 comments

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Brian Hill August 21, 2018

JIRA is by far your better option for this than Confluence, though integration points might exist for arguing the business case for a PR in more detail. Some organisations use a 3-way match model for purchase management (PR-PO-Inv) whilst others, like SAP, use a 4-way match (PR-PO-Inv-GR) where GR=Goods Receipt to confirm purchase cycle completion with adequate product supply. Conceptually, a 3 or 4 way match model would be using differentiated IssueTypes, or a Parent<>Subtask decomposition, where Parent PR can't be closed till all subtasks are completed. This is usually standard functionality for a bunch of different financial systems, ERPs. Am wondering what's driving the need to build it in JIRA instead?

Hiten August 24, 2018

Hi Brian,

 

thanks for the comment. I think I have got halfway there. I have created the workflow in Jira and am just in the process of creating the required fields and screens. There are some things which have become more complex such as auto-generation of a PO number, cost centres and various currencies but for the time being its ok.

I think this can all be done under a single issue type but have a different status as you go through the process. PR > Approved > Ordered > Delivered > Paid.

 

The reason for doing it in Jira is that we don't actually have that many purchase requests going through so cannot warrant spending money on a dedicated system and as we are heavy users of Jira / Confluence already seeing if we can create something using the systems we already have. and Jira is also better than doing it on an Excel spreadsheet.

 

once I have it configured ill feedback to how I got on with it and how it's working

Bharathi February 19, 2019

Hi Hiten Kacha, were you able to implement the purchase order system and is it fully functional.

Hiten February 19, 2019

Hi,

We have it in place however it has not been rolled out to the business for use.

Testing has gone well and it does work as expected however there are some parts which would be great if they were automated. These automatons are possible but require some coding skills to develop items in script runner or at least some additional add-ons.

However, even without these automations it is still better than using excel spreadsheets 

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Brian Hill February 19, 2019

You might want to explore some of the potential of an AddOn like Automation4Jira - we've used it side by side against script runner and find its easier for non technical admins/super-users to configure. What elements are you trying to automate?

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Juventino Gaytan April 2, 2019

This is a very interesting topic.  I believe that Jira Core would be best suited for the interal stuff and Jira Service Desk would help with your external customers.  I originally explored just using Jira Core for both but it was not possible/feasable as easy as it would be implementing Jira Service Desk as well.

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Brian Hill April 2, 2019

Yes, the combination of JSD + JIRA Core is a better pattern. Use JSD as internal CX front end, or set it up to open up to external supply chain partners as well.

Khushbu Rathi October 11, 2019

Hi Hiten,

 

I would also like to implement Jira for Procure to Pay system.

Could you please guide me with the process of setting up in Jira.

Did you do it in your own all the workflows or it had to set up from Jira Consultants.

Vladimir Horev _Raley_
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November 26, 2020

Hi Kiten,

 

We've recently released Raley Purchase Orders add-on which supports filing of procurement requests, turning them into orders and provides up-to-date reporting on budget(s).

Please give it a try, we're willing to customise it per you need!

Cheers,

Vladimir | RaleyApps

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