Purchasing Control feature overview

The Purchasing Control feature lets B2B companies track and control procurement spending by assigning orders to cost centers and enforcing configurable budget rules. It extends the existing Approval Process with a second dimension of spending governance: per-department or per-project budget limits that work alongside the existing per-person permission limits.

Cost centers

A cost center is an organizational unit within a company that incurs costs but does not directly generate revenue. Companies use cost centers to track and control spending by department, project, location, or function.

Common examples:

• Departmental: Marketing, Engineering, HR, Facilities
• Project-based: Office Renovation Q2 2026, Trade Show Berlin
• Location-based: Warehouse Berlin, Office London

Every purchase a buyer makes is charged to a cost center so the company can track where money is being spent. In ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics, cost centers are a foundational accounting concept - orders flow into the ERP tagged with a cost center code, enabling financial reporting and cost allocation.

Budgets

A budget is a spending limit assigned to a cost center for a defined period - monthly, quarterly, or annually. It represents the maximum amount that a department or project is authorized to spend in that period.

Example: The Marketing department has a quarterly procurement budget of €50,000 for office supplies and event materials. Once that budget is consumed, further purchases are either blocked, flagged for review, or escalated for approval.

Budget enforcement rules

Each budget is configured with one of three enforcement rules:

Relationship to the Approval Process

Spryker’s existing Approval Process triggers a workflow when a buyer’s order exceeds their Buy up to grand total permission. The Purchasing Control feature adds a parallel check: an order might be within a buyer’s personal permission limit but still exceed the cost center’s remaining budget.

Both checks run independently at checkout. If either the permission limit or the budget rule is triggered, the configured action - block, warn, or require approval - is applied. This gives companies layered spending governance: per-person limits and per-department or per-project limits.

Cost centers and budgets in the procurement workflow

The typical B2B procurement flow involving cost centers and budgets:

1. Finance sets budgets. At the start of a fiscal period, finance allocates budgets to each cost center.
2. Buyers are assigned to cost centers. Buyers are linked to one or more cost centers they are authorized to purchase against. Cost centers are linked to company business units, so all users in a business unit are automatically assigned to the corresponding cost centers.
3. Orders are tagged. At checkout, the buyer selects which cost center the purchase is charged to. The system automatically selects the active budget for that cost center:
   • If exactly one active budget is available - it is selected automatically.
   • If multiple budgets are available - the buyer selects from a dropdown.
4. Budget is validated. The system checks whether the order total fits within the remaining budget for the selected cost center.
5. Enforcement rules apply. Based on the configured rule, the order is blocked, a warning is shown, or approval is required.
6. Budget is consumed. Once the order is confirmed, the budget balance is reduced by the order amount.
7. Budget is restored. If the order is cancelled, the consumed amount is returned to the budget balance.

Checkout validation outcomes

Quote lock

When an order is sent for approval - whether triggered by a budget rule or a permission limit - the quote is locked to preserve the order state during the approval review. Neither the buyer nor the approver can modify the quote while it is pending approval. For details, see Quote lock functionality.

Roles and capabilities

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