Approval by job and amount
Name who approves on each job, with a dollar limit for each level. The Auckland job's requests go to the Auckland foreman, never to Wellington's. Requests climb the chain until someone with enough authority signs off.
Easy Purchase Orders
Purchase orders by phone.
Approved before they reach the counter.
Your crew rings one number and reads out what they're buying. EPO sends it up your approval chain, and texts the PO number back when it's signed off. Too noisy to talk? They can tap it into their phone instead. Nothing to install.
Built in Auckland by Easy Purchase Orders Limited. Purchase orders are stored in New Zealand.
Call in progress · 1:12
Hi Mike, it's Sarah from Easy Purchase Orders. Read me your items one at a time.
Five bags of MultiCrete, seventeen dollars each.
Five bags of MultiCrete at $17 each, that's $85. Got it. Next?
That's it. Bunnings, Westfield job.
That's one item, coming to $85 plus GST, at Bunnings, on the Westfield job. Shall I send it for approval?
Text message · 6 min later
PO GR-1042 approved: $85 at Bunnings, job Westfield. Quote it on your docket.
24/7 Answers every call, day or night
Call or tap Ring it in, or type it on your phone
Minutes From the counter to an approved PO
Every PO On record, with who approved it and when
How it works
Four steps, and the person doing the buying only takes part in the first one.
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1
Ring and read it out
From the site or the supplier's counter, staff call the EPO number. It knows them by their mobile, takes the items one line at a time, then the supplier and job, and the cost if it wasn't given with each item.
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2
Check, then send
EPO reads back the total, supplier and job, and only sends it when the caller says yes. Nothing goes out on a misheard word.
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3
The right approver says yes
The request goes to the people you've named for that job and that amount: a foreman for small buys, a project manager or director for bigger ones. Each gets a WhatsApp message, a text or an email, whichever reaches them, with a link to approve or decline. Or they approve from one list on their phone.
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4
PO number by text
Once it's fully approved, the requester gets the PO number by text (or WhatsApp) and a PDF by email. Your accounts team gets a copy, and so does the supplier's branch if you've given us its email.
Voice first. Web too.
Too noisy to talk? Tap it in.
Next to a compactor, or with a 15-line list from a quote, typing beats talking. The same purchase order goes in from the phone's browser, with the same approval rules, and nothing to install. Staff sign in with a code texted to their mobile.
- Paste a list straight from a supplier's quote
- Attach a photo of the quote or a PDF, so the approver sees it
- See who it'll go to before it's sent
- Follow every request, find past PO numbers and PDFs, and order the same again in one tap
- Approvers see everything waiting for them in one list, and approve or decline there
New purchase order
100 × Blue Widgets$220.00
3 × Tubes of grout$37.50
Total$257.50 + GST
Job Westfield siding renewal
Supplier Bunnings Glenfield
Attached quote.jpg
Goes to the Foreman (Jane), then the Project Manager (Tom).
Send for approvalYour rules, every time
EPO follows the approval policy you already have, so it gets applied the same way on every purchase, including the ones made at 6am on a Saturday.
Different chains for different work
Major projects can run through their own chain with their own limits, while day-to-day jobs use the standard one. Pick the chain for each job.
Nobody approves their own
Every request needs someone else's yes, even when the person asking is a manager. A decline at any level stops it, and the reason goes back to the requester.
Unit prices, added up for you
Ask for a price on each line, or not at all. EPO does the sums, reads back the total, and the PO shows the subtotal, GST and total. Prices are always before GST.
Approved suppliers and branches
Keep a list of approved suppliers, and turn on "approved suppliers only" if you want it enforced. For chains with several branches, EPO asks which one and emails the PO to that branch.
Your PO, your look
Your numbering (your prefix, the year if you want it, your starting number), your logo and your colour. Product codes (SKUs) too, if you use them. A QR code on every PO opens its approval record, so a supplier can check it's real.
Already bought it? Still covered
Urgent buys made before approval can be logged after the fact, flagged as retrospective, so they still get approved and recorded.
Made for noisy sites
On a call, items are taken one at a time and repeated back, so a bad line doesn't lose half the list. On the web, a whole list can be pasted at once.
