Why procurement needs a defined workflow
Material is one of the largest costs on a construction project, and procurement is where much of that money is committed. When the process is informal — a phone call from site, a rate agreed over a message, a bill that arrives before anyone has checked the delivery — basic questions become hard to answer later. Why was this supplier chosen? Was this the rate that was approved? Did the material that was paid for actually pass inspection?
A defined workflow does not need to be heavy. It needs each step to have an owner, a record and a clear handoff to the next step. The sequence below is common across Indian developers and contractors, whatever tools they use to run it.
Step 1: Start from a real requirement
Every purchase should trace back to a need. Recording where a requirement came from, how much is needed and by when makes it possible to check later that the right quantity was ordered, and it stops the same need being raised twice by two different people. On a construction project, requirements usually come from one of two places:
- The plan: a scheduled activity needs a quantity of material by a certain date — cement and steel for a slab, tiles for a floor, conduit for electrical work.
- The store: a site engineer raises a material indent and the store does not have enough stock to issue it in full. The shortfall becomes a purchase requirement.
Step 2: Send a request for quotation
A request for quotation (RFQ) sets out what you need so that suppliers can price it on the same basis. A clear RFQ names the material and its specification, the quantity and unit, the delivery location and required date, and the terms you expect — for example the credit period, whether freight and unloading are included, and how taxes should be shown.
Send the RFQ to more than one supplier where the value justifies it. A supplier directory that records the items each supplier provides and the credit period you have agreed makes this faster, and stops the choice of whom to ask depending on one person’s phone contacts.
Step 3: Compare quotations like for like
Quotations rarely arrive in the same format. Before comparing them, bring them to a common basis — the lowest unit rate is not always the lowest cost once everything is included. Points to line up side by side:
- Unit rate and total value
- Taxes, and whether they are included or extra
- Freight, loading and unloading
- Delivery date, and the supplier’s ability to meet the required date
- Credit period and payment terms
- Brand, grade or specification offered
- How long the quotation remains valid
Step 4: A person selects the supplier
The selection itself should be made by a named person on the purchase team, with the comparison in front of them. Price matters, but so do delivery reliability, past quality, credit terms and the working relationship with the supplier. These are judgement calls that a buyer with site experience is best placed to make.
What the workflow should guarantee is that the decision is recorded: who selected which quotation, and when. If the chosen supplier was not the lowest, a short note explaining why saves a long conversation during a cost review.
Step 5: Issue the purchase order and lock it
The purchase order (PO) turns the selected quotation into a commitment. It should carry exactly what was agreed: the supplier, items, quantities, rates, taxes, delivery terms and payment terms.
Once issued, the PO values should be locked. If a rate or quantity genuinely needs to change, that should happen as a visible amendment rather than a quiet edit. Locking matters because everything downstream — receipt, inspection, the supplier’s bill and the payment — is checked against the PO. If the PO can drift, none of those checks mean much.
Step 6: Receive, inspect, approve
When material arrives, it is received against the PO so the store can see what was ordered, what has come and what is still pending. Before the material counts as usable stock, it should be inspected: the right grade and brand, the right quantity, no damage, and any test certificates the specification calls for.
Only after the material passes inspection should the purchase move to final approval, and only after approval should accounts treat the supplier’s bill as payable. This order — receipt, inspection, approval, then accounts — means that money follows accepted material, not merely delivered material.
Controls that hold the workflow together
A handful of simple rules make this workflow dependable:
- Maker-checker: the person who raises a purchase or a bill is not the person who approves it.
- Locked values: PO amounts cannot be changed quietly after issue.
- Inspection before stock: material that fails inspection does not enter stock.
- One linked record: requirement, RFQ, quotations, PO, receipt and approval are connected, so anyone reviewing a purchase can follow it from end to end.
- History: every step records who did it and when.
How Proprite handles procurement
In Proprite’s Purchase Management module, requirements come from the material plans of scheduled activities or from stock shortfalls sent across by the store. The purchase team sends RFQs, records supplier quotations and compares them side by side. A person on your team selects the supplier; Proprite does not choose for you.
The purchase order is raised from the selected quotation and its values are locked once issued. Delivered material is received against the PO and inspected, and it becomes stock only after QC passes. Final approval belongs to Admin, and Accounts is notified once that approval is given.