Raise and approve a purchase request

A purchase request is how a team member asks for goods before anything is ordered. Small requests can be approved as they are raised; larger ones need one or two approvals by different people.

Before you start

• Procurement must be on: see Set up Procurement.
• Raising needs Raise purchase requests; approving needs Approve purchase requests and invoice differences; making the orders needs Inventory, receiving, stock-take.

Steps: raise a request

1. Open Procurement and go to New purchase request.
2. Scan or type each product in Product or barcode and its Qty. Pick a Supplier (optional) per line and add a Note if you want.
3. Type the Reason and the Needed by date.
4. Select Send the request. Each line is priced at the supplier's latest price list, else the product's cost.

The request says whether it was Approved as it was raised, Needs one approval, or Needs two approvals by two different people, and warns when it passes a monthly budget.

Steps: approve or reject

1. Open Procurement → Approvals. It lists the requests you may approve now, oldest first.
2. Open a request to see its lines, budgets and earlier decisions.
3. Type a note if you want, then select Approve, or type a note and select Reject. A rejection needs a note.

Steps: make the purchase orders

1. Open the approved request.
2. Under Make the purchase orders, choose One order to one supplier and pick the Supplier, or Split by the supplier of each line.
3. Set the Expected date if it differs from Needed by.
4. Select Make the orders. The orders open as ordinary purchase orders.

To compare prices first, use Ask suppliers for quotes instead: see Ask suppliers for quotes.

Good to know

• A request moves from pending to approved, rejected or withdrawn; approved requests then go to quotes or orders.
• The requester, or a manager, can Withdraw the request while it waits.
• A manager who did not raise the request may reject it at any step.
• Requests waiting longer than your alert hours raise an owner alert, and the daily summary has a line for what waits.
• The Procurement page shows Waiting for my approval, Approved, not ordered yet and Orders late at the top.
• Receiving the order: see Receive goods and match the invoice.