Warum fehlende Bestellkontrolle Ihre Liquidität und Profitabilität gefährdet

Why a Lack of Purchase Control Puts Your Liquidity at Risk

Norman Rohr
04.02.26
5 min read

It is a scenario that many finance leaders know all too well: At the end of the month, an invoice suddenly lands on your desk. A large invoice. No one in accounting knew about it. There are no accruals, no budget approval, and the liquidity plan for the next month is instantly rendered obsolete.

In many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the purchasing process still resembles flying blind. Orders are made verbally, Excel lists are maintained manually, and the finance department often only learns about liabilities when the invoice arrives. This is not only inefficient but, in economically tight times, a genuine risk.

This article highlights why a complete overview of all purchase orders is the foundation of solid financial management and how modern Procure-to-Pay (P2P) solutions like finway can provide the remedy.

The Blind Spot in Financial Planning

For Managing Directors and Heads of Finance in traditional companies, planning accuracy is the highest asset. Yet, exactly this necessary confidence is often undermined by outdated purchasing processes.

When orders occur decentrally and without a system, serious problems arise:

Lack of Transparency: No one knows exactly what liabilities will become due in the coming weeks.
Flawed Liquidity Planning: Without knowledge of open purchase orders (“Committed Spend”), cash flow forecasts are based on estimates rather than facts.
High Manual Effort: Information must be painstakingly gathered from various departments.

A Typical Example from Practice

Imagine a software company based in Munich. There is no central tool for Purchase Orders (POs). The Head of Finance maintains a complex Excel spreadsheet to keep track of planned and committed spending by teams (Marketing, IT, HR).

The reality looks like this:

Changes come in via email, Slack, or office hallway conversations.
The Head of Finance must constantly manually update her spreadsheet.
Typos creep in, information gets lost.
The spreadsheet is usually already outdated by the time it is finished.

The result?

A slow, error-prone financial planning process that is almost exclusively based on “reacting” instead of “acting.”

Why P&L and Liquidity Planning Need More Than Excel

The Profit and Loss statement (P&L) and liquidity planning are your company’s navigational instruments. If the data basis for these instruments is flawed, you are steering in the fog.

The Problem with “Invoice as First Info”

In many companies, the incoming invoice is the accounting department’s first point of contact with an expense. At this stage, however, the money is already spent—the liability has been created. Effective cost control is no longer possible here.

What is missing is the step before: The Purchase Request.

Only those who control the process before the order is placed can effectively manage budgets. A Supply Chain Manager or Commercial Director needs to know if an acquisition is still within budget limits before the order goes out—not when the invoice arrives.

How finway revolutionizes the P2P Process

This is exactly where modern solutions like finway come in. Instead of viewing the purchasing process in isolation, finway links the Purchase Order directly to financial planning.

1. Real-Time Overview Instead of Manual Lists

With finway, the finance department gets a complete overview of all Purchase Orders (POs), including the service period and delivery date. This means:

An end to manual Excel lists.
Every approved order is immediately visible to the finance department.
Changes to order status are automatically updated.

2. Precise Planning Security

Finance leaders and Managing Directors can plan the impact on the P&L and liquidity exactly. Since you know what has been ordered (and when it needs to be paid), nasty surprises at the end of the month are eliminated.

3. Efficiency Leap Through Automation

Back to our case study from Munich: By implementing finway, the company was able to reduce its error rate by 100%. Typos and lost emails are a thing of the past. At the same time, the communication effort between specialist departments and accounting dropped by more than 95%.

Instead of sending emails back and forth (“Is this order approved?”, “When is the invoice coming?”), all information flows together centrally in one place.

The strategic importance for the finance function

For Heads of Finance in companies with up to €50 million in revenue, it is not just about “orderliness.” It is about transforming the finance department from an administrative apparatus into a strategic partner.

When you no longer have to spend time chasing receipts or fixing Excel spreadsheets, you gain time for the essentials:

Strategic analysis of spending.
Optimization of working capital.
Better negotiations with suppliers based on valid data.

Approval processes: Control without bureaucracy

A common counterargument is the fear of bureaucracy. “We don’t want to slow our employees down.” But digital tools do the opposite. Whether you use an inventory management system or not is secondary.

finway solves the approval problem elegantly: Employees submit a request, and the responsible person (e.g., department head) approves it with a click. The finance department has immediate visibility without having to be involved in every micro-step. Control and agility are not mutually exclusive—they condition each other.

Conclusion: Control is key to growth

In an increasingly complex economic world, SMEs cannot afford to fly blind. An overview of open orders is not a “nice-to-have,” but essential for reliable liquidity planning and the smooth functioning of the finance function.

Manual processes and Excel spreadsheets are no longer scalable beyond a certain company size. Those who invest in digital P2P processes today secure their ability to act tomorrow.

Ready for the next step?
Analyze your current purchasing process. How many hours does your team spend on manual data entry? How often does liquidity planning deviate from reality? If you see potential here, it is time for a professional solution.

Create transparency and regain control over your finances.

Accounting

Norman Rohr

Norman ist seit 2024 CEO von finway. Er verfügt über einen Master in International Business (ISM) und einen MBA in Finance & Strategy (Melbourne Business School). Mit über 20 Jahren Erfahrung in der Technologie- und Digitalmedienbranche auf vier Kontinenten ist er ein ausgewiesener Marketing- und Revenue-Experte. Bevor er zu finway kam, hatte er Führungspositionen bei Unternehmen wie Google, SVOX, Pixability, Uberall, Xentral ERP Software und Capmo inne und beriet zahlreiche weitere Firmen.