This article will discuss in detail the two different requisition processes (Standard and Stock). It will take you through the process of creating, submitting and approving requisitions, as well as of turning an approved requisition into a Purchase Order.
Understanding the “Standard Requisition” Process
The Standard Requisitioning Process starts when the Requisitioner creates a new Part Requisition and submits it for approval. When that happens, the requisition is sent to the approvers of the selected approval group. Once approved, it will become a pending PO, which can be processed into an actual PO (see detailed process below).
There are 3 steps to complete this process (Usually this process will involve 3 different users):
Requisitioner
- 1 - Requisitioners will start by Clicking on “Requisition Cart” where they can create a new requisition. In this area, they will create a header for the requisition (which will later be the header of the PO), add PO lines (parts to be reordered) and then submit the requisition for approval.
Approver
- 2 - Now the Approver will click on “Requisition Approval” to view those requisitions and will have the option to approve them or not. If approved, the requisition will become a pending PO.
Purchasing Personnel
- 3 - Now, that pending PO can be viewed by an user in your Purchasing department, who will click on “Update Pending POs” to see it and finally turn it into an actual Purchase Order.
1 - Creating Requisitions. If you are a Requisitioner and you need parts to be ordered, follow the steps below:
- A - On the Main Menu screen, click the “Requisition Cart” link under the “Requisitions” section (this will take you to a screen where you will see your existing requisitions that are sitting there waiting to be edited and/or submitted).
- B - Click the “Add New Req” button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen
- C - Click the yellow folder and select a supplier from your contacts list (the contact name and information will be pulled from the contact form into this form).
- D - Select an approval group, then hit “Save New Record” when you are done.
E - Click the yellow folder next to the “Item Field” and select an item from your parts list (Note that when you first click on the folder, you will only see parts that are associated with the supplier you chose. If you want to see your entire parts list, hit the “View Entire Part File” link in the upper right-hand corner of the window).
- F - Enter the quantity you would like to have ordered into the “Qty Ordered” field.
- G - Choose a “Required Date”.
- H - Select an account by clicking the yellow folder next to the “Account #” field (the accounts you see on the list are the accounts you associated with this approval group during the setup process)
- Hit “Save Changes”.
Note - As you may have noticed, when you saved the requisition after step D, you were automatically taken to a form where you were able to add the first requisition item. This happened because a requisition needs to have a header and at least one line item to be considered a Requisition.
After saving the first item, your requisition can be submitted if this is the only part you are requesting to be purchased. In this example, we will add one more item before we submit this requisition for approval:
- I - Hover Over the “Actions” button, then click on “Add New Line”.
- J, K and L - Select another Item, then enter a “Qty Ordered” and choose a “Required Date”.
- M - Click “Save and Return”.
- N - Hit “Return to Req. Cart” to go back to the requisition list where you will find the one you have just created and will be able to submit it for approval.
1.1 - Submitting Requisition for Approval
Now that you are back in the requisition list, follow the steps below to submit it for approval:
- In this list, locate the requisition you have just created and click the “Magnifying Glass” icon next to the Supplier ID.
- Now you will see a detailed view of the requisition (Note that the “Req. No” field still says “Pending Approval” because it hasn’t been submitted yet). On this screen, hit the “Submit for Approval” link at the bottom of the requisition.
Note - As you may have noticed, there are two “printer” icons next to the “Submit for Approval” button. The first one allows you to print the requisition and the second one allows you to print a quotation for it.
- On this next screen, you have the option to submit all items for approval, but we can also choose the ones you want to submit at that time (The items that you do not put a mark into the checkbox will remain in the Requisition Cart until you are ready to submit it). Click the the “Submit Checked Lines for Approval” when you are ready.
- Check the “Asked” checkbox (if not already checked) and then click the “Process Queue” button at the bottom to finalize the submission.
Note - Under the Approver(s) name you will see a link called “More Approvers”. Clicking this link will bring up a list of the users associated with the approval group you chose (in the account settings) as the “Specialty” and the “Emergency” Approver Groups. You can add any approvers from this list as an approver for this requisition.
That is it! Your requisition has been submitted and it’s no longer visible in your cart. It is now sitting in the “Requisition Approval” area, which is available for the approvers that are associated with the approval group you chose:
- Click on the “Process complete! - Click here to continue” link. Then, back on the Requisition Cart, hit the “Return to Main Menu” link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
2 - Approving Requisition. Now, if you are an approver, you will be able to see a list of requisitions that were placed against the approval group(s) you are associated with. Follow the steps below to access that list and learn the approval process:
- First, go back to the Main Menu dropdown, then click on the “Requisition Approval” link under the Requisitions section.
- Locate the requisition you would like to approve, then click the green checkmark icon at the bottom of it (this will approve all lines with one click).
