Chapter 1
Capture the need
Ethan Brooks begins with the business need, not a blank purchase order. He records calibrated torque tools for a planned maintenance window, selects the Northstar Industrial Systems plant, enters the needed-by date and estimate, and attaches the safety specification. Required fields are visible before submission. The illustration separates information Ethan supplied from policy-derived fields. Nothing has been approved, sourced, or sent to an ERP.
- Evidence visible
- Business purpose · Site · Category · Estimate · Needed-by date · Safety specification
- Human action
- Ethan reviews the fields and selects Submit request.
- Policy or system boundary
- The request remains a draft until Ethan submits it. The illustration does not claim that every customer uses these exact fields.
- Accessible alternative
- Chapter 1 shows Ethan creating a structured maintenance request. The request includes purpose, site, category, estimated amount, needed-by date, and a safety-specification attachment. Its status is Draft. No approval or ERP record exists.
Read the complete walkthrough
Capture the need
Ethan Brooks begins with the business need, not a blank purchase order. He records calibrated torque tools for a planned maintenance window, selects the Northstar Industrial Systems plant, enters the needed-by date and estimate, and attaches the safety specification. Required fields are visible before submission. The illustration separates information Ethan supplied from policy-derived fields. Nothing has been approved, sourced, or sent to an ERP.
Apply policy context
After submission, configured rules evaluate the request's category, amount, site, and evidence requirements. The view explains why the request is routed to procurement review and finance budget validation. Ethan can see the next owner and missing requirements. The route is customer-specific: Northstar Industrial Systems' fictional policy is shown only to explain the mechanism. The platform has not made a commercial decision.
Check budget context
Michael Grant sees the request with its budget context and source timestamp. The check is evidence for review, not an automatic financial approval. Michael can approve, return for clarification, or add a note according to the configured workflow. The ERP remains the financial system of record for agreed financial records and postings. This step records Michael's decision in the request trail.
Resolve an evidence exception
The route detects that the attached safety specification does not include the required calibration-certification statement. Maya Chen does not approve around the gap. She returns the request with a precise evidence request, and Ethan adds the correct document. The exception remains attached to the record with its open and resolved states. This makes the correction visible without implying that all exceptions can be resolved automatically.
Assign procurement ownership
With the required evidence and budget review recorded, the request moves to Maya as procurement owner. She sees the business need, stakeholders, approvals, exception history, and intended next step together. The operating thread is visible: Request, Route, Approve, Execute, Reconcile. At this point the record is ready for the appropriate procurement action, but no supplier award or purchase order is implied.
Review the trace
The final view summarizes who supplied information, which configured rules affected the route, who reviewed the budget, how the evidence exception was resolved, and who owns the next step. The trace covers actions completed in this illustrated workflow. It does not claim universal coverage for activity outside the platform. The viewer can now open the intake capability page or bring one priority workflow to a focused demo.