Procurement refers to the process of acquiring goods, services, or works from an external source. It involves various activities, such as identifying needs, sourcing suppliers, negotiating terms, and managing contracts.

The goal of procurement is to obtain the right products or services at the right cost and quality, ensuring that they are delivered on time and meet the organization's requirements.

Procurement approval flow

One of the main characteristics of a procurement process is the approval flows, which organize the sequence in which processes should follow each request. The approval flow adds an extra layer of control and oversight.

Approval groups and flow settings

To create a specific approval process, you have to create an approval group, and under this group you can set the specific flow.

1. On your sidebar, go to Settings
2. Scroll down to Finance and click on Purchase requests
3. Click on Add new approval group
4. Add a name and a description (facoltative)
5. Click on Save approval group

Approval flow

The approval flow is structured in levels:

• One or more approvers are assigned to each level
• To move to the next level, the approvers of the previous level must approve the request

To change or add approvers:

• You can add other approvers to the same approval level by just clicking on the plus icon.
• You can edit or delete the approval level just by clicking the three dots icon.

To assign employees:

Once you have defined the approval flow, you are ready to assign the employees.

All the employees that are assigned to an approval group will follow the approval flow that has been defined.

1. Open the Employees tab
2. Click on + in the top right corner
3. Select and add the employees

Procurement permissions

There are two permissions that can be managed:

• Restricting the employees who can make requests
• Restricting the employees who can manage Purchase Orders

How to create a Purchase requests

Once the settings are all ready, employees can start making Purchase requests.

1. On your sidebar, go to My spending
2. Open My purchase requests
3. Click on + New request
4. Choose between New product or service or Software
5. Fill in all the information:
   • General information
   • Vendor information
   • Attachments
6. Once done, click on Send for approval

How to approve Purchase requests

The approver will find the purchase request in the Purchase request sections.

1. On your sidebar go to Spending
2. Open Purchase requests

The Purchase requests list helps approvers and Finance managers to better understand the status of all the purchase requests they need to be aware of.

From this list, by clicking on the arrow in the right, the approver can view the detail of the request and approve it.

Purchase orders list

Purchase Orders are approved purchase requests with all the details about the purchase, the vendor and the requester.

Vendors

Whenever a purchase request is created, a new vendor is also generated in the Vendors section. This vendor remains in “edit” mode throughout the entire request process, enabling approvers and final validators to modify information and ensure accurate storage.