Sourcing is where new spend starts. Someone in the business describes what they need, the budget holder and Procurement approve it, and you then either sound out the market (RFI), run a formal tender (RFP) or justify a direct award. When you award, SupplierVault creates or updates the supplier record and starts onboarding for you, so nothing has to be typed in twice.
Where to find it
Open the Sourcing tab. The page shows a board of open sourcing events, grouped by stage, and a list of Closed events underneath. Click any card to open the event.
Sourcing is part of the Procurement & sourcing module. If your organisation runs sourcing somewhere else, an admin can switch it off in Modules & forms.
The stages
Open events sit in one of six columns. You move an event between them yourself with the Stage drop-down at the top of the event; each change is logged in the event's activity.
| Stage | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Requirement | Capturing the need, budget, timeline and must-haves. |
| Awaiting approval | Waiting for the budget holder and Procurement to approve the requirement and the route. |
| RFI | A request for information is out, to understand the market and build a shortlist. |
| RFP | A formal request for proposal is out, with requirements, weighted criteria and draft terms. |
| Evaluation | Bids are in and being scored. |
| Award decision | The panel is recommending and approving a winner. |
| Awarded / Cancelled | Closed. Awarding sets Awarded automatically. To cancel an event, choose Cancelled in the Stage drop-down. |
Each card shows the title, the route, the budget and a task progress bar. In Requirement and Awaiting approval it also shows whether the budget holder and Procurement have approved. From RFI onwards it shows how many bidders you have and who is leading on score (declined and rejected bids are left out).
How to raise a requirement
- On the Sourcing page, select New requirement.
- Fill in What do you need? (required), the Business need (the problem, the volume, why now, what happens if you don't buy), the Area, who it is Requested by, the Budget, Currency and Needed by date.
- As you type the budget, a hint shows the route your sourcing policy expects for that amount, for example "Policy for £60k: Three written quotes".
- Choose the Sourcing route: RFI then RFP when the market is unclear, RFP only when you know the likely suppliers, or Direct award (single source), which needs a written single-source justification.
- Select Raise requirement. Approval and sourcing tasks are sent to Finance, Procurement and the people involved.
The tasks each route creates
Each task goes to the first person listed for that team on the Stakeholders page, and is due the stated number of days after you raise the requirement.
| Route | Task | Team | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Every route | Budget holder approval | Finance | 3 days |
| Agree sourcing route & timeline | Procurement | 5 days | |
| Sign off requirements & must-haves | Infrastructure | 7 days | |
| RFI then RFP | Issue RFI & shortlist respondents | Procurement | 14 days |
| RFI then RFP, and RFP only | Issue RFP pack: requirements, criteria, draft terms | Procurement | 21 days |
| Security & privacy questions for RFP | Security | 14 days | |
| Draft contract terms for RFP | Legal | 18 days | |
| Evaluation panel conflict-of-interest declarations | Procurement | 21 days | |
| Evaluation panel scoring | Infrastructure | 35 days | |
| Award recommendation & approval | Executive | 42 days | |
| Direct award | Single-source justification approved | Finance | 5 days |
You can add your own tasks in the event's Tasks section, for example "Reference calls" (due in 7 days unless you change it).
Inside a sourcing event
The top of the event holds Stage, Route, Requested by, Requester email, Budget and Currency. Jump links take you to Requirement, Tasks, Bids & scoring, Award and Activity.
Requirement section
- Business need, Needed by and Area.
- For RFI or RFP routes: RFI responses due and RFP responses due dates. These are recorded for reference; no reminders are sent from them.
- For a direct award: Single-source justification: why only this supplier can meet the need, and how value for money is assured.
- Two approval ticks: Budget holder approved and Procurement approved route. Ticking budget approval also completes the "Budget holder approval" task. The ticks don't move the stage; move it yourself when you're ready.
Requirements and must-haves
Add each requirement with Add a requirement and mark it Must or Should. Must-haves are pass or fail, and SupplierVault checks every bid against them.
- The bids table has a Must-haves column. Each must-have has a Check drop-down per bid: Not checked, Met or Not met.
- The column shows "All met", "x/y checked" or "Fails N".
- Choosing Not met rejects that bid automatically. A bid that fails a must-have is out, however well it scores.
