What is procurement planning for?

A procurement plan says, before buying starts, "for this project we expect to buy these items, roughly this much, needed by these dates, by this method". Once the plan is approved, you raise requests and RFQs straight from its lines, and Bilaro shows the plan next to what has been requested, ordered, and received.

A plan stores intentions only. It does not change any budget and it does not stop anyone raising a request that is not on the plan. Requests are never forced into a plan, and the usual budget checks and approvals on each request work exactly as before.

If you don't see Procurement plans in the sidebar, your company doesn't have this module, or your role cannot see plans; ask your Admin or Bilaro support.

Who can use procurement planning

  • Creating plans, adding and editing lines, submitting, and raising requests: Admin, Global Admin, Manager, Finance, and Director roles.
  • Reading plans, reports, and the CSV export: the same roles.
  • Approving a plan: Managers, Directors, Admins, and Global Admins for a plan below your company's Director approval threshold; Directors, Admins, and Global Admins for a plan above it. The person who submitted a plan cannot approve it. If your company has no Manager at all, a Director can decide either level.
  • Requesters and Receivers: do not see plans, because planned values are budget-sensitive.
  • Group users: can read the approved plans of the companies in their group, and cannot change anything (see "What group users see").

How to create a plan

  1. Open Procurement plans from the sidebar.
  2. Click New plan.
  3. In Plan title, enter a clear name, for example Cheras tower: structure package.
  4. In Plan for, choose A project (one plan per project) or A period (company-wide).
  5. For a project plan, choose the Project. The plan period follows the project dates unless you set them. For a period plan, enter Period start and Period end.
  6. Click Create plan. The plan opens as a draft with revision 1.

Note: A project can have only one plan. To change it later, you revise it (see "How to revise an approved plan"). A company can have as many period plans as it needs.

How to add lines

  1. Open the plan and click Add line.
  2. Enter the Item description, the Unit, the Quantity, and the Unit estimate (RM). Bilaro works out the Line value for you. For a lump sum, tick Lump sum (no quantity) and enter the Value (RM) instead.
  3. Enter Required by, the date the item is needed on site. Optionally enter Lead time (days) and tick Long-lead item if the item takes a long time to arrive.
  4. Choose the Buying method: Direct purchase, RFQ, Tender (outside Bilaro), or Group RFQ.
  5. Optionally choose a Buyer, Cost code, Department, and Category, and add Notes.
  6. Click Save line.

You can also fill a draft quickly:

  • Add from BQ (projects with the Bill of Quantities module): tick the BQ items to plan. The quantity offered is what is left after orders and the lines already on the plan, and you can change it.
  • Add from reorder list (companies with the Inventory module): offers stock items that are below their minimum level, with the same quantity as the draft request button in Inventory.

Both only add lines to the draft. You can edit or remove them like any other line.

How to submit a plan for approval

  1. Open the draft plan and click Submit for approval.
  2. Bilaro records the plan total at that moment as the value approved, and picks the approval level: Manager below your company's Director approval threshold, Director above it.
  3. While the revision waits, its lines are locked. The approver can Approve it or Reject it with a reason. A rejected revision goes back to draft with the reason shown at the top, so you can fix it and submit again.

Tip: Plans are approved in a single step. Group approval rules are not applied to plans, because a plan does not commit any money.

How to revise an approved plan

An approved plan is never edited in place, so the approved version stays as evidence.

  1. Open the approved plan and click Revise plan.
  2. Enter the Reason for the revision and click Start revision. A copy of the approved lines opens as a new draft.
  3. Edit the draft and submit it for approval as before.

Until the new revision is approved, the old one stays in force and you can keep raising requests from it. When the new revision is approved, the old one is marked Replaced and kept as history. Open the History tab to see every revision with its reason, approval level, who submitted and decided it, and a link to view its lines.

