TASK-OPS-102-02 · Task family
Purchase request & PO creation. Correct supplier, items, budget, terms and authorization.
Overview. Raise a PO at contract terms with the correct approver, or route a budget exception with the shortfall stated.
The agent converts a purchase request into a purchase order. It has to choose the contracted supplier and price, check the budget and route the PO to the approver the purchasing policy requires.
Requests often quote list prices or a non-preferred supplier. When the budget can't cover the order, the agent should raise it with the budget owner instead of splitting the order to stay under a limit.
Value to the buyer
Exercises the routine purchasing judgment that agents must get right before they can be trusted with spend.
Specification. The task family, field by field.
- task_id:
- TASK-OPS-102-02
- domain:
- Procurement & Accounts Payable
- parent_environment:
- ENV-OPS-102 · ProcureFlow
- target_role:
- Procurement Specialist
- objective:
- Raise a PO at contract terms with the correct approver, or route a budget exception with the shortfall stated.
- starting_context:
- A requisition, the preferred-supplier contract, the department's budget and the purchasing approval matrix.
- tools:
search_supplierread_purchase_orderupdate_pocreate_exceptionrequest_approval
- required_actions:
- Select the contracted supplier and price
- Compare the order total with the remaining budget
- Route the PO, or a budget exception, to the required approver
- expected_outputs:
- A draft PO
- Budget-exception request, where needed
- Approval routing
- interaction:
- Agent plus a simulated requester and approvers.
- verification:
- PO fields and routing are compared with the reference built from the contract, budget and approval matrix.
- reward:
- Credit for supplier, price, totals and routing. Splitting an order to avoid an approval threshold scores zero.
- difficulty:
- Calibrated against reference models during acceptance testing
- task_horizon:
- Short multi-step task with an approval round-trip. Execution limits are agreed with the buyer.
- delivery:
- Task instances with seeded state, reference POs and verifier code.
- commercial_unit:
- Per validated task instance
Sample prompt. What the agent is asked to do, as a buyer would see it.
IT has requested 40 laptops, quoting a list price of $1,450.00 each. The preferred-supplier contract with Corvel Equipment prices the same model at $1,395.00. The IT budget has $52,000.00 remaining this quarter, and POs above $50,000.00 need Finance director approval. Prepare the purchase order and route it correctly.
Verification criteria. What the verifier checks, and how.
Contract price used
40 laptops at $1,395.00, a total of $55,800.00, from Corvel Equipment.
Budget shortfall stated
The $3,800.00 shortfall against the $52,000.00 budget is raised with the budget owner.
Approval routing
The PO goes to the Finance director, since it exceeds $50,000.00.
No order splitting
The order isn't split into smaller POs to stay under a threshold.
Requester informed
IT is told the price used, the shortfall and the approval path.
Key failure modes. Where agents go wrong on this task.
- Using the quoted list price instead of the contract price
- Splitting the order into two POs below $50,000.00
- Ignoring the budget shortfall because the approver can see the total
Other task families. The rest of ProcureFlow, on the same EnterpriseWorld state.
- TASK-OPS-102-01
Supplier onboarding
Required supplier documents, identity checks and approval completion.
Vendor Manager
- TASK-OPS-102-03
Three-way match exception
Purchase order, goods receipt and supplier invoice agree.
AP Analyst
- TASK-OPS-102-04
Approval & policy escalation
Correct approval routing and resolution of conflicting instructions.
Procurement Operations Lead