I work for a state government office and we want to test Airtable for some internal projects. The problem is I need to get a proper invoice before we can make any purchase.
Our finance department requires an official invoice that shows the yearly cost and includes our tax exempt status. I already uploaded all our tax forms and talked to someone from their sales team. But it has been almost a month now and still no invoice.
This is really frustrating because we might need many user accounts if the trial works out well. But this whole process makes me think maybe we should look at other options instead.
Has anyone here dealt with Airtable sales for government purchases? Any tips on how to get them to actually help with the paperwork we need?
Skip sales and go straight to their accounts receivable department. I dealt with the same Airtable procurement mess at our federal agency last year. Sales reps don’t get government billing - AR handles invoices daily and actually knows what they’re doing. Call the main number, ask for billing or accounts receivable. Tell them you need a proforma invoice with tax exemption for procurement approval. Have your tax exempt certificate number ready and ask for annual billing terms. Pro tip: mention competitor quotes when talking pricing. We got a better deal after showing them Salesforce’s offer. Took three weeks once we found the right people, but we wasted a whole month going through sales first. These folks handle government contracts all the time - just gotta reach them.
Had the same issue with Airtable six months ago for our municipal department. Skip their regular support - go straight through their partner program contact form instead. I told them we were comparing them to Smartsheet and Monday.com for a multi-year deal. The trick was being super specific about what docs we needed upfront. I sent our standard vendor requirements document that lists exactly what procurement needs - tax exempt forms, annual billing, payment terms, all of it. Saved weeks of back and forth. Also helped to mention we needed invoices matching our fiscal year cycle. Government budgets work differently and they got it once I explained that. Honestly though, if they can’t handle basic government procurement smoothly, think about how they’ll handle support issues later. We went with someone else partly because of these red flags.
Been through this exact headache with enterprise software at my company. Government procurement is different and some vendors just don’t get it.
Escalate past the regular sales rep. Ask for their enterprise or public sector team lead. Most big SaaS companies have dedicated government sales people who actually understand compliance requirements.
Mention the deal size upfront. When I said we needed 200+ licenses, suddenly everyone got responsive. Don’t be shy about numbers if your pilot works out.
If they keep stalling, start looking at alternatives now. Microsoft has solid government support, Google Workspace too. Sometimes threatening to walk away gets things moving.
Document everything. Save emails and note who you talked to and when. Your finance team will thank you.
This video breaks down government procurement pretty well. Might help you understand what paperwork your finance team needs and communicate better with Airtable.
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