Awarding the Business
Awarding is where the comparison turns into orders. You pick a winner line by line — a basket can split across several suppliers — and each winning vendor gets its own draft purchase order.
Awarding is a separate permission from managing a request. Whoever keys the quotes in does not automatically get to choose who gets the business. If you cannot see the award controls, that is why.
Steps
- Open the request and go to the Comparison tab.
- Pick the winner on each line using the radio button in the cell. You can give different lines to different vendors.
- Click Review N winners. A panel slides in from the right, grouping your winners by vendor.
- Check each group. For each line you can change the quantity to award — it defaults to what the request asked for.
- If any winner is not the cheapest quote on its line, the panel says so and asks you to write why this vendor. That reason is required, and it is stored with the request alongside the losing quotes.
- Optional ticks:
- Accept below the vendor's minimum order quantity — only offered when a quantity actually breaches a minimum. Off by default: a silent breach becomes a refused delivery, not a cheap order.
- Remember these rates — on by default. The next purchase order for the same vendor and item will price itself from the rate you just agreed instead of a stale number.
- Read Committing at the bottom — the total you are about to commit, and how many draft purchase orders this will create.
- Click Award and create N purchase orders.
What happens next
- Each winning vendor gets one draft purchase order. They are drafts: nothing is ordered until each one is submitted, approved and sent. See Tracking a Purchase Order's Status.
- The request becomes Awarded, and an Award Decision card appears on it showing who won what, at what price, and a link to each purchase order.
- The losing quotes are marked Lost and kept. They are the record of who else was asked and what they said — the first thing anyone will want six months later.
- Nothing is posted to your accounts. That still happens when the goods arrive and you confirm the receipt.
When an award is refused
- Already awarded — a request can only be awarded once, so a second attempt cannot mint a second set of orders. Reload the page to see the decision already recorded.
- Below the minimum order quantity — raise the quantity, or tick "Accept below minimum".
- An expired quote — the price no longer stands. Ask that vendor to re-quote.
- No reason given — one of your winners is not the cheapest and the reason is blank.
- Two winners on one line — only one vendor can win a given line.
Closing without a winner
If nothing is worth ordering, click Close without awarding on the request. No supplier wins and no purchase order is created; everything asked and answered stays on file, and vendors who never replied are recorded as having not responded.