Note - In this example we approved all lines at once. However, you can approve lines separately by clicking the grey checkmark icon next to each “Line No”. You can also make changes to each line (Qty Ordered, Required Date, etc) by clicking the “Line No” that you wish to make changes to before approving it.
That’s it! This requisition has been approved and it’s now a Pending PO waiting to be processed.
3 - Processing Pending Purchase Orders. Now, the user designated as the Purchase processor, will finalize the requisition process by turning the approved requisition into an actual Purchase Order. Follow the steps below:
- Start by going back to the Main Menu dropdown. Once there, click on the “Update Pending POs” link under the “Purchasing Center” section.
- Click the first P.O. icon, next to the Supplier ID.
Note - Remember that clicking the P.O. icon next to the Item list will give you the ability to make changes to Item Quantities and Costs, as well as the ability to choose a different supplier.
- The very last step of the process is to click the “Assign PO No” button.
Note - After that, you will see on the same popup window, what your PO number is.
Understanding the “Stock Requisition” Process
The Stock Requisitioning Process starts when the system pulls in all the parts that are considered to be low on stock (parts that have reached their reorder point). When those parts are pushed through and put into the “Stock Requisition Cart”, then it can be pushed into the next level (requisition approval). Once approved, it will become a pending PO, which can be processed into an actual PO (see detailed process below).
There are 4 steps to complete this process (Usually this process will involve 3 different users):
Requisitioner
- 1 - Requisitioners will start by clicking on “Create Stock Requisitions”, where they will see a list of items that were pushed there automatically by the system when they reached their reorder points. There are no “Process” buttons on this screen. Just clicking the “Create Stock Requisitions” link is enough to automatically push those items to the “Stock Requisition Cart”.
- 2 - Now the Requisitioner returns to the Main Menu dropdown and clicks on the “Stock Requisition Cart” link where items will be grouped by Supplier. The parts that were processed in the previous step will also be there and from this screen they can be submitted for approval.
Approver
- 3 - Now the Approver will click on “Requisition Approval” to view those requisitions and will have the option to approve them or not. If approved, the requisition will become a pending PO.
Purchasing Personnel
- 4 - Now, that pending PO can be viewed by any user in your Purchasing department, who will click on “Update Pending POs” to see it and finally turn it into an actual Purchase Order.
1 - Processing Stock Requisitions. In this case, to create a requisition, the Requisitioner will first need to process the items that are low on stock. Follow the steps below to learn how:
- Start by clicking on the “Create Stock Requisitions” link under the Requisitions section on the Main Menu dropdown. In this area you will see a list of items that were pushed here automatically by the system when they reached their reorder points.
- Clicking this link automatically pushed those items to the “Stock Requisition Cart”.
Note 1 - The Items with the OK status are the ones that you are processing now. If you leave this screen and come back to it again, you will see that the status of those are now changed to CART.
Note 2 - At the bottom of this screen, there’s a section that describes the Status types.
2 - Viewing Stock Requisition and Submitting it for Approval. Now the Requisitioner will need to submit those stock requisitions:
- Back on the Main Menu dropdown, click on the “Stock Requisition Cart” link.
- Now you will see a screen with a list of parts to be reordered grouped by Supplier (this screen works exactly like the “Requisition Cart” screen). Locate, on the list, one of the requisitions that were just pushed here, then click the “Magnifying Glass” icon next to the Supplier ID.
Note 1 - From this point on, the process will be the same as the Standard Requisition process.
Note 2 - On this screen you will also have the option to add, edit or delete lines before submitting them for approval.
- Now that you can see the detailed view of the selected requisition, hit the “Submit for Approval” link at the bottom of the requisition.
- Click the “Submit Checked Lines for Approval” when you are ready.
- Check the “Asked” checkbox (if not already checked), then click the “Process Queue” button at the bottom to finalize the submission.
Your requisition has been submitted! It is now sitting in the “Requisition Approval” area, which is available for the approvers that are associated with the approval group you chose:
- Click on the “Process complete! - Click here to continue” link. Then, back on the Requisition Cart, hit the “Return to Main Menu” link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
3 - Approving Stock Requisition. The approval process is the same as on the Standard requisition process:
- Go back to the Main menu dropdown, then click on the “Requisition Approval” link under the Requisitions section.
- Locate the requisition you submitted in the previous exercise. Then, click the green checkmark icon at the bottom of its line numbers (this will approve all lines with one click).
This requisition has been approved! It is now a Pending PO waiting to be processed.
4 - Processing Pending Purchase Orders. Now, as a Purchase processor, finalize the requisition process by turning the approved requisition into an actual Purchase Order:
- Go back to the Main Menu Dropdown. Then, click on the “Update Pending POs” link under the “Purchasing Center” section.
- Click the first PO icon, next to the Supplier ID.
- To finish the process, click the “Assign PO No” button.
Note - If you want to view this PO, navigate to the “Purchase Orders” tab and look for your new PO number.