§ 19 · Money & operations

Procurement

Procurement takes a need, turns it into a competitive process, then into an order, a delivery and an invoice. Its dashboard is unusually honest: every tile says whether it is drawing live data or still waiting to be set up.

What it is for

Buying goods and services with a documented, auditable trail.

Who can do it

Procurement ManagerProcurement OfficerReceiving OfficerFinance

Needed first

Suppliers on the register
Procurement settings and approval workflows configured
A budget to charge against

Where it ends

A supplier invoice approved by Finance, and stock received into a store.

The dashboard, and its badges

The Procurement Dashboard with twelve tiles — purchase requisitions, pending approvals, open RFQs, active tenders, purchase orders, goods awaiting delivery, goods received, supplier invoices pending finance approval, budget utilization, contract expiry alerts, procurement cycle time and audit alerts — each carrying a LIVE, SETUP or ATTENTION badge. — **Procurement Dashboard.** Read the badge under each tile before you read the number. LIVE means real data; SETUP means that part is not provisioned yet.

Badge	Means	What to do
LIVE	The tile is reading a real table	Trust the number
SETUP	The underlying feature is not provisioned — e.g. “Tender workflow table not yet provisioned”, “Contract expiry tracking activates when Procurement contracts are provisioned”	A zero here means “not switched on”, not “nothing happening”
ATTENTION	Something needs a person — goods awaiting delivery, for instance	Work it

A rare and useful honesty

Most systems show a zero and let you guess whether that means “none” or “not configured”. This dashboard tells you. Use it as your setup checklist: every SETUP badge is a piece of configuration still outstanding.

The procurement chain

Requisition→ Approval→ Sourcing (RFQ / tender)→ Purchase order→ Receiving→ Supplier invoice & payment

Stage	Screen	What is decided
Requisition	Purchase requisitions	What is needed, by whom, charged where
Approval	Workflows	Whether it may proceed, and at what value threshold
Sourcing	Sourcing	Who is invited to quote, and who wins
Order	Purchase Orders	The commitment to a supplier
Receiving	Receiving	What actually arrived, and in what condition
Invoice	Supplier Invoices	Whether Finance pays, and against which order and receipt

The Procurement Workflows screen defining approval stages and thresholds. — **Workflows.** Who approves what, and above which value. Configure this before the first requisition, not after one is stuck.

The Sourcing screen listing requests for quotation and their responses. — **Sourcing.** Requests for quotation and the responses received. The chain beyond quotations is defined but lightly exercised so far — expect to be the first person down some of these paths.

The Purchase Orders screen listing orders with supplier, value and status. — **Purchase Orders.** The commitment. Budget utilization on the dashboard is paid plus committed spend, so an order affects that figure before any money moves.

The Receiving screen for recording goods received against a purchase order. — **Receiving.** Received against the order. This is also where Inventory takes over for anything that goes into a store.

The Supplier Invoices screen listing invoices awaiting finance approval. — **Supplier Invoices.** Matched to the order and the receipt, then approved by Finance. The dashboard counts those pending.

Worked example

Buying 20 reams of photocopy paper for the Juba main store

Before you start	Check the dashboard badges. If Active tenders reads SETUP, tendering is not available — plan an RFQ, not a tender
1. Requisition	Raise it with the item, quantity `20`, the store it is destined for and the budget line it is charged to
2. Approval	It enters the workflow. Pending approvals goes up by one. The threshold in Workflows decides who signs
3. Sourcing	Raise an RFQ to suppliers on the register. Only registered, qualified suppliers can be invited — check the Supplier Registry first if the list looks short
4. Compare	Record the quotations received and the basis for choosing. This is what an auditor reads later
5. Order	Raise the purchase order against the winning quotation. Budget utilization moves now, on commitment
6. Delivery	Goods awaiting delivery is your chase list. When it arrives, record it in Receiving — quantity actually received, and condition
7. Stock	Anything going into a store is also received in Inventory. Do not skip this: procurement knows you bought it, inventory knows where it is
8. Invoice	Enter the supplier invoice, matched to the order and the receipt. It appears in Supplier invoices pending finance approval
9. Pay	Finance approves and pays; the entry posts to the ledger through the normal posting rules

Suppliers must be on the register first

Sourcing draws its invitation list from the Supplier Registry. A supplier who has not registered — or who has registered but is not yet qualified — cannot be invited, however well you know them. If the RFQ invitation list is unexpectedly short, that is where to look, not at the RFQ.

If procurement stalls

Symptom	Cause	Fix
A tile reads zero and nothing is happening	Read its badge — it may say SETUP	Provision that part before expecting data
A requisition sits at approval	The approver role for that value threshold is unstaffed	Workflows, then ask ICT whether the role has anyone in it
You cannot invite a supplier to an RFQ	They are not registered or not qualified	Supplier Registry
Budget utilization looks too high	It counts committed spend, not only paid	Expected — an unfulfilled order still commits budget
Goods received but not in stock	Receiving in procurement and receiving into a store are two records	Inventory → Receipts & Inspection
Finance will not approve an invoice	It does not match an order and a receipt	Three-way match: order, receipt, invoice
Contract expiry alerts always read zero	Contract tracking activates only when contracts are provisioned	The tile says so under the number