Does ProAlert replace our ERP purchasing?

Not necessarily. ProAlert covers maintenance and operational procurement, meaning spare parts, consumables and tooling. Many customers keep production material purchasing in their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system and use ProAlert for the maintenance side, connected through the REST API. Which side of the line each category sits on is part of the deployment scoping conversation.

Can we control who approves which purchase orders?

Yes. Approval routing is configured rather than hard-coded. Thresholds and approver roles are set per organization, and multi-level chains are supported. Every user has a personal pending-approvals queue, so an approval is a task in the system rather than an email somebody has to remember to answer.

Can ProAlert tell us what parts we will need next quarter?

For maintenance, yes. Forward preventive maintenance parts requirements project the parts implied by the PM schedule before those work orders exist, and the forecasting view projects consumption from transaction history. Both are screens rather than exports.

Why does procurement belong in a maintenance platform?

Because the demand signal and the purchase order are the same data. In a plant running a CMMS and a separate purchasing system, working out which of next quarter's PM parts are not in stock is a manual reconciliation exercise. When both live on one database, it is a report.

Procurement Software for Maintenance and MRO Purchasing

The bottom line: A CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) usually stops at "you are low on this part." ProAlert continues into the quote, the approval chain, the order and the receipt. This is the discipline most plants are surprised to find in a platform like this, and it is the one that removes the most spreadsheets.

What This Replaces

In a plant running a CMMS and a separate purchasing system, the following sequence is manual, and it is usually a spreadsheet:

Step	How it usually works	How it works here
A PM schedule for next quarter implies a set of parts	Somebody exports the schedule and reads off the parts by hand	Forward PM parts requirements is a screen
Work out which of those parts are not in stock	Cross-reference the export against an inventory report	Stock levels are on the same record as the requirement
Request quotes, raise the order, chase the approval	Email, then a second email asking about the first	RFQ (Request For Quotation) and a personal approvals queue
The part arrives	Somebody re-keys it into the CMMS inventory	Receiving updates inventory as the receipt is entered

Every one of those handoffs is a place where the number in the maintenance system and the number in the purchasing system stop agreeing. Removing the handoff is the point.

ProAlert planning board listing four parts below their reorder point, each with the quantity needed, its storeroom location, a priority badge, the low stock trigger that raised it, a preferred vendor, an estimated cost and a needed-by date, with approve and reject actions on every row — **This is the screen that removes the spreadsheet.** Four parts have fallen below their reorder point, and the board already knows everything a buyer needs to act: which storeroom location they sit in, how many are short, which trigger raised them, who normally supplies them, what they cost and when they are needed. The needed-by dates follow the priority badge, so the urgent rows are legible without opening anything. Nothing on these rows was typed by a buyer. Approving or rejecting a row is where the manual sequence above used to begin.

Purchasing Capabilities

Purchasing Dashboard

A single view of open orders, pending approvals, low-stock exceptions and forecast demand. The buyer's morning screen, rather than four reports that have to be run and compared.

Planning Board

The working view where the purchasing team stages and sequences what needs to be bought. Requests can be grouped by vendor, so line items consolidate into one order rather than three small ones placed with the same supplier in the same week. One shortage produces one board item however many times it is detected, and once it has been actioned the badge on the row is a live link to the actual RFQ or purchase order number rather than a label saying something was done.

A Real Buyer on the Paperwork

Outgoing requests for quotation and purchase orders carry a named buyer with a phone number and the company's own details, taken from purchasing settings that save what was entered. A supplier receiving the order knows who to call back, which is the difference between a document and a placeholder.

Receiving Knows Where It Goes

The receipt resolves a destination through a defined order of preference and suggests where the stock should land. One delivery can be split across storerooms and bins, writing a receipt per destination, so a pallet arriving for two cribs does not end up recorded as arriving for one.

Request for Quotation (RFQ)

A structured RFQ workflow against supplier catalogues. Put the same requirement to several suppliers, record the quotes as they come back, and compare pricing side by side before the purchase order exists.

Purchase Orders

Full purchase order lifecycle through a defined state machine. Orders can originate from a low-stock trigger, a forecast, a preventive maintenance requirement, or manually. Receiving is handled at the line-item level, so a partial shipment leaves the order open on the outstanding lines only.

Configurable Multi-Level Approval Chains

Approval routing is configured, not hard-coded. Thresholds and approver roles are set per organization. Every user has a personal "My Pending Approvals" queue, which makes an approval a task with a state rather than an email in somebody's inbox.

