07 · Common workflows

The chapters before this one document the platform screen by screen. This chapter is the other way in: start from what you are trying to get done, and follow the steps across whatever screens it touches. Twenty workflows cover the jobs teams run most, and each one links back to the reference sections for detail.

Benchmark a proposal end to end

Get an analyst benchmark on a vendor quote or contract, from upload to a report you can forward.

Steps

1. Open Proposals and choose Upload a proposal.
2. Pick the vendor and contract type, add your question (for example "is this renewal uplift fair?"), and drag in the PDF or DOCX.
3. Submit for review. The proposal moves along the path Uploaded, In review, Benchmarked, Delivered. You are emailed when the report is ready.
4. While you wait, run an instant benchmark or an AI redline scan on the same document for an immediate read.
5. When it lands, open Delivered reports: walk the metrics table, the percentile bars, and the analyst summary, then download the PDF or Word version.

See also: Proposals · Delivered reports

Get an instant price read, no upload

When you need a number in minutes rather than a full analyst report.

Steps

1. For a quick self-serve check, open Instant benchmarks, pick the vendor tool, answer a few questions about your deal, and read where it lands against the peer cohort.
2. To judge a specific document instead, drop it into the Verdict Bar: it classifies the file, routes it to the matching engine, and returns a verdict with red flags in about a minute.
3. To understand what a contract actually says, run Contract decode: plain-English risks, ten asks with paste-ready language, and a market benchmark.

See also: Instant benchmarks · Verdict Bar · Contract decode

Track agreements and never miss a notice window

Set an agreement up once and let the platform watch the deadline for you.

Steps

1. Open Agreements and choose Add agreement.
2. Select the vendor, set the expiry date, and choose a 30, 60, or 90 day notice period. Add the annual value so it feeds your spend and portfolio analytics.
3. Upload up to five files per vendor for safe keeping.
4. Open Renewals to see every agreement sorted by expiry, the next deadline on top. When an agreement enters its notice window, your team is emailed automatically.

See also: Agreements · Renewals · Vendor calendar

Plan and run a renewal negotiation

Turn an upcoming expiry into a worked deal with a plan, a mandate, and a record of what was agreed.

Steps

1. From Renewals, open the renewal you want to work.
2. Build the plan in the Renewal playbook: the step-by-step negotiation plan, the model, and the exec report. Turn on the agent if you want it to prep and remind.
3. Set your leverage with the Clause library (your preferred positions) and attach the Fair Renewal Rider so every renewal carries your standard protections.
4. Open a tracked Negotiation: set the mandate (target, walk-away, approvals), paste vendor emails for tactic analysis, and log every give and get in the concession ledger.
5. Capture what the vendor promised under Commitments so it makes it into the contract. Run a post-mortem when the deal closes.

See also: Renewal playbook · Negotiations · Opportunities

Prove and share your savings

Turn a claimed saving into one proven against real invoices, then a shareable badge.

Steps

1. Open Savings proof: each negotiated saving is reconciled against the invoices that followed, so a claim becomes proven or disproven.
2. Once a saving is invoice-verified, go to Verified wins and mint a public, revocable badge, and watch your Deal Score against the calibrated corridors.
3. Owners can list the organization on the opt-in board under whatever name you choose.

See also: Savings proof · Verified wins · Invoices

Prepare for a vendor meeting

Walk into the call with the numbers already in hand.

Steps

1. For a single deal, drop the contract into Vera Deal-Room: one upload assembles the benchmark, the decoded asks, an analyst brief, the strategy playbook, live vendor intel, and the credible alternative priced.
2. To have it done for you automatically, connect your calendar so Meeting war room preps a pack before each vendor meeting.
3. Check the Vendor calendar to time your ask against the vendor's fiscal quarter end, when discounts run deepest.

See also: Vera Deal-Room · Meeting war room

Set up your workspace (owners)

The one-time setup an org owner does so the whole team gets value. These steps need owner access.

