The Procurement Process Step by Step, for Beginners

Quick answer: Procurement is the route from "we need something" to "the supplier has been paid": plan and budget, define the need, raise a requisition, get it approved, choose a supplier, issue a purchase order, then receive the goods, check the invoice and pay. Much of the waiting people blame on procurement can happen before a buyer is able to act at all, because a request is incomplete, the budget is not confirmed, or the approval has not arrived. So measure the procurement cycle from the moment a complete, approved requirement reaches the buyer, and track the time before that as its own number.

Why procurement feels slow when "you're just buying"

To the requester, procurement looks like one step: I asked for a laptop and I am still waiting. To the buyer it is a chain of handovers, each needing something from someone else: a clearer description, a budget confirmation, an approval, a quote.

When nobody can see where a request is sitting, staff work around the process: they buy with their own money and claim it back, or call a supplier directly. For a business owner that means less control over cash; for a finance officer it means commitments nobody approved in advance. The fix is not to rush the buyer but to make sure every request reaches the buyer ready to act on.

The stages, who owns them and where they stall

Think of the process as six stages. The documents at each stage are set out in Purchase Requisition vs Purchase Order, which counts eight: it starts at the need rather than the budget, splits the need from the requisition, and splits the last stage here into receiving, invoicing and paying. The route is the same. This table shows instead what each stage must produce before the next can start, and where it typically stalls. In a small business one person may own several rows.

Beginners often miss stage 1 because it happens before anyone asks for anything, yet Nigeria's federal public bodies are required to do it. The Public Procurement Act 2007 tells procuring entities to plan their procurement by preparing a needs assessment, identifying the goods, works or services required, analysing the likely cost and integrating procurement spending into the yearly budget (section 18). It also says public procurement must be based on plans supported by prior budgetary appropriation, and that no procurement proceedings may be formalised until the entity has made sure funds are available (section 16). The Act governs federal public procurement, not private companies, so this is not a legal requirement for your business, but the logic transfers: decide what you can afford before people start asking.

A 2010 procurement planning paper by the then Director-General of Nigeria's Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), written for government bodies, lists among its benefits "providing sufficient time to obtain required approvals" and preventing unrealistic delivery schedules. In other words, much of the delay is decided before the request is written.

Where the time really goes

Incomplete requests

A request that says "printer ink for Finance" cannot be quoted or approved properly, so the buyer goes back to ask while the clock runs. The United Nations Procurement Manual puts the duty where it belongs: the requisitioner should describe the need accurately, and specifications should be "clear and sufficiently detailed to enable Vendors to effectively respond to them". The same clear description later becomes the basis for comparing quotes.

Missing or unconfirmed budget

If nobody has confirmed the money is there, the approver either delays the decision or approves something finance later blocks. The UN manual asks the requisitioner to make sure sufficient funding is available before the requisition goes to the procurement office, and makes the officer who certifies requisitions responsible for checking funds. In a small business that can be a quick question to finance, asked before submission rather than after.

Waiting for approval

Once a request is complete and funded, the next wait is often the approver: unclear, travelling, or simply not reminded. A written list of who approves what, with a named backup, removes most of this wait.

Supplier lead time (how long delivery takes after the order) matters too, but it can be planned for. The UN manual expects the requisitioner to set the date the need must be met and to allow for every step of the process when deciding when to start.

The complete request checklist

A request is complete when the buyer and the approver can act on it without asking a single question. Before you submit, check:

• What: described well enough for a supplier to quote (model, size, specification or scope).
• How many: quantity and unit (5 cartons, not "some").
• How much: a cost estimate and its basis (attached quote, last price paid, catalogue price).
• Budget: the paying department or project is named, and someone has confirmed the money is there.
• Why: a sentence or two of justification, including why now.
• When: a realistic date needed, allowing for approval and supplier lead time.
• Where: the delivery location.
• Evidence: quotes, specifications or drawings attached, not described.
• Who: a named requester, and an approver your policy makes clear.

