How to do procurement without a dedicated team

The case for early procurement

Why finance-led procurement works.

Finance teams are uniquely positioned to oversee procurement because they already own the budget. But informal or ad-hoc purchasing creates hidden costs: duplicate subscriptions, unmanaged vendor contracts, and time wasted chasing down details.

Procurement is simply defined as the act of buying goods or services from third parties to support business operations.

Any spend with suppliers falls under “addressable spend” that can be managed more effectively through formalized procurement activities. Traditionally, orchestrating procurement has not been an early focus for companies due to perceived complexity and competing priorities. However, this oversight can lead to several issues:

Employees might end up signing high-risk, long-term contracts with vendors without proper oversight.

Budgets are wasted or committed without the necessary approvals.

New vendors are onboarded without due diligence or risk reviews, exposing the company to potential vulnerabilities.

Employees spend more time navigating procurement chaos than focusing on their actual jobs.

Intake is our top priority in procurement. The key is to be in front of the process. Zip allows us to achieve this.”

Mike Scarpelli

CFO at Snowflake

An early focus on procurement can avoid pitfalls, while driving value across your entire business.

Here’s how early procurement can unlock value:

Optimized spend: Ensure every dollar spent is tied to growth and fully auditable.

Reduced risk: Get ahead of vendor contracts, ensuring legal and compliance checks are done without delays.

Improved efficiency: Eliminate approval bottlenecks with clear, easy-to-follow workflows for everyone involved.

Acting early to formalize procurement processes can transform procurement from a headache into a strategy that scales. It's fundamentally about moving from ad-hoc requests and chaotic messaging chains to a structured, intuitive system that everyone at the company is familiar with, understands, and can navigate through with ease.

Since implementation of Zip, over 80% of our non-headcount-related spend is now going through Zip, allowing us to track and improve it. We no longer have to track people down to get information because it's all in one convenient place.”

Ivan Makarov

VP of Finance, Webflow

Building a cross-functional procurement process that works

Finance-led procurement doesn’t have to be complex.

Here’s how to involve key stakeholders with minimal effort.

It's time to change the narrative around finance teams and the processes they champion.

Finance is often viewed as the department of 'no', but with procurement, we have the opportunity to shift to a culture of 'know'—knowing how to spend smarter, knowing how to evaluate and plan around risk, and knowing how every purchase contributes to business growth.

When we were a young company, procurement defaulted to accounting. That led to a chaotic and confusing request process, making spend a chore. Orchestrating procurement with Zip got us out of those threads, allowing us to focus on strategy. That, plus AP automation integrated with our ERP—that made Zip the best solution for us.”

Gorky Baez

Former AP Manager,

Verkada

Overcoming adoption barriers

Adoption stands as the most important metric of value when establishing a procurement program. Employee-use is the litmus test for the system’s effectiveness.

If no one is using the system, there’s no point to having a system. Procurement must feel natural, tailored to each user’s needs to ensure widespread adoption and, by extension, unlock maximal value for the business as a whole.

Here’s how to ensure your team embraces the new process:

Prior to Zip, even with attempts to train employees, about 85% of purchase requests that were submitted were coded and/or configured incorrectly because our coding logic is very particular and the previous system was too rigid. With Zip, this number has gone to almost 0%.”

Rebeca Reyes

Former Supply Chain Lead/

Procurement Ops, Clutter

Leveraging technology for seamless procurement

Modern procurement doesn’t require complex systems, but it does require a platform that guides the right workflows, to the right people, at the right time. Procurement orchestration platforms like Zip offer:

Universal Intake

Employees can easily submit requests along a guided process that checks for errors, suggests alternative options when available, and captures all necessary information to reduce the need for manual intervention.

Automated workflows

Dynamic approvals route requests to the appropriate stakeholders, ensuring smooth process workflows without requiring constant oversight from finance.

Spend visibility

Real-time dashboard and analytics lets finance track spending across departments, making audits and reporting easier at month end.

The goal is to make procurement feel as natural and straightforward as any other tech-enabled task your employees perform. By adopting technology designed for finance-led procurement, you can save time, reduce costs, and gain control without additional headcount.

As a CFO, early visibility is everything. Formalizing a procurement process not only reduced cycle times by 50%, but gave me key insights that helped save us time and money at month end. Zip was instrumental in orchestrating that process at Betterment.”

Peter Lorimer

Chief Financial Officer,

Betterment

Use Zip for finance-led procurement

You don’t need a dedicated procurement team to run procurement like a pro.

‍With the right processes and tools, your finance org can manage company spending efficiently, minimizing risk and maximizing value.

By formalizing procurement workflows, automating routine tasks, and involving stakeholders only when necessary, you’ll free up time to focus on strategic initiatives while maintaining full control over spend. Zip makes procurement transformation seamless.

Ready to take control of procurement without adding complexity?

Schedule a demo today