Just How Much? Do You Spend And Do You Have Adequate Controls In Place? Probably the purchasing system is even now paper based, with appropriations sitting in people’s out trays, awaiting them to ‘arise’ for authorisation – just to find that the MD has to authorise it off due to its value and she or he is on leave! Some companies use spreadsheets to control buying but who is in charge of keeping them up to date and reminding people to do it? After that, there’s furthermore the issue of allocating purchases to the right budgets, divisions, cost centres, and nominal codes.