How to raise a request from a plan line

  1. Open an approved plan. Lines can be raised only from the revision in force.
  2. Click Raise request on the line.
  3. Leave Quantity to raise blank to raise what is still unraised on the line, or enter a smaller quantity for a partial order.
  4. Click Create draft request.

Bilaro creates a draft request with one item from the line, linked back to the plan. Nothing is submitted: open the draft, check the vendor (it says "To be confirmed" unless you chose one) and the price, and submit it yourself. Editing the draft does not break the link. Any budget warnings are shown for your information; the real budget check still happens when the request is submitted and approved.

On the request page, a line such as From plan PP-2026-1, line 4 shows where it was planned.

How to start an RFQ from a plan line

For a line whose Buying method is RFQ (companies with the Sourcing module):

  1. Open the approved plan and click Start RFQ on the line.
  2. Enter Quotes due by, the RFQ deadline. Optionally enter a whole Quantity; leave it empty for what is still unraised.
  3. Click Start RFQ. Bilaro creates a draft RFQ with the item, quantity, unit, and your unit estimate as the benchmark price.
  4. Click Open RFQ, invite suppliers, and send it from the RFQ page as usual.

The line shows the RFQ number until it is awarded. When you award the RFQ, the draft request it creates is linked to the plan line automatically, so the plan against actual picks it up.

Note: An RFQ item needs a whole quantity, so a lump-sum line or a line with a fractional quantity cannot start an RFQ. Raise a request from it instead.

How to read plan against actual

Open an approved plan and click the Plan vs actual tab. Bilaro reads the requests raised from the plan; nothing is copied.

  • Planned: the quantity and value on the line.
  • Draft: raised requests that have not been submitted yet.
  • Pending: requests that have been submitted or approved but have no purchase order yet.
  • Committed: requests with a purchase order issued, payment pending, or paid.
  • Received: the quantity accepted on confirmed goods receipts, valued at the order price.
  • Stock issued: for lines tied to a stock item (Inventory module), what has been issued from stock for the project since the plan was first approved.
  • Remaining: planned minus committed and pending.

Amounts are before SST. Below the lines, Not in plan shows pending and committed spend on the same project that no line links to, and Removed from plan shows lines a later revision deleted that still have requests.

Reports, calendar, and export

  • Reports (button on the plans list): Required soon lists lines needed within 30, 60, or 90 days that are not fully raised yet, long-lead items first, with an Overdue mark when the order-by date has passed and nothing is committed. Status summary shows plans by status and how much of the approved plans has been raised and committed. Both can be downloaded as CSV.
  • Export CSV on a plan downloads its lines, with the actual columns once the plan is approved.
  • Calendar: each approved line that still has something to raise appears on its Plan: required by date. Plan dates do not appear on the dashboard's Coming up card, which shows committed and scheduled payments only.

What group users see

Group users with access to the group see Procurement plans in the group menu. It shows only the approved revision of each company's plans, read only:

  • Overview: per company and per plan, the plan total, what is committed and pending, and the next required-by date.
  • Consolidation candidates: plan lines of the same item and unit across two or more companies, with the total quantity, the earliest required-by date, and for each company whether a request has been raised and whether it is already in a group RFQ. Lines with a lump sum or a fractional quantity are marked Not poolable, because a group RFQ pools whole quantities only.

Companies in a different currency from the group, with an inactive subscription, or without the module are listed as not included. To pool requests, use Group sourcing; the plan view only helps you find what to pool.

Frequently asked questions

Does the plan limit what people can request? No. A request does not need a plan line, and plan values are never added to the budget check. Spend that is not on the plan shows under Not in plan.

Can I change an approved plan? Only through a revision with a reason. The approved version is kept.

Why can I not approve my own plan? The person who submitted a plan cannot approve it. Another Manager or Director must decide it.

Why does Raise request say the revision is not in force? A request can be raised only from an approved revision. If a later revision has replaced the one you are viewing, open the revision in force.

Need more help? Email support@bilaro.my.