--- title: "Vendor Procurement Workflow: Request to Order | Orangescrum" description: "Run purchase requests through a single queue with the approvals on the record. The roles, the approval gates, the vendor comparison." canonical: https://www.orangescrum.com/use-cases/vendor-procurement --- # Vendor Procurement Workflow: Request to Order | Orangescrum > For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://www.orangescrum.com/llms.txt). [Home](/) / [Use cases](/use-cases) / Vendor procurement Use case # Purchase Requests With the _Approvals on the Record_ Procurement is not slow because people are slow. It is slow because a request sits in an inbox for four days and nobody can tell you whose inbox. Available in[Cloud](/pricing "Cloud - included")[Self-Hosted](/self-hosted "Self-Hosted - included")Open Source [Start Free Trial →](/sign-up?utm_source=website&utm_medium=feature&utm_content=usecase_vendor-procurement)[Book a Demo](https://calendly.com/orangescrum) Document management is Self-Hosted only · Runs on Cloud and Self-Hosted ## The scenario A team lead needs three licenses and a laptop. They email procurement. Procurement asks finance. Finance asks who approved it. Three weeks later the licenses are bought, nobody can say where the time went, and the auditor later asks for the approval trail. Turning this into a queue with named stages changes the conversation from where is my request to it is in vendor selection with Priya since Tuesday. Runs Per purchase request Typical span Days to weeks Start from Procurement project template Owner Procurement officer Who is involved ## Who is _involved_ The requester is the person who most needs to see where their request is. | Role | What they own | What they see in Orangescrum | | Requester | The justification and the specification of what is needed | Their own request and its current stage | | Procurement officer | The queue, vendor selection, and negotiation | The whole board, filtered to what is waiting on them | | Budget holder | The approval decision and the budget it comes from | Requests waiting for their approval, and the remaining budget | | Finance | Payment terms, the purchase record, and the invoice | Approved requests and the invoices raised against them | | Legal or compliance | Contract terms and supplier due diligence | Requests above the threshold that require their review | | IT or facilities | Receiving the goods and confirming delivery | Ordered items awaiting receipt | The workflow ## Eight steps from _requisition to closed_ The approval thresholds are the part to agree before you build anything. 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 by[Wiki](/wiki-management) 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 by[Task management](/task-management)[Ticketing](/ticketing-software) 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 by[Custom fields](/custom-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 by[Custom status workflow](/custom-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 by[User roles and permissions](/user-role-management)[Mentions](/mention) 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 by[Checklists](/checklists)[Document management](/document-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 by[Budget and cost management](/budget-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 by[Invoicing](/invoice-software)[Advanced reporting](/advanced-reporting) Set it up ## Build it _on Monday morning_ About an hour, and most of it is agreeing the thresholds. 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. The result ## What good _looks like_ Nobody asks where their request is They can see it, and they can see whose stage it is sitting in. Approvals are traceable Each one is a recorded action by a named person, which is exactly what an auditor wants to see. You know where the delay is Reporting by stage tells you whether the bottleneck is approval or vendor response, and those need different fixes. Vendor choices are defensible The quotes and the comparison sit on the request, months after everyone has forgotten the conversation. Budget is live Committed spend updates as requests are approved rather than at quarter end. Requests close properly Received and invoiced, not abandoned at the order stage. Watch out ## Where this _usually goes wrong_ Requests by email Nothing is visible, nothing is measurable, and the trail is in one person's inbox. ✓ One queue, one front door, no exceptions for urgent items. Unclear approval authority Requests sit for days because nobody is sure whether they are allowed to approve them. ✓ Written thresholds, agreed once and linked from the project. Approval as a verbal yes Six months later there is no record of who authorised the spend. ✓ Approval is a status change by a named person, recorded automatically. Quotes in three inboxes The vendor decision cannot be explained afterwards. ✓ Attach quotes and comparison notes to the request itself. Closed at order Nobody confirms the goods arrived, and the invoice is paid against nothing. ✓ Two more stages: received, then closed against a matching invoice. Budget checked at quarter end The overspend is discovered when nothing can be done about it. ✓ Track committed spend as approvals happen. Features used ## Everything this _runs on_ Document management and the visual workflow designer are available in the Self-Hosted edition. The rest is in both Cloud and Self-Hosted. [Custom status workflowStages that match your real process](/custom-status-workflow)[Custom fieldsCost centre, value, and category as real data](/custom-fields)[ChecklistsThe same due diligence on every supplier](/checklists)[User roles and permissionsApproval rights that mean something](/user-role-management)[Budget and cost managementCommitted spend against the cost centre](/budget-and-cost-management)[InvoicingClose the request against a matching invoice](/invoice-software)[Document managementSupplier contracts on your own servers, in Self-Hosted](/document-management)[Advanced reportingWhere the queue actually stalls](/advanced-reporting) Frequently asked questions ## Vendor procurement _FAQ_ Is Orangescrum a procurement system? It is not an ERP and it does not generate purchase orders, hold a supplier catalogue, do three way matching, or provide e-signature. What it does well is the request itself: one queue, named approval stages, the vendor comparison attached, and a record of who approved what. Which template should I start from? The Procurement template. It creates the project on a board with a request workflow in place, so the first requisition can go in straight away and you can adjust the stages afterwards. How do we make approvals auditable? Make approval a status change performed by the person with the authority. The action is recorded against their name with a timestamp, which is a better audit trail than a forwarded email and takes less effort. Can requesters see their own request without seeing everything? Yes. Roles and permissions control access, and unlimited users on every plan means there is no cost reason to leave requesters out. Where should supplier contracts be stored? Attach them to the request so they sit with the decision. Organisations that cannot let supplier documents leave their network can run the self-hosted edition, which includes a document management module. How do we find out why procurement is slow? Report by stage. It is nearly always one of two things, either approval sitting with a busy person or waiting on a vendor to respond, and those need completely different fixes. Can we track spend against a budget? Yes. Budget and cost management lets you track committed and actual spend against a cost centre as approvals happen, rather than reconciling at quarter end. Does it integrate with our finance system? There is no built in ERP or accounting integration. Orangescrum has its own invoicing, and a developer API is available if you need to move data yourself. ## Give procurement a queue people can see One front door, named approval stages, and the record of every decision. [Start Free Trial →](/sign-up?utm_source=website&utm_medium=feature&utm_content=usecase_vendor-procurement_cta)[Book a Demo](https://calendly.com/orangescrum) ## Related use cases [Quarterly planningWhere the budget gets agreed](/use-cases/quarterly-planning)[Employee onboardingThe most common purchase request](/use-cases/employee-onboarding)[Client onboardingBilling and approvals, pointed outward](/use-cases/client-onboarding)[Procurement templateThe project template this starts from](/project-templates/procurement) [See all use cases →](/use-cases)