Steps

1. Invite your team under Members and set each person's role.
2. Connect your systems under Integrations: SAM and ITAM sources, storage, Slack, and Teams.
3. Turn on Single sign on (SAML or OIDC) and review Data controls for retention and export.
4. Set Branding so exported reports carry your identity, and tune Notifications and alert rules.
5. Load the sample portfolio from the dashboard to explore, then remove it before entering real data.

See also: Settings & account · Getting started

Respond to a vendor audit letter

An audit letter rewards a considered first move and punishes a fast one. Slow the clock down and answer from your contracts, not from memory.

Steps

1. The day the letter lands, drop it into the Audit letter decoder: who is actually auditing you, the deadline as a business-day countdown, what is demanded versus merely implied, and the three things not to do first.
2. Do not reply to the auditor yet, and do not run any vendor-supplied measurement tool until the plan says so.
3. Follow the decoder into the pre-filled defense playbook, and open the audit-defense analyses from the proposal record's right rail if the vendor's paper is on file.
4. Check your position on Data health: the audit exposure estimate tells you how defensible your entitlement picture is before you engage.
5. If the exposure is large, bring in a vetted specialist from the Expert Bench or book Advisory.

See also: Audit letter decoder · Expert Bench

Dispute an invoice that does not match your contract

Turn a suspicion of overbilling into a documented, dollars-first dispute.

Steps

1. Get the invoice in: upload it on Invoices, or set up the forward-in address so invoices process automatically.
2. Read the line verdicts: price above contract, billed over entitlement, off-contract item, or uplift-cap breach, each with the dollars at stake.
3. Cross-check Billing watch: if the vendor moved its price list, the corrective draft is already attached to the finding.
4. Send the correction, then watch the following invoices: a correction only counts once later invoices confirm it, and the confirmed saving lands on Savings proof.

See also: Invoices · Billing watch

Hand your renewal calendar to Vera

Let the AI run covered renewals under mandates you approve, with fees only on invoice-verified savings.

Steps

1. Read the offer on Managed renewals: Vera discloses itself as an AI, you approve the moments that matter, and claimed figures never bill.
2. An org owner activates the program, signs the fee agreement, and sets the standing mandate defaults.
3. Approve each deal's mandate before anything reaches a vendor; the standing defaults never skip this step.
4. Clear the command queue as Vera works: every interruption is typed (a mandate, a formal offer, a parked decision) and opens the deal it waits on.
5. Track the net position on the pairing meter, savings banked against fees paid, with every figure traced to a vendor invoice.

See also: Managed renewals · Savings proof

Run diligence for an acquisition

Deal-grade contract review with the sensitive documents locked down.

Steps

1. Create a restricted Vault project and grant only the deal team access; documents in a restricted project stay hidden from everyone else.
2. Add the target's contracts to the project, in bulk if needed.
3. Run Diligence scoped to that project: every contract is read for change of control, assignment, exclusivity, termination, liability, and data terms.
4. Work the risk register from the highest severity down; each finding cites the clause it rests on.
5. Read the analyst report for what needs consent or renegotiation before the deal, and what is clean.

See also: Vault · Diligence

Team up with other buyers on a renewal

When several buyers renew the same vendor in the same window, one term sheet beats four separate negotiations.

Steps

1. Check the matchmaking strip on Buying blocs: it shows where your renewal calendar lines up with other buyers of the same vendor.
2. Open an invitation to read the bloc's shape: buyers, combined ACV, window, and term sheet version. You stay anonymous until mutual opt-in.
3. Join the bloc to enter its room, and negotiate on the shared Fair Renewal Rider term sheet.
4. For a private one-to-one instead, use Buyer intros to talk to another buyer who runs the same vendor.

See also: Buying blocs · Fair Renewal Rider

Choose between competing quotes

Two or three quotes for the same need, one defensible decision.

Steps

1. Drop the quotes into Quote Face-Off: equivalent SKUs are aligned line by line, every line is benchmarked, and the best mix across all papers is priced as the Franken-quote.
2. Read the analyst memo: which quote to take, which terms to pull from the losers, and the counter to send.
3. For one quick quote on its own, Snap a quote gives the line-by-line check and the counter in about a minute.
4. Running a formal process? Work it as a Sourcing project through to the award decision.

