Purchase Requests With the Approvals on the Record

1. 1

   Agree the approval thresholds first

   Who can approve what, at which value, and when legal has to be involved. Write it down once. Half of procurement delay is uncertainty about who is allowed to say yes.

   Carried byWiki
2. 2

   Give every request the same front door

   One queue. A request that arrived by email is not a request, because nobody else can see it and nothing can be reported on it.

   • Every request enters at the same first stage, whatever its size
   • Small requests move through faster, but they still go through

   Carried byTask managementTicketing
3. 3

   Capture what you need at submission

   Requested by, cost centre, estimated value, category, business justification, and needed by date. As fields, not as a paragraph, so you can filter, sort, and report on them.

   • Value and category are what decide which approval path a request takes
   • In self-hosted, conditional fields can ask for the extra detail only above a threshold

   Carried byCustom fields
4. 4

   Set the stages to your real process

   New requisition, under review, awaiting approval, vendor selection, ordered, received, closed. Every stage should be one where a request can genuinely sit, so the board tells you the truth at a glance.

   • Statuses can be added or renamed from the board or the status workflow page
   • The self-hosted edition adds a visual designer for the transitions between them

   Carried byCustom status workflow
5. 5

   Make approval a status change with a name on it

   The approver moves the request out of awaiting approval, and that action is recorded against them with a timestamp. That is your audit trail, and it costs nobody any extra effort.

   Carried byUser roles and permissionsMentions
6. 6

   Compare vendors on the request itself

   Quotes, references, and the comparison notes attached to the request, not scattered across three inboxes. Six months later somebody will ask why this supplier was chosen, and the answer should be one click away.

   • A checklist keeps due diligence consistent: references checked, insurance verified, terms reviewed
   • Teams that must keep supplier contracts inside their own network can use the self-hosted document management module

   Carried byChecklistsDocument management
7. 7

   Track spend against the budget as you go

   Committed spend and actual spend against the cost centre, updated as requests are approved rather than reconciled at quarter end.

   Carried byBudget and cost management
8. 8

   Close the loop on receipt and invoice

   The request is not closed when the order is placed. It closes when the goods or service have been received and the invoice matches what was approved.

   Carried byInvoicingAdvanced reporting

1. 1Write down the approval thresholdsValue bands, who approves each, and when legal is required. This is the actual work. The tool part is easy.
2. 2Create a project from the Procurement templateIt opens on a board with a request workflow already in place, so the first request can go in immediately.
3. 3Add your stagesMatch them to how requests really move, including the stage where things sit waiting for a vendor to reply.
4. 4Add the submission fieldsCost centre, estimated value, category, justification, needed by. Make the ones that drive the approval path required.
5. 5Build the due diligence checklistReferences, insurance, terms, data processing agreement. Reusable, so every supplier gets the same check.
6. 6Give requesters access to their own requestsUnlimited users means everyone who raises a request can watch it, which removes most of the chasing emails.

Orangescrum does not generate purchase orders, hold a supplier catalogue, or do e-signature. It runs the request, the approvals, and the record of why a supplier was chosen.