Procurement & Approvals

Procurement begins with a request: someone identifies a genuine need. That request can become an RFQ (request for quotation) sent to one or more vendors, who respond with quotations. The buyer compares those quotes on price, terms, and reliability, and awards the business — which produces a purchase order, the formal commitment to buy.

The reason to keep this whole flow in one system is traceability. Every purchase order can be traced back to an approved need and the specific quote it was awarded against. There is no "where did this order come from?" — the answer is always one click away, instead of buried in an email thread or a verbal agreement no one wrote down.

In practice, a stores clerk at a branch raises a procurement request for 40 cartons of printer paper. Once it is approved, the buyer sends an RFQ to three vendors, records each quotation as it comes back, and awards the best one — and only an approved quotation can be turned into a purchase order. For stock bought from the same supplier every month, the Reorder page can create the same chain as a direct award, within the order limit the workspace sets in its procurement settings, so the paper trail exists even when no one runs a full RFQ.

Approvals attach accountability to spending. An approval path defines who must authorize a request or purchase order before it can proceed, and those rules are usually driven by value or category — a small stationery order and a major capital purchase should not pass through the same gate.

The key word is enforced. In an email-and-spreadsheet world, an approval is a message someone sent (or forgot to). In AWRA the authorization is part of the workflow itself: the purchase cannot advance until the right person signs off, and that sign-off is recorded. This is what stops spend from quietly happening outside the rules.

In practice, a workspace with no rules is simple: anyone holding the approval permission can approve. Most organizations then add rules under Settings → Approval Rules. A typical setup for a multi-branch business: requisitions up to 50,000 need the department head; from 50,000 to 500,000, the department head and then the finance manager; above that, the managing director signs last. Rules can cover requisitions, quotation awards and supplier bills; a rule can stop the requester approving their own document, one person cannot fill two steps, and editing the document restarts the chain.

When goods arrive they are received against the purchase order, which creates a stock receipt and increases inventory. Receiving against the PO — rather than just adding stock — keeps the loop closed between what was ordered and what actually showed up.

Three-way matching is the control that protects the money. It compares three documents before payment: the purchase order (what we agreed to buy), the goods received note (what actually arrived), and the vendor invoice (what we are being asked to pay). When all three agree, payment is safe. When they do not, you have caught an error — paying for goods that were never ordered, or never delivered — before the money leaves.

In practice: a PO for 100 units arrives with 90. The storekeeper receives 90 against the PO, and the order stays open for the 10 still owed rather than closing. Had 110 arrived, AWRA would refuse the extra 10 — over-receipt is blocked by default unless the workspace sets a tolerance percentage. If the vendor’s bill then charges for 100, the mismatch is raised as a match exception and payment is held until it is resolved or someone with the override permission records a written reason.

Vendor records hold contacts, payment terms, and history, so a buying decision can draw on more than the lowest price — reliability, lead time, and past performance all matter. A cheap vendor who delivers late or short can cost far more than a slightly pricier one who never does.

Ultimately, procurement is only as trustworthy as the buyer’s discipline: comparing quotes honestly, honoring the approval path, and confirming receipts against orders. The system enforces the structure, but the buyer’s judgment is what makes it work.

In practice, a buyer comparing quotations for a recurring order looks past the quoted total. Each vendor carries a performance scorecard — on-time delivery, quality and pricing trend, worked out from past purchase orders — and quotations can be scored against weighted criteria before the award, with the rationale for the winner stored on the award decision. Where an organization requires it, new suppliers apply through a public prequalification form and become vendors only once their application is reviewed and approved.