Difference Between Procurement and Purchasing
The terms “procurement” and purchasing are often used interchangeably, but both of them are different processes with entirely different meanings.
While purchasing is mainly focused on the actual acquisition process, procurement is focused on selecting the right vendors and establishing the correct expectations, and managing the entire negotiation process until the purchase is complete.
Essentially, purchasing is just a part of the procurement process, which is the umbrella term for acquiring or procuring goods and services that are vital to a corporation to function.
In this blog, we’re going to take a look at the differences between FF&E procurement and FF&E purchasing.
Procurement and Purchasing
In order to understand the differences between FF&E procurement and FF&E purchasing, we have to take a look at both the different processes.
● FF&E procurement Procurement is the job of acquiring and procuring all the goods and services that are needed by any organization to function. Procurement usually follows a process known as the Procure-To-Pay Cycle. The procure-to-pay cycle involves a lot of processes like identifying the requirements, authorizing the purchase request, procurement, identification of suppliers, negotiation of the purchase, selection of vendor, purchasing, and payment. As you can see, the process of procurement is a vast process that is central to the company’s functioning.
● FF&E Purchasing As demonstrated above, purchasing is a part of the procurement process. Of course, it is a vital part of the procurement process.
As a subset of the procurement process, the process of purchasing involves authorizing the purchase order, taking care of the logistical challenges, and accounting and financing.
In a nutshell, while procurement is the overall process of sourcing goods and services for the organization, purchasing is solely focused on the transactional part of the process. Example in the FF&E industry
It can be easy to understand the difference between purchasing and procurement in the FF&E with the following example -
A hotel wants to acquire new tables for its restaurants. The process of procurement will start by identifying the exact needs of the hotel. Once the requirements are clear, the next step in the procurement process is to find suitable vendors. After the best vendor is selecting, the process of purchasing will start.
The purchasing process will include managing the payment and ensuring that the tables are delivered to the hotel and managing the finances and accounting for the same.
Conclusion
Even in business literature, procurement and purchasing are two terms that are often used interchangeably, which often leads to a lot of confusion for students. While both the terms are related to each other very closely, they are in fact, two different processes that have different focuses.
Lastly, while the process of procurement is often different for different companies, the process of purchasing has become mostly standardized. This is because purchasing is usually a straightforward process which allows the creation of a standard purchasing policy that is sound for most business, unlike procurement which is a more complex and higher-level process.















