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Procurement

Procurement takes a purchase from an employee's request to a paid bill. Requisitions are checked against budget and routed for approval. Buyers run requests for quotation with sealed bids and compare offers on total cost. Purchase orders, goods receipts and bills are Books documents, and Procurement checks that they match. Vendors register, quote, acknowledge orders and upload invoices in their own portal.

Who uses it​

  • Requesters are any employee who raises a requisition and confirms receipt.
  • Approvers, such as managers, department heads, finance and the CEO, approve through the inbox.
  • Buyers run RFQs, compare quotes, issue orders and resolve match exceptions. A buyer can be limited to some categories.
  • Procurement admins manage settings, categories, the catalogue, contracts and vendor approval.
  • Vendor users are outside contacts who use only the vendor portal for their own company.

Before you start​

  • Switch Procurement on for your company. See the Quick start.
  • Switch Books on if you want purchase orders, receipts and bills in the ledger and budget checks. Without Books, orders and receipts are kept in Procurement only.
  • Make sure employees, managers and cost centres exist in People, so approvals follow the manager chain.
  • If you want budget checks, enter the year's budget in Books.

Set up​

  1. Create categories. Map each category to a Books expense or asset account, mark capital categories and categories where input tax credit is blocked, and assign a buyer.
  2. Set sourcing rules. Choose the RFQ threshold, minimum number of quotes, cost of capital and lead-time penalty used in comparisons, and the match tolerances.
  3. Choose a budget mode. Warn routes over-budget requests to finance, block stops them, and off skips the check.
  4. Review approval flows. Requisitions, orders, contracts and vendor approvals each have default steps with conditions. Adjust them in the platform's business process settings.
  5. Build the catalogue. Add standard items such as laptops or stationery kits with an estimated price and preferred vendor.
  6. Bring vendors in. Share the self-registration link, invite vendors by email or enter them yourself.

Key workflows​

Raise and approve a requisition​

  1. An employee creates a requisition with lines from Books items, the catalogue or free text, plus cost centre, project and need-by date.
  2. The budget check shows whether the request is within budget, over budget or has no budget.
  3. Approval goes to the line manager and then only to the further steps whose conditions match, such as finance for larger or over-budget requests.
  4. Once approved, the app suggests how to buy: from a contract, from the catalogue, by RFQ or directly.

Run an RFQ and award​

  1. The buyer creates an RFQ from approved lines and invites vendors in the category.
  2. Vendors quote in the portal until the closing time. Bids stay sealed until then.
  3. The comparison shows total cost of ownership, including non-creditable GST, freight, credit terms and lead time, and a score that adds delivery and vendor rating.
  4. Award the whole RFQ to one vendor or split it by line. A purchase order is drafted for each awarded vendor.

Order, receive and match​

  1. The purchase order is approved and sent; the vendor acknowledges it in the portal.
  2. On delivery, record the goods receipt with accepted and rejected quantities and a quality score.
  3. The vendor uploads their invoice, which drafts a Books bill.
  4. Procurement compares the bill with the order and receipt. Breaches go to the buyer, who accepts the variance, raises a debit note or asks for a revised invoice.

Onboard a vendor​

  1. The vendor fills the registration form and uploads a cancelled cheque and certificates.
  2. The app checks GSTIN, PAN, IFSC and Udyam formats and looks for duplicates.
  3. After procurement and finance approval, the vendor is created in Procurement and Books, and a portal user can be invited.

Review spend​

Use the analytics pages for spend by category, vendor and cost centre, off-PO spend, RFQ savings, cycle times and MSME payment compliance.

India specifics​

Vendor checks cover GSTIN checksum and state code, PAN format and PAN to GSTIN consistency, IFSC and Udyam numbers. Checks are structural; a reviewer confirms them against the uploaded documents. GST enters the cost comparison only when input credit is not available. MSME dues are tracked against the 45-day rule, with interest and the year-end disallowance at risk shown. The vendor's TDS section is set in Books.

Works with other apps​

  • Books: vendors, orders, receipts, bills, debit notes, budgets and payments.
  • People: requesters, managers and cost centres.
  • Projects: requisitions and orders can carry a project.
  • Documents: vendor contracts are signed electronically.
  • Forms and Workflows: purchase and vendor forms can create requisitions and vendor requests.
  • Analytics: spend and savings on company dashboards.

Next steps​