How I Built a Full Procurement System from 6 Excel Files in 2 Hours

The author describes building a complete procurement management system in two hours using the JianDaoYun low-code platform, starting from six scattered Excel files. The goal was to connect the entire procurement lifecycle — request, approval, ordering, warehousing, and payment — into a single closed loop.

Organizing Six Core Tables

The first step was to structure six interrelated tables instead of simply moving spreadsheets online:

Purchase Request Table — unified entry point for all procurement needs.

Supplier Information Table and Material Category Table — provide master data for dropdown selection, preventing duplicate supplier names and inconsistent categorization.

Purchase Order Table — receives approved requests and tracks order status (pending, ordered, partially received, completed, exception).

Warehouse Acceptance Table — records actual received quantities, acceptance results, exceptions, and timestamps, linked to the corresponding order.

Payment Tracking Table — monitors payment status, amounts, dates, and invoice status, linked to orders but not replacing the financial accounting system.

Key design decisions included using numeric fields for quantities and unit prices with formula-driven total amounts, dropdowns for categories, and department fields for later aggregation. The author emphasizes that getting the data structure right is the foundation for later automation and analytics.

Configuring Approval Workflows

Approval routing was set up in JianDaoYun with conditional branches based on amount and category:

Low-value purchases: department head approval only.

Higher amounts: add finance budget confirmation.

Above a defined threshold: require general manager approval.

Equipment purchases: can include admin/asset manager confirmation.

Three critical details were addressed:

Clear responsibility — assign roles rather than named individuals to avoid disruption from staff changes.

Return rules — require a reason when rejecting, so the requester knows what to fix.

Audit trail — every approval action (who, when, result, reason) is stored with the request.

This replaces informal chat approvals with a traceable, structured process.

Linking Orders and Tracking Progress

The purchase order table was linked to the request table via a relational field, eliminating manual entry of request IDs. Opening an order shows the original request for easy verification. Supplier selection uses the master supplier table to avoid duplicate entries. Order statuses provide real-time visibility for requesters, purchasers, and managers. Overdue alerts were configured by combining expected delivery dates with status fields to prompt timely supplier follow-up.

Building Dashboards and Role-Based Permissions

After linking acceptance and payment tables, the author configured data permissions per role:

Requesters see only their own requests and approval results.

Department heads view and approve their department's requests.

Purchasers handle approved requests and manage orders.

Warehouse staff record receipts and acceptance.

Finance views payment and invoice information.

Managers see aggregated procurement metrics.

A management dashboard was created on the JianDaoYun workspace, consolidating key indicators: number of pending requests, overdue orders, departmental spend, supplier spend, etc. This eliminates the monthly manual merging of six Excel files.

Testing and Real-World Validation

The system was tested with real procurement scenarios, including edge cases such as returns, partial deliveries, and acceptance exceptions. The author highlights three tangible outcomes:

Reduced repetition and higher efficiency — standardized fields and attached files at entry; linked forms auto-aggregate data, cutting manual consolidation.

Process transparency and clear accountability — every step has a record; stakeholders collaborate around the same data, not for surveillance but for coordination.

Early detection and faster response — overdue alerts, exception logs, and supplier spend summaries surface issues before month-end, enabling root-cause analysis and corrective action.

The concluding insight: procurement digitalization is not about replacing Excel with online forms, but about connecting fragmented steps into a closed loop. Only then can an organization reduce redundant communication, catch anomalies early, and make decisions based on real data — building a mechanism that survives personnel changes.