Text or WhatsApp
Outcomes go by text, or by WhatsApp for staff who prefer it. Reply "PDF" on WhatsApp and their latest approved PO comes straight back as a PDF.
For owners and managers
Run it yourself
Your own dashboard shows every purchase order in flight and lets you change how EPO works for your business, any time, without asking us.
- What's waiting for approval, at which level, and the oldest one
- Approved spend this month, by job and by supplier
- Nudge an approver who's sitting on one, or cancel a request
- Add or remove staff, jobs, approvers, chains and suppliers
- Give other managers access, with a record of every change
- Download every PO as a spreadsheet
Sign in with a link to your email plus a code texted to your mobile.
4waiting for approval
23approved this week
$18,420approved this month
Waiting for approval
3 with the Foreman · 1 with the Director
Oldest: Sam, Placemakers $640, waiting 5 h for the Foreman.
This month by job
Westfield siding renewal$9,880
CRL depot$6,215
Yard and plant$2,325
Built for teams who buy on the go
EPO was built with a New Zealand rail contractor whose crews buy materials across the motu every day. It suits any business where the people spending money are rarely at a desk:
- Construction and civil contractors
- Rail, roading and infrastructure crews
- Electrical, plumbing and building trades
- Facilities and property maintenance
"The crew shouldn't have to stop work to fill in a form, and I shouldn't have to sign off a receipt after the money's spent."
The problem EPO was built to solve
Who's behind EPO
EPO is built and run by Easy Purchase Orders Limited, a New Zealand company based in Auckland.
Your purchase orders are stored in New Zealand, and you can download everything EPO holds for your business, at any time, as files that open without EPO.
- Company
- Easy Purchase Orders Limited
- NZBN
- Pending
- Based in
- Auckland, New Zealand
Founding customers
We're taking on a small number of New Zealand businesses as founding customers. You get a hand-checked setup and pricing we'll fix with you, in return for your feedback as EPO grows.
Free for 30 days
Founding-customer plan
- An EPO number your crew rings, answering 24/7
- The web app for staff and approvers, and your own dashboard
- Approval requests by WhatsApp, text or email; PO numbers by text or WhatsApp, PDFs by email
- Your PO numbering, logo and colours
- Founding-customer pricing, agreed with you before the trial ends
- No lock-in: stop at any time
What you'll need
- Your staff who'll raise or approve purchases, with their mobiles and emails
- Your current jobs, and who approves purchases on each
- The dollar limit for each approval level
- Your approved suppliers, if you keep a list
Paste them in from a spreadsheet. It takes about 15 minutes, and you can change any of it later from your dashboard.
Questions
Do my staff need to install anything?
No. They ring a phone number, and EPO recognises them by the mobile they call from. If they'd rather type, they open the EPO web app in their phone's browser and sign in with a code we text them. There's no app store involved.
Who answers the phone?
A voice assistant, Sarah, who only does purchase orders. She takes the items, supplier, job and cost, reads the total back, and sends the request for approval once the caller says yes. She never approves anything herself, and never makes up a PO number.
How do approvers approve?
They get an email with the details and a button. It opens the request; a second tap approves or declines it, with a reason if they want. Or they open the web app and see everything waiting for them in one list.
What if an approver is away?
A level can have more than one approver on a job. They're all asked, and whoever decides first counts. From your dashboard you can also nudge an approver, or change who approves.
Can someone approve their own purchase?
No. Every request needs at least one other person's approval.
Do prices include GST?
No: every amount in EPO is before GST, on calls and on the web. When every line has a unit price, the PO shows the subtotal, the GST and the total.
Can we attach a quote?
Yes, from the web app: up to five photos or PDFs per request. Approvers open them from the request.
Where is our data kept?
Your purchase orders, staff list and attachments are stored in Microsoft Azure in New Zealand. The voice, phone and messaging services we use run partly overseas. Our privacy policy lists each one.
Does it work with our accounting system?
Today, every issued PO is emailed to your accounts team with a PDF to match against the invoice, and you can download every PO as a spreadsheet. Tell us which system you use, because integrations are on our list.
Try EPO free for 30 days
Set it up yourself in about 15 minutes: your staff, your jobs and who approves what. We check it and switch it on within one working day.
Start your free trialQuestions first? Write to us at hello@epo.nz.