A charity saves money with procurement software in six practical ways: it gets competing quotes more often, it stops supplier contracts renewing on autopilot, it buys from fewer suppliers on better terms, it records each saving so trustees and funders can see it, it keeps a clear record of who chose each supplier, and it pays little or nothing for the software itself. None of this needs a procurement team. Free tools such as oboloo cover the first five with unlimited users, and registered charities get 50% off paid plans. What procurement software does not do is pay invoices or raise purchase orders. If that is where your costs leak, you need a purchasing tool as well.
Most charities do not overpay because of one bad deal. They overpay a little, many times over:
Procurement software fixes these by putting suppliers, contracts, quotes and savings in one place that everyone can see. Here is how each one works.
Asking for quotes is the most reliable way to pay less, but it is slow by email. You chase replies, copy prices into a spreadsheet and lose track of who said what.
In procurement software you send one request to several suppliers. They reply through a link, without creating an account, and you see the answers side by side. Set a rule in your procurement policy, for example "three quotes above £5,000", and the software makes it easy to follow. Our free procurement policy generator can help you write that rule.
US nonprofits spending federal grant money already have a version of this rule. The Uniform Guidance says that for small purchases, quotes "must be obtained from an adequate number of qualified sources" (2 CFR 200.320). If you prefer a spreadsheet for now, our RFQ comparison template does the same job by hand. For a comparison of quote tools, see RFQ software to compare supplier quotes.
Auto-renewal is where charities lose the most money for the least reason. A cleaning, IT or waste contract rolls over, often with a price rise, because the notice period closed while everyone was busy.
Procurement software records each contract's end date and notice period and sends an alert before the window closes. That gives you time to retender, renegotiate or cancel. The alert costs nothing; missing it can cost a year at the wrong price. We cover this in more detail in contract renewal tracking software and in contract management software for nonprofits.
When every supplier sits in one list, duplicates become obvious: two stationery suppliers, three IT support firms, a different caterer for each site. Bringing that spend together gives you a bigger order to negotiate with and fewer contracts to manage.
The Uniform Guidance makes the same point for US nonprofits: avoid "unnecessary or duplicative purchases" and consider consolidating purchases to get a better deal (2 CFR 200.318). Good practice for a UK charity too.
A saving that is not written down is easy to doubt. Procurement software records each saving with its baseline (what you would have paid), the new price, the owner and the timing. Someone other than the person who negotiated it, often your finance lead or treasurer, then validates it. Only validated savings appear in reports.
This matters for a charity more than most. A clear savings record shows trustees that money is being looked after, and gives you a real figure for funder reports and the annual report. For the method, see how to track and report procurement savings.
The Charity Commission's guidance on internal financial controls (CC8) asks charities to have "clear, written authority limits" for placing orders, to involve more than one person in each transaction, and to keep a register of interests so conflicts can be spotted.
Procurement software does not replace those controls, but it makes them easier to show. Each sourcing event keeps a full audit trail: who was invited, what they submitted, every score and comment. If a trustee, auditor or funder asks why a supplier won, the answer is already written down. That protects the charity from paying more than it should to a supplier with a connection to someone inside.
Some procurement suites cost more than a small charity spends on the suppliers they manage. Check the price before you start.
oboloo has a free-forever plan with all four core modules (sourcing, supplier management, contract management and savings tracking), unlimited users, no card and no expiry. Registered charities, non-profits, CICs and charitable arms get 50% off paid plans, forever. Paid plans start at $10 per user a month, billed annually, with a 14-day free trial. Details are on the oboloo for charities page.
This is an illustration, not a client case. A charity with four sites spends around £24,000 a year on cleaning, split across three suppliers on contracts that renew automatically.
The saving came from three things working together: the alert, the quotes and the consolidation.
Be honest about the limits. oboloo does not raise purchase orders, approve invoices or make payments. If your main problem is staff buying without approval, or invoices that do not match orders, a purchasing tool such as Precoro, Procurify or ProcurementExpress is built for that; oboloo is not. Many charities use free-forever procurement software for suppliers, quotes and contracts, and their accounting system for payments. We compare both kinds in procurement software for charities and nonprofits.
If you want to start now, free-forever procurement software lets you add your suppliers and contracts today and see where the first saving is.
Get quotes for anything above a set amount, track every contract's notice date, and put all suppliers in one list so duplicates show up. Free procurement software does all three without a dedicated team.
Yes. oboloo is free forever, with all four core modules and unlimited users. Registered charities and non-profits also get 50% off paid plans, forever.
Set your own rule in your procurement policy, for example three quotes above a set amount. US nonprofits spending federal funds must get quotes from an adequate number of qualified sources for small purchases.
Record each saving with its baseline, new price and owner, have someone who did not negotiate it validate it, and report only validated savings.
Some does. oboloo does not: it covers sourcing, suppliers, contracts and savings. Charities that need purchase orders or invoice approval use a purchasing tool or their accounting system for that.
