Showing funders how a supplier was chosen

How a non-profit can show a funder why it chose each supplier, including the times it did not take the cheapest quote, using a written buying trail.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Non-profit businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

The programme officer from your funder is visiting, and the e-mail asks for one thing in advance: the procurement file for the laptops bought from the grant. You remember the purchase. You took the second-cheapest quote because the cheapest supplier could not offer repairs in your town. What you cannot find is anything written down that says so.

For a non-profit, how money was spent matters almost as much as what it was spent on. Funders, whether a foundation, a corporate social investment programme or an international donor, want to see that grant money bought what it was meant to buy, at a fair price, from a supplier chosen for good reasons. When the reasons live only in someone's memory, even a sensible decision looks weak.

This article sets out the trail a funder expects and how Achekam records each part of it.

What a funder is looking for

Different funders word their procurement conditions differently, but most are asking the same five questions:

• Was the purchase needed for the funded work?
• Did the organisation compare suppliers fairly?
• Was the price reasonable for what was bought?
• Did the right person approve it?
• Did anyone involved have a personal interest in the supplier?

A good buying trail answers all five without anyone having to explain from memory. The goal is a record that a stranger could read and follow. Although it is written about public purchasing, the OECD's brochure on preventing corruption in public procurement maps where fraud and corruption risks arise across the same cycle, from needs assessment and bid evaluation to invoices and contract execution, and how to prevent them.

Start with the need, in writing

Every purchase should begin with a requisition: a short written request saying what is needed, why, and the estimated cost. In Achekam, staff raise a purchase requisition with exactly those three things, and someone other than the requester approves or declines it.

For grant-funded buying, make the reason specific to the funded work. "Laptops for the youth skills programme, replacing machines that no longer run the training software" tells a funder that the purchase served the grant. "Office equipment" does not.

The approval step matters as much as the request. A programme manager who asks for equipment should not be the person who approves the spending; the director or finance lead should.

Capture every quotation you compared

Once the requisition is approved, collect quotations and capture them against it in Achekam. One quotation is then selected. Suppliers are picked from a single supplier list that checks for duplicates by name or VAT number, which makes it harder for one supplier to appear twice, a small detail that funders' auditors do notice.

Capture all the quotations you received, not only the one you chose. A funder looking at the file should see the full comparison, including the suppliers who lost.

When the cheapest is not the best choice

Many funders do not require the cheapest option; they require value for money and a reason. Achekam makes that reason part of the record: if the selected quotation is not the cheapest, the person selecting it must write why, and the reason is kept with the purchase.

Good reasons are specific and checkable. For example:

• The cheapest supplier offers no repairs or support in the town where the equipment will be used.
• The lower quotation excludes delivery to the project site, and adding it makes the price higher.
• The cheaper product does not meet the specification the funder approved in the budget.
• The selected supplier can deliver before the programme starts, and the cheaper one cannot.

A reason like "we have used them before" is honest but thin. If it is the real reason, add what that experience showed, such as reliable delivery or after-sales service.

Ruling a quotation out

Sometimes a quotation should not be considered at all. In Achekam a quotation can be disqualified with a reason. Use this when a quote arrived after the date you set, quoted a different product from the one specified, or came from a supplier connected to someone involved in the decision. That last case is one funders care about a great deal: a declared conflict of interest, recorded as the reason for disqualifying a quote, shows the organisation acted properly.

Orders approved by someone else

A purchase order in Achekam is raised from the selected quotation of an approved requisition, and the person who raised the order cannot approve it. An approved order can be cancelled, but only with a reason.

So the full trail runs: a need approved by one person, quotations compared with reasons, and an order approved by someone other than its author. No single person can take a purchase from idea to commitment alone.

Building the file for a monitoring visit

Before the visit, gather the supporting papers in one place. Achekam's Document Centre is a folder-based store where you can upload files or whole folders, tag and search them, and keep earlier versions when a new one is added. A folder per grant, holding the suppliers' quotation documents, delivery notes and invoices, sits naturally beside the trail in the app.

A simple file for each grant-funded purchase holds:

1. the approved requisition and its reason;
2. every quotation received, including disqualified ones and why;
3. the reason for the selected supplier, if it was not the cheapest;
4. the approved purchase order;
5. proof of delivery and the supplier's invoice.

Watching for patterns that suggest something is wrong is the next step, covered in spotting warning signs in purchasing. To show the funder how the grant is tracking against its budget, see tracking grant spending against the budget.

Pick the largest purchase made from your current grant and try to build its file from the five items above. Whatever is missing tells you where to start.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.