Procurement: approved designs become orders
The design is approved. The product is chosen. The quantity, price, vendor, and specs are already in the project.
So why would you start over just because it's time to order?
In Materio, Procurement picks up where Design left off. Approved items become orders, real costs flow back into the budget, shipments stay tied to what you bought, and the people on site can get the information they need without another round of copying, exporting, and forwarding.
The decision was already made. Now Materio helps it move.
Auto-drafted Purchase Orders
Approval should be a handoff, not homework.
When an item is approved, Materio can draft the purchase order with the information you already worked so hard to get right.
What it does
When you or your client approves an item, Materio creates an autodrafted purchase order with the item details already in place.
Review it. Make any changes you need. Accept it into your ordering workflow or decline it if you're not ready to move forward.
The important part is what you don't have to do: open a blank PO and type the product, quantity, vendor, pricing, and project information all over again.
Why it's different
You already decided what to buy.
You shouldn't have to re-enter the decision just to act on it.
In a disconnected workflow, approval ends one process and starts another. Someone takes what the client approved, finds the product information again, opens the purchasing system, builds the PO, checks the numbers, and hopes nothing changed in between.
Materio keeps the thread intact.
The item your client approved is the same item that becomes the order. No translating one version of the project into another.
Where it fits
This is where the yes from Design starts doing real work.
Approval moves an item into Procurement with its information attached, giving your team a clean starting point for review and ordering.
The design decision becomes an operational next step.
Send & Track Orders
Ordering gets messy when the truth lives in inboxes.
Send clean purchase orders to vendors, keep the paperwork with the order, and give your team one place to see what still needs attention.
What it does
Send a purchase order from Materio and your vendor receives the order details, a PDF, and any instructions your team needs to include.
From there, keep the order moving through a clear workflow:
Autodrafted → Draft → Ready to Order → Sent → Needs Review → Confirmed → Fully Paid
When a vendor invoice comes back, review it against the order before moving it forward.
Buying from an online store instead? Record that too. Upload the receipt, match what you purchased back to the right scope items, and keep the payment with the rest of the project record.
And when you need the bigger picture, see purchase orders across all of your projects in one place.
Why it's different
"Ordered" isn't one moment.
There's ready to order. Sent. Waiting on confirmation. Invoice received. Something doesn't match. Paid.
When those states live across email, spreadsheets, folders, and someone's memory, procurement becomes a scavenger hunt.
Materio gives the order a home and a history.
Your team can see where it stands without asking who emailed the vendor, digging through an inbox for the invoice, or wondering whether someone already paid it.
Where it fits
This is the day-to-day command center for purchasing.
Design gets the item approved. The PO gets it ordered. Your team keeps it moving from "we're buying this" to "this is handled."
Purchase orders, bills, and payments sync to QuickBooks Online through the Financials layer, so the books keep up on their own.
And because the order is still tied to the project item underneath it, Procurement doesn't become another separate system your team has to reconcile later.
Shipment Tracking
Ordered is not delivered.
Keep lead times, tracking, and delivery information with the item itself so your team knows what's actually happening after the PO goes out.
What it does
Track lead times, tracking numbers, ship dates, and delivery status against the items you've ordered.
As shipping information becomes real, update it from the purchase order and keep the item's status current.
That information can carry into the project timeline too, so the schedule can respond to what's actually happening instead of what everyone hoped would happen when the order was placed.
Why it's different
The PO is only the beginning.
A sofa slips three weeks. Tile ships early. A fixture is backordered. One box arrives and four don't.
That's the information the rest of the project actually needs.
When shipping lives in vendor emails and tracking tabs, someone has to translate every change back into the project.
Materio keeps the shipment connected to the item, so the people managing the work can see the same reality as the people managing the order.
Where it fits
Shipment tracking is the bridge between Procurement and the work happening next.
Your purchasing team needs to know whether something shipped. Your project team needs to know whether it'll be there when they need it.
Those shouldn't be two separate conversations.
When delivery changes, the project should know.
Budget vs. Actual
This is where the budget meets reality.
The estimate got you started. The purchase order tells you what the project is actually costing.
What it does
When an order is placed, its real cost comes back to the item it belongs to, right beside the estimate you started with.
Now you can see what you expected to spend and what you're actually spending without rebuilding the comparison in another spreadsheet.
When purchasing costs change, those updates can also inform client pricing where your workflow calls for it, with the results rolling into the broader financial picture of the project.
Why it's different
A budget built before purchasing is a plan.
A budget connected to purchasing can tell you whether the plan is holding.
The $4,000 lighting allowance from Planning doesn't disappear once the fixtures are selected. And the $3,742 you actually spend shouldn't live exclusively on a PO that nobody compares back to the original number.
Materio keeps both sides tied to the same project items.
Estimate here. Actual there. Same work underneath.
That means less time reconciling what you thought would happen with what actually happened.
Where it fits
Budgeting starts in Planning. Procurement makes it real.
As orders are placed, actual costs fill in the other side of the picture, giving your team and the Financials layer a clearer view of how the project is performing.
The budget doesn't get left behind when purchasing begins.
It grows up with the project.
Material & Finish Schedule QR handoff: Team & Team Plus
A good handoff shouldn't require a tour of your inbox.
Turn the live project scope into a material and finish schedule your contractor and trades can actually use, with the details they need tied back to the project they came from.
What it does
Generate a material and finish schedule from the scope you've been building all along.
Bring the relevant project items together with their specifications, vendors, locations, and delivery information so the people executing the work have a clear record of what goes where.
For teams using QR handoff, add QR codes that let someone on site scan through to current item information instead of hunting for the latest PDF or calling the designer.
Why it's different
The handoff is usually where all that beautifully organized project information gets flattened into a document.
Then the document gets emailed.
Then something changes.
Then no one knows whether the file on their phone is still the right one.
Your trades shouldn't need detective skills to install what you specified.
Materio keeps the schedule connected back to the project. The handoff gives people the information they need, while QR access gives them a path back to the current details when they need more context.
The schedule is the handoff. The project is still the source of truth.
Where it fits
This is where all the work upstream reaches the people who have to execute it.
Planning defined the item. Design selected it. Procurement ordered and tracked it. Now the builder, installer, or trade needs to know exactly what it is and where it belongs.
They shouldn't need a forwarded email chain to find out.
The same information that got the project this far can carry it onto the job site. The install side of the story continues in Install & Closeout.