- A bid can't be shortlisted until every must-have has been checked and met. Otherwise you'll see "Check every must-have for bidder before shortlisting".
Your sourcing policy thresholds
The route hint and the warnings come from your sourcing policy thresholds, set on the Reviews & governance page under Sourcing policy thresholds (in your base currency). The defaults are:
| Contract value | Required route |
|---|---|
| Up to £25,000 | One written quote and budget holder approval |
| Up to £100,000 | Three written quotes |
| Up to £1,000,000 | RFP (formal tender) |
| Above £1,000,000 | RFP and executive committee approval |
Two warnings can appear on a direct award:
- Above the second threshold (£100,000 by default): "Policy requires a competitive tender above £100k. A direct award needs a single-source justification approved by the executive committee."
- Above the first threshold (£25,000 by default) with no justification written: "Direct award above the single-quote limit needs a written single-source justification."
These are warnings to guide you. They don't stop you saving.
Bids and weighted scoring
- In Bids & weighted scoring, select Invite supplier. Pick an existing supplier or choose New supplier… and type a Supplier name. The bid starts as Invited with a price of zero.
- Update each bid's status as it progresses: Invited, Responded, Shortlisted, Declined or Rejected.
- Enter each bid's Price in the event currency (or copy it from the price comparison).
- Score each bid from 1 to 5 against each criterion. Leave a score as "–" if you haven't scored it yet.
The default criteria and weights are Technical fit 30%, Commercials 25%, Capacity & lead time 20%, Security & privacy 15% and Support & SLAs 10%. You can change the weights (0 to 100) in each column header; the criteria names themselves are fixed. The header shows "Weights total N%" and turns red if the weights don't add up to 100.
Where the score comes from
Worked example with the default weights. A bid scores Technical fit 4, Commercials 3, Capacity 5, Security 4 and Support 3:
Because the sum only includes the criteria you've actually scored, a half-scored bid still gets a fair percentage, marked partial underneath. A bid with no scores shows "—". This also means the weights don't strictly have to total 100 for the percentage to work, though they should for your audit trail.
The highest-scoring Shortlisted bid is highlighted and pre-selected for award.
How to award
- Set the winning bid (and any runners-up) to Shortlisted.
- In the Award section, choose Award to (only shortlisted bids are listed, with their score) and the Supplier tier (T1 to T4, T3 by default). See Supplier tiers.
- Select Award and start onboarding.
When you award:
- New supplier: a supplier record is created in the Diligence stage, with the event's area, the winning price as committed spend, the event currency and the note "Awarded from …". The tier's onboarding checklist is created.
- Existing supplier: the record is linked to the event and given the tier (a T1 Strategic supplier stays T1). If it's still being onboarded it moves to Diligence and any missing checklist items are added.
- The event moves to Awarded and the "Award recommendation & approval" task is completed.
- If other bids were Shortlisted or Responded, Procurement gets a task "Send regret letters to N unsuccessful bidder(s)", due in 3 days. Use the Regret letter template on the Templates page.
- If the winning price is below the approved budget, a Cost avoidance saving is recorded automatically (see below).
- The new supplier record opens at its onboarding forms so you can carry straight on.
Where the award saving comes from
Example: budget £120,000, winning bid £98,500. A cost avoidance saving of £21,500 is added to the savings register with the note "Awarded below approved budget". If the winning price equals or exceeds the budget, no saving is recorded.
Other ways into Sourcing
- A purchase request that is over the single-quote limit, or for a supplier you don't use yet, can be moved to sourcing.
- On a supplier record, Start re-tender in Sourcing appears when the renewal recommendation is Renegotiate or Exit. It pre-fills "Re-tender: supplier (area)" with the route RFP only.
- A category plan opportunity can be sent to sourcing (route RFP only).
Which plan includes it
Sourcing and quote comparison are included from the Professional plan (and in the free trial). On Essentials the Sourcing tab shows what it does and how to upgrade; anything saved before is kept. See Plans and billing.
Good to know
- To delete an event and its tasks, use Delete sourcing event at the bottom of the event. It asks you to confirm.
- Bid prices you type are the figures used for scoring and award. Suppliers can't enter their own bid prices in SupplierVault yet.
- Changing the route doesn't rebuild the task list.