Help centre Procurement

Who can do what in procurement

Updated 07 Sep 2026

If the system stops you doing something, this page probably explains why.
It is not a fault, and asking an administrator will not unlock it.

The rule

No one person controls a purchase from start to finish. Each step is done
by somebody who did not do the step before.

What you cannot do

You cannot approve your own plan. The person who prepared a
procurement plan cannot be the person who approves it.

You cannot decide on a supplier file you prepared. Whoever gathered the
checks is not whoever decides whether the supplier is eligible.

You cannot receive goods against an order you raised. One person
raising an order to a friendly supplier and then confirming the goods
arrived is how money leaves without anything coming back.

You cannot accept what you received. Receiving is writing down what
turned up. Accepting is deciding it meets the contract. Two people.

You cannot approve a bank change you proposed.

You cannot review a challenge against your own decision.

You cannot settle a query about a fact you recorded.

Why it is enforced rather than expected

Nobody sets out to break this. What happens is that it is a Friday, the
delivery is in reception, and the only person in the office is the one who
placed the order.

A rule that bends under pressure is not a rule. So the system holds it and
you find a second person, which takes ten minutes.

It compares people, not logins

Having a second account does not make you a second person. The check is on
who you are, not which login you used.

If you are genuinely stuck

Ask your procurement lead. There is a proper way to record most of these
situations, and none of them involves one person doing both halves.

Still stuck?

Sign in to the client portal to open a ticket.

Client sign in