Three Bids and a Buy

1st-level Procurement & Resourcing

Casting Time: 1 action, plus a mandatory waiting period of 2 weeks
Range/Area: Special (any three vendors capable of being contacted)
Components: V, S, M (three request-for-proposal documents, only one of which is sent in good faith)
Duration: Instantaneous
Classes: Procurement Officer, Category Manager

You request formal proposals from three vendors of your choosing for a good or service you have, in practice, already selected. At the conclusion of the waiting period, you select the vendor of your choosing as the winner, regardless of the content, price, or quality of the other two proposals.

This spell satisfies any organizational, legal, or auditory requirement for competitive bidding, provided at least two vendors other than the intended winner were contacted at all, even if neither was seriously considered. A creature attempting to determine, after the fact, whether the process was conducted in good faith must succeed on a Discovery saving throw; your organization has advantage on this save if all three request-for-proposal documents are retained on file (see Document Retention).

At Higher Levels. When cast using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you may request proposals from additional vendors without changing the outcome, further improving the appearance of rigor and granting a further bonus to the Discovery saving throw’s advantage.

Flavor: “just need two more quotes for the paper trail, we’re going with Vendor A no matter what” — internal Slack message