System and method for approval and allocation of costs in electronic procurement

A system for providing approval and allocation of costs associated with purchases against a pre-existing electronic procurement contract in an organization having a plurality of cost centers, comprising:

• a user interface operable to display an electronic invoice as a request for payment associated with a procurement by the organization, the electronic invoice comprising a plurality of input fields, at least one of which is used to input information for cost allocation;
• an invoice loader operable to receive the electronic invoice entered via the user interface, and to validate at least a portion of the information in the electronic invoice;
• a comparator operable to match the electronic invoice with the pre-existing electronic procurement contract, and to validate rate information included in the electronic invoice information with a contract rate from the electronic procurement contract;
• and
• a cost allocator operable to allocate costs associated with procurement to at least one of the plurality of cost centers using validated information from the electronic invoice, including the cost allocation information and the rate.

A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having control logic stored therein for causing a computer to provide approval and allocation of costs associated with purchases against a pre-existing electronic procurement contract in an organization having a plurality of cost centers, said control logic comprising:

• first computer readable program code means for causing the computer to receive input from a user interface which displays an electronic invoice as a request for payment associated with a procurement by the organization, the electronic invoice comprising a plurality of input fields, at least one of which is used to input information for cost allocation;
• second computer readable program code means for causing the computer to validate at least a portion of the information in the electronic invoice;
• third computer readable program code means for causing the computer, upon validation of the information in the electronic invoice, to match the electronic invoice with the pre-existing electronic procurement contract, and to validate rate information included in the electronic invoice information with a contract rate from the electronic procurement contract;
• and
• fourth computer readable program code means for causing the computer to allocate costs associated with procurement to at least one of the plurality of cost centers, using validated information from the electronic invoice, including the cost allocation information and the rate information.