Outside of a Procurement organization, which probably includes internally across most companies, people generally don’t know the difference between purchasing and procurement, or use the terms interchangeably. Procurement, also described above, is an organizational function that sources, identifies, and selects appropriate suppliers from which to acquire necessary goods or services through an auction process, RFPs, or direct purchase. The role often includes Supplier Relationship and Performance Management, Spend Analytics, and working with Accounts Payable to ensure three-way matching of Purchase Orders, Invoices, and Receipt Reports. Purchasing, on the other hand, can be considered a subset of Procurement that includes the actual tasks of “purchasing” the direct and indirect goods and services a company uses to operate and / or create products, as well as receiving and payments.