Low-Stock Reporting

Exception reporting against reorder points, across every stock location, filterable by category. The list of what is at or below its reorder point, rather than the list of everything.

Parts Demand Forecasting

Projected consumption built from transaction history and the scheduled maintenance ahead. The forecast horizon and the consumption model are configurable, and the per-part consumption charts behind the forecast are available in the inventory module.

Forward PM Parts Requirements

The parts implied by upcoming preventive maintenance, visible before those work orders exist. This is the capability that most clearly depends on procurement and maintenance being one system rather than two that exchange files.

Suppliers and Vendor Master

Part-supplier catalogues, so a given part can be sourced from more than one supplier at different pricing, plus vendor contact records and active status. Every purchase order and RFQ links to a vendor, building an order history per supplier.

ProAlert Purchasing Dashboard showing four low stock parts, four parts at stockout risk, four pending approvals and an estimated reorder value of 724 dollars, above RFQ status counts of one draft, one quoted and one converted, purchase order status showing one draft, a quick actions panel, and a system status bar reading auto reorder disabled, nightly check at 02:00 UTC, real time alerts enabled and a 90 day forecast horizon — **The first card on this page, as a working screen.** Everything a buyer opens four reports to assemble is on one view: what has fallen below its reorder point, what the forecast says will run out inside the horizon, what is waiting on an approver, and what the reorder is likely to cost. The RFQ and purchase order counts are live states from the workflow below, not a text field somebody remembered to update, which is what makes them countable. The forecast horizon at the foot of the screen is a setting, and the stockout risk tile above obeys it.

The Purchase Order States

Orders move through a defined state machine rather than a free-text status field, which is what makes the purchasing dashboard countable.

Status	What it means
Draft	Order being assembled
Pending Approval	Submitted for authorization, sitting in an approver's queue
Approved	Cleared for sending
Sent	Transmitted to the vendor, who receives an email notification
Acknowledged	Vendor confirmed receipt
Partial Received	Some line items received, the rest still outstanding
Received	All lines fulfilled
Closed	Complete and archived

A ProAlert request for quotation marked Converted, for an annual supply of 6mm pneumatic tubing and push fittings, showing two line items with estimated prices totalling 5,000 dollars and three vendor quotes opened side by side: Susquehanna Industrial Supply at 5,060 dollars with a three day lead time and marked Selected, MSC Industrial Supply at 5,295 dollars with a five day lead time, and SMC Corporation at 5,010 dollars with a twelve day lead time, each showing its own unit price and extended total for both parts — **The cheapest quote did not win, and the record says why.** Three suppliers were asked for the same two lines. SMC is lowest at $5,010 and takes twelve days; the regional distributor is $50 more and delivers in three. Both parts are already below their reorder point, so the buyer took the three days. Each quote carries its own price per line, not just a total, which is what lets a buyer see that one supplier is cheaper on the tubing while another is cheaper on the fittings. The estimate the RFQ was raised against, $5,000, came from the parts master rather than from a buyer typing it again. When the decision was made the RFQ became a purchase order, and the state at the top of this screen is the same state the dashboard counts.

Who Uses It

Role	What they do here
Buyer / Purchasing	RFQs, purchase orders, supplier management, forecasts
Maintenance Planner	Forward PM parts requirements, stock levels ahead of scheduled work
Storeroom	Receipts, issues, transfers, cycle counts
Operator	Material requests from the floor on a phone
Approver (any role)	A personal pending-approvals queue
Controller / Finance	Spend visibility and approval governance

Common Questions

Question	Answer
Does this replace our ERP purchasing?	Not necessarily, and it depends on the plant. ProAlert covers maintenance and operational procurement: spare parts, consumables and tooling. Many customers keep production material purchasing in the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system and use ProAlert for the maintenance side, connected through the REST API. That decision is part of deployment scoping.
Can we enforce who approves what?	Yes. Approval configuration is a first-class screen, with thresholds and approver roles set per organization, and chains can be multi-level.
Does it know what we will need next quarter?	For maintenance, yes. Forward PM parts requirements project the parts implied by the preventive maintenance schedule, and the forecasting view projects consumption from history.
Is it licensed separately?	Procurement is part of the CMMS side of the platform. Module entitlement is configured per facility in administration.

See a PM schedule turn into a purchase order.

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