The flow, step by step

These eight steps are the big picture in more detail. Each page answers the same questions:

• Who acts at this step, and what starts it.
• What it produces and which statuses you will see.
• How the step ends, normally and otherwise.
• What can go wrong, and where that leads.

Step	Who acts	Ends when
1 · Request and sourcing	Buyer	Every line has a supplier (or goes out for quotes)
2 · Approval	Approvers in the buyer's company	Approved, sent back, or rejected
3 · Purchase orders and confirmation	Supplier	Confirmed, partly confirmed, or rejected
4 · Payment	Buyer, then supplier	Paid, or set to pay on delivery
5 · Delivery and pickup	Supplier	Delivered, or collected by the buyer
6 · Goods receipt and sign-off	Buyer, on site	Signed off, with any problems split out
7 · Corrections, disputes and returns	Both sides, then platform staff	Applied, rejected, or resolved by mediation
8 · Commission and settlement	Platform finance, then supplier	Commission invoice paid

Homeowners skip step 2: they approve their own orders by issuing them.