For the full field list and why each field matters, see How to Organise Purchase Requests.

How to measure the procurement cycle fairly

If you time procurement from the first WhatsApp message, the buyer gets blamed for days spent waiting on the requester, the budget holder and the approver. Run two clocks instead:

1. Preparation and approval time: from first submission to a complete, approved request. This belongs to the requester and the approvers.
2. Procurement time: from when a complete, approved requirement reaches the buyer to when the PO is sent. This belongs to procurement.

Supplier delivery, from PO to delivery, is a third clock that belongs to the supplier. For each request, record four dates (first submitted, complete, approved, PO sent) and how many times it was sent back for information. A month of records shows whether to work on request quality, approvals or procurement itself.

A worked example (illustrative)

A distribution company in Ibadan needs two replacement laptops for its sales team. The company, people and figures are illustrative.

From first request to purchase order took ten days; procurement's share was two. The fix is a complete request on day 1 and an approver who can be reached or reminded, not a faster buyer.

How RequisitionPro helps

You can run this process with a form, a spreadsheet and discipline (see when it is time to move off spreadsheets). The difficulties grow with volume, when requests arrive in different shapes and nobody can see where each one is waiting. RequisitionPro keeps requisition, approval and purchase order in one connected flow.

Difficulty: requests arrive incomplete. Every requisition uses the same four-step form (Basic Info, Items, Attachments, Review). Title, category, department, priority and justification are required, each item needs a name, quantity and unit price, and the total is calculated. Quotes and specifications can be attached to the request. The benefit is fewer requests bouncing back before approval.

Difficulty: nobody knows where a request is. The requisitions list in the screenshot below shows each request's status (Draft, Pending, Amendment requested, Approved or Rejected) with its priority, department, amount and created date, and a search box. On a pending requisition you can send a reminder to the approver; reminders are limited in number, so save them for requests that are genuinely stuck.

Difficulty: approvals depend on who is around. Approval workflows are set up per department, with each step assigned to a person or a role, so the next approver is defined, not guessed. Amount limits stay in your written policy and are applied by the approvers; the platform does not route requests by amount.

Difficulty: budget questions come too late. A Company Admin can set a budget for each department, with a warning threshold (75% by default) and a critical threshold (90% by default). Approved requisitions count against the department's budget, and when a threshold is crossed an alert appears on the Budget Management page for Company Admins. Approvers do not see budget figures when they approve, so confirming the money is there stays part of a complete request.

Difficulty: the order does not match the approval. A purchase order is created from an approved requisition, then sent to the vendor, acknowledged and completed in the app. If you need quotes first, Request for Quotation (RFQ) is available on paid plans; awarding an RFQ creates a draft requisition, not a PO, which still goes through your approval workflow.

For managers, the dashboard above gives the overview in one place: spending by department, the split of requisitions by status, and recent activity across the company.

One boundary: RequisitionPro covers stages 2 to 5, from requisition to purchase order. It does not record goods receipt, match invoices or make payments, so stage 6 stays with your stores, finance team and accounting tools.

Where to see it: the "How to Create a Requisition" (1:49) and "Purchase Orders" (2:11) videos on the tutorials page.

Related questions

How long should procurement take? There is no single right figure. The BPP paper notes that the time needed to plan a procurement depends on its value, risks, complexity and criticality, and those factors shape the rest of the process too. Measure your own two clocks for a month, then set targets per type of purchase, for example routine stationery versus imported equipment.

Do small purchases need every stage? The stages shrink but do not disappear: someone still agrees the need and the budget. Write down which purchases can use a lighter route, such as petty cash.

Should we collect quotes before or after approval? Either works. Quotes first give the approver a real price; approval first avoids asking suppliers to quote for something that may be refused.

Next step

Follow "Create your first requisition" in the onboarding guide to set up a complete request from the first step.