Government operations
Purchasing & Procurement
Every purchase up the chain of command, every signature on the record.
Move a requisition through your real Texas-county chain of command — clerk, administrator, internal affairs, purchasing agent, auditor, Commissioners Court, treasurer — with the gates you turn on and the dollar thresholds you set. Separation of duties is enforced by the system, not the honor system, and every approval lands in an audit trail with a timestamp.
The challenge
A purchase order is supposed to follow a chain of command, but on paper it rides desk to desk in an envelope, the auditor's independence is a polite fiction, and nobody can prove who approved what or in what order. When the state auditor asks how a $40,000 purchase was approved — and whether the person who requested it also signed off on it — the answer shouldn't be a shrug.
In practice
A $40,000 grader, approved the right way
A precinct road foreman drafts a requisition for a used motor grader and submits it from his phone. The system assigns it a REQ number and routes it up his actual chain: his precinct's approving authority signs off that afternoon, and because the amount crosses the internal-affairs threshold the entity set, it stops for the chief of staff's review before going further. The purchasing agent sets the procurement method — competitive bid, because it's over the bid threshold — and the county auditor certifies the funds. The auditor is the one person the system will not let touch creation, approval, or issuance, so the independence is real.
Because it cleared the bid threshold, it waits for Commissioners Court, where the action is recorded against the meeting. Only then does the agent issue the PO — and the system blocks the issuance because the vendor's insurance had lapsed in the registry, until the vendor is made active again. When the grader arrives it's received, the auditor audits the claim, and the treasurer disburses. At year-end, the foreman, the auditor, and the court each see exactly the steps they touched, every one stamped and bilingual.
What it does
- 01
Your real chain of command
Requisitions route up the actual hierarchy — precinct approver, internal affairs, purchasing agent, auditor, court, treasurer — resolved from your org chart.
- 02
Gates you turn on, thresholds you set
Switch internal-affairs, purchasing-agent, auditor, and court gates on or off, and set the dollar thresholds that trigger each — the workflow skips the gates that don't apply.
- 03
Separation of duties, enforced
The person who requests a purchase can't approve or issue it, and the auditor who certifies funds is locked out of creating, approving, or issuing — by the system, not by trust.
- 04
Procurement methods that fit Texas rules
Small purchase, quote, competitive bid, sole source, or cooperative — the agent picks the method, and the quote and bid thresholds steer what's required.
- 05
Vendor registry with guardrails
A vendor list with tax ID, insurance expirations, and status — and issuance is blocked when a vendor is debarred or its insurance has lapsed.
- 06
Tri-channel notifications
Whoever's signature is needed next gets the notice by email, text, and push, in their language — so a PO never dies waiting on a desk.
- 07
Full audit trail, bilingual
Every action — drafted, approved, certified, issued, received, paid — is an append-only event with a timestamp and a note in English and Spanish.
How it works
Configure your gates
Turn on the approval gates your entity uses and set the dollar thresholds that trigger internal affairs, competitive bidding, and court approval.
Staff draft requisitions
A requisition is submitted with its amount and justification, and the system routes it up the chain to the first signature it needs.
Approvals climb the chain
Each role acts in turn — with separation of duties enforced — and the next approver is notified automatically across channels.
Issue, receive, audit, pay
The PO issues against an active vendor, goods are received, the auditor audits the claim, and the treasurer disburses — every step on the record.
English and Spanish
Bilingual by design
Purchasing is a staff module, so the bilingual experience belongs to your own people: approval notices and the actions recorded on each order arrive in English or Spanish, in the language each employee set on their account. The chain of command reads the same in either language.
Premium AI add-on
CiVQ AI: flag the split purchase, draft the justification
CiVQ AI watches for purchases that look split to dodge the bid threshold — the same vendor and department adding up across the fiscal year — and flags them before issuance. It also drafts the requisition's justification from a plain description, in English or Spanish, for the requester to refine and sign.
Who it's for
Get started
See CiVQ in your language.
Book a 30-minute walkthrough with our team in Rio Grande City. We'll tailor it to your city, county, or district.
Bilingual support included at every tier.