How to Automate Vendor Management and PO Submissions

Procurement is a process that rewards consistency yet gets treated with the least consistency in most small businesses. Orders get placed via email one week, a vendor portal the next, and a phone call when things are urgent. Purchase orders are typed manually into spreadsheets, sent as PDFs, and then re-entered into accounting software. Each handoff introduces delay and error. Automating vendor management and PO submissions eliminates these gaps and can reduce procurement cycle time by 60% while ensuring you never miss a reorder window again.

This tutorial covers the full procurement automation pipeline: from inventory-triggered reorder alerts through PO generation, vendor submission, and delivery tracking.

Step 1: Build Your Vendor Database

The foundation of vendor management automation is a structured vendor database. This is not a contacts list -- it is a lookup table that your automation scenarios reference every time a purchase order is created. Build it in Airtable, Google Sheets, or your ERP system with these fields for each vendor:

• Vendor ID: Unique identifier that matches your accounting system
• Contact email: The specific PO submission address (often orders@vendor.com, not a person's email)
• Preferred submission method: Email, EDI, vendor portal API, or fax
• Payment terms: Net 30, Net 60, COD, etc.
• Lead time: Average days from PO submission to delivery
• Minimum order value: The threshold below which the vendor charges extra fees
• Product catalog: Link to the items this vendor supplies, with current pricing

This database becomes the single source of truth for your automation. When a PO is generated, the scenario looks up the vendor, pulls their submission method and email, formats the PO accordingly, and sends it through the right channel.

Step 2: Set Up Inventory-Triggered Reorder Alerts

The most valuable automation in procurement is the one that tells you what to order before you run out. Connect your inventory system to a reorder point monitoring scenario. For each SKU, define a reorder point (the inventory level that triggers a new PO) and a reorder quantity (how much to order).

In Make.com, build a scheduled scenario that runs every morning. It pulls current inventory levels from your warehouse management system or e-commerce platform, compares each SKU against its reorder point, and when stock falls below the threshold, aggregates the items by vendor and generates a draft PO. This eliminates the most common procurement failure: discovering you are out of stock after a customer has already ordered.

From daily inventory check to vendor submission and accounting entry

Step 3: Auto-Generate Professional PO Documents

When a reorder is triggered, the next module generates a formatted purchase order. Use a document generation tool like WebMerge (now Formstack Documents), Google Docs template merge, or a custom HTML-to-PDF converter. The template should include your company details, vendor details (pulled from your vendor database), PO number (auto-incremented), line items with SKU, description, quantity, and unit price, payment terms, expected delivery date (calculated from vendor lead time), and shipping instructions.

The PO number is critical for tracking. Use a counter stored in your data store or Airtable that increments with each generated PO. Format it as PO-2026-0001, PO-2026-0002, etc., for easy filtering in your accounting system.

Step 4: Route POs to Vendors Via Their Preferred Channel

Different vendors accept orders differently. Your automation must handle each method. For email-based vendors (the majority), send the PO as a PDF attachment to their orders email address. For vendors with portals, use an HTTP module to submit the order via their API. For EDI-connected vendors, format the PO as an EDI 850 document and transmit it through your EDI provider.

Add a conditional approval step for POs above a certain dollar threshold. Before sending, route high-value POs (say, over $5,000) to a manager via Slack or email for approval. Use Make.com's webhook-wait pattern: the scenario pauses, sends an approval request with Approve/Deny buttons, and resumes when the manager clicks one.

Step 5: Track PO Status and Delivery

After submission, create a tracking record in your Airtable base or Google Sheet with columns for: PO number, vendor, submission date, expected delivery date, status (Submitted, Acknowledged, Shipped, Received), and actual delivery date. Update this tracker automatically as status changes occur.

Build a daily monitoring scenario that checks for POs past their expected delivery date. If a PO is more than two days overdue, send an automated follow-up email to the vendor: "We are following up on PO [#] submitted on [date] with an expected delivery of [date]. Please provide a status update." Copy your procurement team on this email for visibility.

Step 6: Close the Loop with Receiving and Invoice Matching

When goods arrive, your warehouse team updates the PO status to "Received" in the tracker. This triggers two parallel actions: increment inventory counts in your inventory system, and flag the PO as ready for three-way matching when the vendor invoice arrives.

Three-way matching compares the PO, the receiving report, and the vendor invoice. Automate this by watching for new vendor invoices (via email parsing or accounting system webhook), matching them against open POs by PO number, and comparing quantities and amounts. If all three match within a tolerance (typically 2%), auto-approve the invoice for payment. If there is a discrepancy, flag it for manual review and send an alert to your AP team.

PO, receiving report, and vendor invoice are automatically compared for discrepancies

Vendor management automation compounds in value over time. As your vendor database grows and your reorder points are refined by actual consumption data, the system gets smarter. You can extend it further by integrating with wholesale distribution workflows or connecting vendor performance data to your weekly business reports.