Research buyer order workflow

The order steps

1. Step 1: Buyer qualification intake

   What happens: The buyer answers operational questions about who they are and where the materials will go: institutional affiliation, the type of laboratory that will receive and handle them, the general nature of the research protocol, and the lab address for receiving and storing. The seller does not ask about dosing, efficacy or human application.

   What the seller records: The buyer's stated institutional affiliation; The laboratory environment that will receive the materials; A brief research purpose statement, with no dosing details required; The designated lab address for receiving and storage; The date the intake was completed.

   What this step guards against: Selling to a buyer with no research context, and drifting into clinical questions that a laboratory sales intake does not need.

2. Step 2: Documentation check

   What happens: The seller requests institutional or company paperwork and checks it before any purchase is finalized. Academic and institutional buyers send letterhead identifying the researcher, title and department, or a purchase order on institutional letterhead. Corporate laboratory buyers send a purchase order on company letterhead or a completed B2B registration form. The same checklist is used for every buyer.

   What the seller records: Which documents the buyer supplied; That the check was completed; When the check was completed; The checklist version used.

   What this step guards against: Finalizing a purchase on unverified claims, and checking some buyers more closely than others.

3. Step 3: Proceed or decline

   What happens: If the documentation meets the checklist, the order proceeds. If the buyer's stated purpose conflicts with the laboratory only sales policy, the seller declines in plain, factual language, says the order cannot be processed without the required documentation, does not discuss human applications and does not suggest workarounds.

   What the seller records: The decision to proceed or decline; The reason, tied to the unmet verification criteria; Every declined inquiry, in a log; The decline wording that was sent.

   What this step guards against: Processing an order that conflicts with the sales policy, and having no record that the screening process works.

4. Step 4: Invoice with research use only terms

   What happens: The seller prepares the invoice with the elements the guide lists: a research use only statement, the lot number, a statement that the materials are for in vitro or laboratory research only, and a statement that the buyer is responsible for proper handling and storage. A team member who is aware of compliance checks the invoice against the list before it is sent. The invoice carries no use instructions, no claims about biological effect, no references to human use, no performance language, and nothing implying clinical consultation.

   What the seller records: The invoice as sent; The lot number it references; Who reviewed the invoice and when; That the review found none of the excluded content.

   What this step guards against: Invoice text that implies a use other than laboratory research, and a lot that cannot be traced from invoice to batch.

5. Step 5: Shipment with the documentation package

   What happens: Every shipment includes a complete documentation package: a certificate of analysis for the batch, the lot number that matches both the invoice and the certificate, and a buyer acknowledgment of the company's laboratory use terms. Digital copies are available to the buyer through a B2B portal or sent with the shipment confirmation.

   What the seller records: The certificate of analysis sent; The lot number shown on the invoice, certificate and shipment; The buyer's dated acknowledgment of the laboratory use terms; Where the digital copies were delivered.

   What this step guards against: A shipment the buyer cannot document, and a gap between the physical product and its analytical record.

Sample order walked through every step

Fictional example. Not a real order, buyer, laboratory or company.

Order number: SAMPLE-0001. Buyer: Dr. Example Researcher, Example Institute Laboratory (fictional). Lot: LOT-EXAMPLE-01.

1. Step 1, Buyer qualification intake: The fictional buyer, Dr. Example Researcher of Example Institute Laboratory (fictional), answers the intake: affiliation, a receiving laboratory, a one sentence research purpose and a lab receiving address. The seller files the answers under order number SAMPLE-0001.
2. Step 2, Documentation check: The fictional buyer sends a purchase order on letterhead for Example Institute (fictional). The seller runs the standard checklist, ticks every line and writes the date on the order file.
3. Step 3, Proceed or decline: The checklist for the fictional order is complete, so the seller records the decision to proceed. A separate fictional inquiry that gave no institutional documentation received the standard decline wording and was added to the decline log.
4. Step 4, Invoice with research use only terms: The invoice for SAMPLE-0001 carries the research use only statement, a fictional lot number LOT-EXAMPLE-01, the laboratory research statement and the handling statement. The reviewer finds none of the excluded content and signs the review line.
5. Step 5, Shipment with the documentation package: The fictional shipment for SAMPLE-0001 goes out with the certificate for LOT-EXAMPLE-01, the same lot number on the invoice, and the buyer's signed acknowledgment. Digital copies are sent with the shipment confirmation and the order file is closed.

This is why the invoice, the support replies and the order flow should all state the same research role.

Related guides

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• What research use only means