What is the PurveO Flow Engine?
The Flow Engine is the single path every purchase request travels inside PurveO, from the moment it is raised to the moment it posts to your ERP. PICO AI Core sits at the centre and moves each request through eight stages, carrying one record the whole way rather than handing copies between tools.
The eight stages a request passes through
Each stage takes one input and produces one output, so a request is never “somewhere in procurement” — it is always at a named stage with a named owner.
| Stage | What happens | What leaves the stage |
|---|---|---|
| Intake | A request arrives from any channel and PICO captures it as a structured record. | A captured request with its requester, need and context. |
| Qualification | PICO fills the gaps, checks for duplicates, and tests the request against policy. | A complete, policy-checked purchase request. |
| Sourcing | Existing suppliers and agreements are matched first; a sourcing event runs only when none fit. | A chosen supplier and agreed commercial terms. |
| PO | A purchase order is raised against the approved request and the budget it draws on. | An ERP-ready purchase order. |
| GRN / SES | Goods receipt or service entry records what actually arrived. | A receipt line to match the invoice against. |
| Invoice | The supplier invoice is read and its lines are extracted and normalised. | A structured invoice ready for 2/3/4-way matching. |
| Approval | Matched documents move without a touch; exceptions route to the person who owns them. | A decision, with the reason recorded against it. |
| ERP Sync | The validated posting is written to the ERP that stays your system of record. | A posted document and a cited audit trail. |
Which channels feed the Flow Engine?
Six, and they all produce the same structured record. PurveO captures a request wherever the requester already works, so adoption never depends on persuading a team to open a procurement tool they do not otherwise use.
- Microsoft Teams
- Raise a request in the channel where the work is already being discussed.
- Slack
- Same capture, same structured record, no separate procurement tool to open.
- Forward a quote or a supplier thread and PICO reads it into a request.
- Forms
- A guided form for teams that would rather answer questions than write prose.
- Portal
- The full PurveO workspace for procurement and finance owners.
- PICO Chat
- Describe the need in plain language and PICO asks for what is missing.
Questions, answered
What a procurement or finance lead asks before trusting one path end to end.
The Flow Engine is the single path every purchase request travels inside PurveO, from the moment it is raised to the moment it posts to your ERP. PICO AI Core sits at the centre and moves each request through eight stages, carrying one record the whole way.
Microsoft Teams, Slack, email, web forms, the PurveO portal, and PICO Chat. Whichever one a requester picks, the request lands as the same structured record — so nothing is rekeyed and no channel builds up a private queue of its own.
No. A catalogue item against a contracted supplier skips sourcing, and a cleanly matched invoice skips manual approval. The eight stages are the possible path; PICO routes each request through only the ones its own facts call for.
The ERP stays the system of record. The Flow Engine validates the work first, then posts the result — purchase orders, receipts and invoices — into SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics or Tally, with the citation trail attached to each one.