Purchase Order Software in India: 6 Tools, Costs, 6 Checks

• If most of what you buy is physical goods that arrive in a stock room, choose software that links the PO to receipts and stock. If most of it is services, choose a procurement tool with budgets and approvals.
• Arka Inventory includes purchase orders in every plan, a 15-day free trial with full access and no credit card, and stock linkage built natively on Salesforce.
• As of November 2026, five users for 12 months cost ₹17,988 on Zoho Books Professional and ₹24,300 on TallyPrime Gold at listed prices, before Goods and Services Tax (GST). Price tells you the category, not how a PO behaves after it is sent, so run the six checks below with your own orders before you pay.
• Input tax credit (ITC, the GST you paid on purchases and can offset against GST you owe) depends on having received the goods, so the receipt record attached to each PO has tax value as well as stock value.

Choose inventory-linked purchase order software if most of your buying is goods that are received, stored and issued. Choose procurement software if most of your buying is services, subscriptions and office spend. The deciding question is whether a PO must update stock when goods arrive.

• Mostly stock (manufacturers, distributors, traders): the PO should open against stock, receive into a warehouse and show quantity on order. Tools 1 to 4 are built that way.
• Mostly services and indirect spend: the PO needs budgets, approval routing and department requests. Tools 5 and 6 are built that way.
• Accounts-led, one site, low volume: an accounting package's PO feature often does the job.

If you are unsure which lane your spend falls in, our purchase requisition guide separates stock buying from spend buying.

Prices are as listed on each provider's own pages in November 2026.

For five users over 12 months, the listed prices work out between ₹17,988 and ₹24,300 in rupees and between $1,866 and $7,860 in dollars, depending on the tool. This is our model of listed prices, not a ranking by cost: each provider's listed monthly or annual price, multiplied out, with no conversion between currencies and no GST added.

The tools are not like for like. Zoho Books and TallyPrime are accounting packages, Odoo is an ERP, and Precoro and Arka Inventory are purchasing and inventory tools. Procurify's total cannot be worked out because it publishes no price. A total tells you the category you are buying, not how its purchase orders behave once goods arrive, and that needs testing.

Run six tests with your own supplier, items and rates, in a trial or a vendor-led demo, and score each as pass or fail. Creating a PO is easy everywhere; these checks target the events after the PO is sent, which is where buyers run into trouble.

Does a short delivery leave the balance open?

Raise a PO for 100 units and receive 80. Pass: the PO stays open and shows 20 pending. Fail: it closes, or you must track the balance by hand.

What happens when a supplier ships more than you ordered?

Receive 110 against an order of 100. Pass: the system blocks the extra 10, or accepts it only within a tolerance you set and flags it. Fail: it accepts silently, and you find the difference at invoice time.

Can you change an order after part of it has arrived?

Receive part of a PO, then cancel or reduce one line. Pass: the open balance changes and the received quantity is untouched. Fail: the tool refuses and you must close the PO and raise a new one.

Does an invoice that does not match the order get flagged?

Enter two supplier invoices: one with no PO and one at a rate different from the PO. Pass: each is flagged or held before payment. Fail: both pass through. Our purchase order process guide gives a pay-or-hold rule and a sample PO.

Does approval by order value come with your plan?

Set a rupee threshold of your choice. Pass: a PO above it routes to a named approver and cannot be sent until approved, and the vendor confirms in writing which plan includes this. Fail: approvals exist only on a higher tier than the one quoted.

Does a PO draft itself when stock falls below the reorder level?

Set a minimum quantity for one item and issue stock below it. Pass: a draft PO appears with supplier and quantity for you to approve. Fail: you get an alert and must create the PO yourself.

The goods-received record is your proof that you received the goods, which Section 16(2) requires before you can claim input tax credit. Under Section 16(2) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, you cannot claim input tax credit unless you hold the supplier's tax invoice or debit note and have received the goods or services. The second proviso sets a 180-day limit for paying the supplier, as published by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. Our recommendation is to keep the receipt date and quantity on each PO, so one record answers both the stock audit and the tax query.