Purchase requests and purchase orders

Purchase requests are for one-off buys from suppliers you already use, for example five laptops from your hardware supplier. Anyone can ask, the budget holder signs off, SupplierVault runs the checks for you, and Procurement raises and sends the purchase order. When the goods arrive you mark them received and match the invoice.

Where to find it

The Purchase requests tab lists every request, with counters for Waiting for approval (number and total value) and Approved, not yet ordered.
On a live supplier's record, the Purchase requests and orders section has New request.

Filter the list with In progress, Waiting for me (requests where you're the budget holder), Ordered, Finished or All. The table shows the request, who asked, the supplier, cost, status and the next step.

Purchase requests are a module of their own. Admins can turn it on or off in Modules & forms. It's included in every plan.

How to raise a request

Select Open the request form (or New request on a supplier). It takes about two minutes.
Fill in What do you need?, Details, Quantity, Estimated total cost, Currency, Needed by and Why is it needed?
Choose the Supplier: an approved supplier, one that's still being onboarded, "A new supplier" (give its name and website) or "Not sure, Procurement to choose".
Add the Area, the supplier's quote if you have one (link or upload), Requested by, the Budget holder who signs off, Cost centre and any Helpdesk ticket number.
Answer Will the supplier get new access to our data, systems or buildings?
Select Submit for approval.

The request gets a reference such as PR-0001 and the status Waiting for approval. The budget holder gets a task "Sign off purchase request …", due in 2 days. If the budget holder doesn't use SupplierVault, Procurement gets a task to collect their sign-off by email instead.

You can't be your own budget holder. If you choose yourself, you'll be asked to pick someone else. A budget holder who doesn't use SupplierVault must have an email address so they can be asked.

The checks

Each request shows "Checks X/Y passed", with a tick, a cross or a circle (waiting) for each. The order can only be placed once every check has passed.

Check	Passes when
Approved supplier	The supplier is Active or Under review. It fails if no supplier is chosen, the supplier is new, still being onboarded ("Orders wait until it goes live") or being offboarded.
Bank details verified	The supplier's penny test has passed, the call-back is done and there's no open change of bank details. Only shown when the Payments & accounts module is on.
Contract in place	The supplier's contract end date is today or later. If no end date is recorded (for example a rolling contract or standard terms), someone types which terms apply and selects Terms cover this order. The check then shows "No end date recorded. Name confirmed on date that the terms cover this order: note", and the confirmation is logged.
Sourcing policy	The amount (in your base currency) is within the single-quote limit, £25,000 by default. Above it: "At £X the policy requires: … Move this to sourcing."
Supplier quote	A written quote is attached. Only checked when the setting "Purchase requests need a supplier quote" is "Yes, before the order is placed" (the default) and the amount is within the single-quote limit.
Budget holder sign-off	The budget holder has approved.
Extra sign-offs	One row for each of your purchase sign-off limits the amount is over, for example "Finance sign-off: needed because it is over £10,000 (someone in Finance)". Passes when that person or team has approved.
Related-party checks	Only for suppliers marked as a related party. Academies see "Related party reported to DfE" and, over £40,000, "DfE approval"; other organisations see "Connected party declared".
Security review	Only when the supplier gets new access. Someone selects Security confirmed.

The Next step line always tells you the first thing still blocking the request, or "Everything is signed off. Raise the purchase order and send it to the supplier."

Admins set who signs off above which amount in Settings › Purchase sign-off limits. Until you change them, Finance signs off anything over 10,000 in your reporting currency. See Approval limits and separation of duties. The single-quote limit comes from your sourcing policy thresholds.

Signing off

Budget holder who uses SupplierVault: they see Approve as budget holder. Only that person can approve, signed in as themselves.
Budget holder who doesn't use SupplierVault: select Email … for approval to open an email with the details. When they reply, record where the approval email is kept (or a link) and select Record their sign-off. It is shown as "approved by email, recorded by …".
Extra sign-offs: once the budget holder has signed, each sign-off level the amount is over gets a task, due in 2 days, for its named person or the first suitable person in its team. They see Approve: level name. A level set to Finance can be signed by anyone in a team whose name includes "Finance" or "Accounts".
Different people: nobody can sign off their own request, and each sign-off must come from a different person ("You've already signed this request. Each sign-off must come from a different person"). After each sign-off you'll see what's still needed, for example "Still needed: Finance sign-off".
Reject needs a reason, so the requester knows why.
Someone away? A budget holder or approver can hand their sign-offs to a colleague for set dates on the Stakeholders page. The colleague sees the requests under Waiting for me and signs off on their behalf. See Cover while you're away.

When the budget holder and every sign-off level needed have approved, the status becomes Approved, to order.

Supplier quotes

In Supplier quotes, add the supplier, the Quoted price, Quote reference, Valid until date and a link or upload, then Add quote. If a quote differs from the request cost, Use this price updates the cost.

If the price goes up after the budget holder signed off, their approval is cleared, the request goes back to Waiting for approval and they get a new task "Sign off again: … went up to £X".

Raising and sending the purchase order

When the status is Approved, open Raise the order. Enter a Purchase order number, or leave it blank to use one based on the request (PR-0007 becomes PO-0007).
Select Download purchase order for a Word document with the PO number, date, your address and the supplier's, the order lines, total excluding VAT, the date it's needed, an instruction to quote the PO on invoices and send them to your accounts payable email, and your payment terms.
Select Email the order to the supplier to open an email to the supplier's contacts.
Select Record order placed. This is only possible once every check has passed ("Clear the open checks before ordering."). The status becomes Ordered.
When the goods or service arrive, select Mark as received. The status becomes Received.

Matching the invoice

When you log the supplier's invoice on the supplier record (see Payments and invoices), choose the PO number from the list. The request's history then notes "Invoice … received for £X, matching the order", or that it differs from the order value if the difference is more than 2%.

Setting the invoice status to Matched to PO is a manual step: choose it in the invoice's status drop-down once you're satisfied.

Moving a request to sourcing

If the amount is over the single-quote limit, or the supplier isn't approved, select Move to sourcing (or Raise a sourcing requirement). A sourcing requirement is created with the route RFP only if the amount is above the second threshold (£100,000 by default), otherwise Direct award (single source). The request's status becomes Moved to sourcing.

Statuses

Waiting for approval → Approved, to order → Ordered → Received. A request can also end as Rejected, Moved to sourcing or Cancelled. Cancel request is available until the request is received, rejected or moved.

Good to know

If you already use a helpdesk such as ServiceNow, Jira or Teams, keep using it and paste the ticket number into the request for reference. Tickets don't create requests automatically at the moment.
Every approval, quote and status change is recorded in the request history and the audit trail.

Still have a question?Email hello@suppliervault.co.uk or use the contact form. Try anything safely in the live demo.