See also: Quote Face-Off · Sourcing

Set your clause standard and sweep the estate

Decide once what your organization signs, then measure every contract against it.

Steps

1. Build your positions in the Clause library: the preferred language, the fallback, and the walk-away for each clause that matters, and mark the non-negotiables as must-have.
2. Run Coverage to sweep the must-have template across every contract: Present, Deviates, Missing, or Unclear per cell.
3. Chase the red Missing cells first: agreements without a protection you require.
4. Ask bespoke questions across the estate with Review tables: one question per column, a quote-backed answer per document.
5. From now on, every AI review argues for your standard instead of a generic one, inserting your pre-approved language wherever a contract deviates.

See also: Clause library · Coverage

Connect your data and close the gaps

The platform gets sharper with every source you connect. This is the highest-leverage hour an owner spends.

Steps

1. Open Data health: the completeness score, and every gap ranked by the feature filling it unlocks.
2. Connect the systems that know what you own under Integrations: SAM and ITAM sources, procurement, contract intake, and the invoice forward-in address.
3. Add annual values to your Agreements so Portfolio, Spend, and the Estate map fill in.
4. Index your documents on Document search, then harvest your paid-for rights into the Rights register.
5. Come back to Data health and work the next gap; the plan reranks as you close them.

See also: Data health · Integrations

Take a purchase request from intake to award

One front door for new spend, so nothing is bought twice.

Steps

1. Raise the request on Requests, or let teammates email requests straight in through the intake address an owner set up.
2. Read the AI triage verdict: net-new, a renewal of something you own, a duplicate of existing capability, or over the approval threshold.
3. Route it onward: a Sourcing project for net-new spend, a renewal for something you own, or an approval.
4. In sourcing, run requirements, suppliers, and bids side by side through to the award decision.

See also: Requests · Sourcing

Build the board pack

The quarterly leadership story, told from your live data instead of a hand-built deck.

Steps

1. Start from Portfolio for the spend and concentration picture.
2. Export the Estate map as a slide: every vendor sized by spend and colored by market position.
3. Generate the annual Strategy document: category strategies, vendor posture, and the year's negotiation calendar.
4. Add the proof: the savings ledger from Savings proof exports as CSV for finance.
5. For the monthly cadence in between, the Monthly briefing is the five minute spoken version.

See also: Estate map · Strategy

Watch a vendor's market moves

Know what a vendor did to its pricing before they tell you at renewal.

Steps

1. Follow the vendor on Terms watch and turn on the price-change digest; every published price-list change arrives diffed and priced at your seat counts.
2. Subscribe to the Monday Weekly report so licensing, audit, and M&A news on your vendors leads your copy.
3. Before a renewal, read the vendor's full history in the archives, its grade on Vendor scorecards, and the latest Research on it.
4. Check Billing watch to see whether your invoices already reflect a move.

See also: Terms watch · Weekly report

Right-size licenses before a renewal or true-up

Walk into the true-up with the surplus already found, instead of paying for shelfware another year.

Steps

1. Run the optimizer that matches the estate: M365 optimization for Microsoft seats, Cloud cost optimizer for hyperscaler spend, VCF licensing for VMware cores, or the Claude and OpenAI optimizers for AI commitments.
2. Review the inactive and oversized assignments the tool surfaces, and the per-user reassignment plan where the tool builds one.
3. Fold the findings into the renewal: the matching vendor playbook turns them into the negotiation case.
4. For the budget-wide view across every vendor, run Spend optimization.

See also: Spend optimization · Vendor playbooks

Get unstuck

Every help surface, in the order to try them.

Steps

1. The round help button at the bottom right explains the current screen and answers questions about it in place.
2. Press Ctrl/⌘ J to open Vera over whatever you are looking at; ask about a price, a clause, or how the platform works.
3. Check Troubleshooting for the symptom-first fixes, and Plans, allowances & limits if a feature looks locked.
4. Message our team from Chat: the "Vera AI team" thread reaches our analysts directly.
5. For deal help rather than product help, book Advisory or engage the Expert Bench.

See also: Troubleshooting · Chat

Next: Chapter 08 · Glossary & FAQ