Show HN: We built procurement automation for small teams stuck in spreadsheets

Show HN: We built procurement automation for small teams stuck in spreadsheets(quickinim.com)

3 points by Gormanu 130 days ago | 3 comments

Hey HN,

A few years ago, we built a custom procurement system for a Japanese - German manufacturing company. They had hundreds of suppliers, frequent backorders, and a procurement process held together by Excel, email, and manual follow-ups. Receiving goods at the warehouse was painfully slow: staff manually matched incoming items to packing lists, checked quantities by hand, and entered everything into spreadsheets. Orders were missed, documents got lost, and a lot of time was spent just chasing status updates instead of managing suppliers.

What surprised us was that this wasn't an "enterprise-only" problem. Many smaller companies don't run ERP systems, but they deal with the same chaos: spreadsheet procurement, manual warehouse intake, supplier miscommunication - just with fewer resources to fix it.

So we built Quickinim: a lightweight, cloud-based tool that helps SMBs teams manage purchase orders, supplier communication, and documents in one place. No ERP, no long onboarding, just a system that gives visibility and reduces manual work. We even added something we think is underrated: a QR-based goods receipt system that lets warehouse staff scan incoming shipments, instantly match items to orders, and cut receiving time in half.

It's early, and we're actively learning from real users.

I'd really appreciate feedback from this community:

1. What's the most painful part of managing suppliers or purchase orders today?

2. And what have you tried that didn't work?

Gormanu 130 days ago |

Author here. A bit more context on why we built this. We kept seeing the same pattern over and over: teams didn’t want an ERP, but they also couldn’t keep running procurement on spreadsheets and email. Most tools we tried were either too heavy, too expensive, or required months of setup and customization. Quickinim isn’t trying to replace ERP systems. It’s meant for the gap before (or instead of) ERP where companies just need reliable purchase orders, supplier updates, and document tracking without the overhead. Happy to answer any questions, and feedback (good or bad) is very welcome.

gtukmanov 130 days ago |

How does Quickinim differ from other procurement tools ?

Gormanu 130 days ago | |

Most procurement tools are either huge ERPs that are way too heavy and expensive for SMBs, or duct-taped tools like Airtable that fall apart once you need audits and real tracking. Quickinim sits in the middle. It’s lightweight, cloud-first, works without an ERP, and actually covers the warehouse side with QR scans for incoming goods. Suppliers get a simple portal (no training nightmares), everything is logged for compliance, and pricing scales sanely with team size. We’re not here to replace ERPs - just to kill the spreadsheet-and-email chaos procurement teams are stuck in.