Approved Materials is where you track and manage your supplier qualification process. Each approved material record links one of your products to a specific supplier's product, and tracks its journey from initial evaluation through to full approval.
What is an approved material?
An approved material record represents a single supplier source for one of your raw materials. It connects three things:
Your product - The raw material you need
The supplier - The company you're sourcing from
The supplier's product - Their specific product that matches your needs
For example: "Citric Acid from Supplier ABC (their product: Citric Acid Anhydrous Fine Grade)"
Supplier's product
The supplier's product record stores detailed information about what the supplier actually sells. This includes:
Manufacturer - Who makes the product (may differ from the supplier)
Grade - Product grade or specification
Certifications - Organic, Kosher, Halal, etc.
Documents - Product-level documents like TDS or general specifications
This information stays with the supplier's product, so if you approve the same product for multiple raw materials, you don't need to enter it twice.
Approval statuses
Each approved material has a status that tracks where it is in your qualification process:
Status | What it means |
R&D Not Started | New material, not yet reviewed |
R&D In Progress | Currently being evaluated by your team |
Approved | Passed all checks, ready to purchase from this supplier |
Rejected | Did not meet requirements |
Documents
Each approved material can have documents attached - SDSs, COAs, TDSs, certifications, and more. Documents show their status (Valid, Expired, Missing) so you can see compliance at a glance.
You can upload documents directly, or request them from the supplier. When documents are emailed back, AI automatically ingests them.
Activity history
Every action on an approved material is logged with timestamps:
Status changes
Documents uploaded
Notes and @mentions
Requests sent to suppliers
This gives you a complete audit trail of who did what and when.
Collaboration
Use @mentions in notes to notify colleagues about an approval. They'll receive an email with your message. This is useful for:
Procurement flagging new materials for QA review
QA asking questions about a supplier's product
Anyone keeping the team updated on progress
The Approved Materials list
The Approved Materials page shows all your approval records in one place. Use the tabs to switch between:
Approved - Materials ready to purchase
Pending - Materials still in progress
Use the search bar to filter by product name, supplier, or supplier's product.