Raise and Approve a Purchase Requisition

A purchase requisition is a request to buy. It is the start of the buying chain: someone in a department names the items and quantities they need, gives an estimated cost, and asks for it to be bought. Nothing is ordered and no money moves at this stage — a requisition is a demand document that, once approved, can become a real purchase order.

Who / when: the procurement officer (or any staff member who holds the requisition permission) raises a requisition whenever a department needs to buy stock — reagents running low, a ward needing consumables, an office needing supplies. A separate procurement manager approves it, so the person asking is not the person who signs off. We will follow Ngozi the procurement officer, who raises the request, and her manager, who approves it.

1. Procurement officer — open Procurement → Requisitions and press “New Requisition”. This is the list of every request to buy, with its status.
2. Procurement officer — set the Priority (how urgent it is) and the Currency the estimate is in. Optionally name a Preferred Supplier (advisory only at this stage — it does not commit you to buy from them) and the Cost Center (the requesting department, so the spend is attributed correctly).
3. Procurement officer — set a Needed By date if there is a deadline, and add a Notes line to justify the request.
4. Procurement officer — under Item Lines, press “Add Item” for each thing to buy. Pick the item from the catalogue with the searchable item picker, set the Qty, and the Est. Unit Cost (your best estimate). The estimated total updates as you go. Press “Create” to save it as a draft.
5. Procurement officer — open the requisition from the list and press “Submit”. What happens next depends on the facility’s approval gate:
   • If the requisition’s total is below the approval threshold (and the gate allows it), it is auto-approved — it moves straight to Approved, ready to convert.
   • If the total is at or above the threshold, it moves to Pending Approval and waits for a manager.
6. Procurement manager — open the Pending Approval requisition from Procurement → Requisitions. Review the lines, then press “Approve” to clear it, or “Reject” and record a reason. An approved requisition can now be turned into a purchase order; a rejected one stops here, with its reason on the record.

Note

The approval gate is a single threshold, not a multi-step chain of sign-offs. An administrator sets it under Procurement → Settings: whether approval is required at all, and the amount at or above which it becomes mandatory (set the threshold to zero to require approval for every requisition). There is one approval step, then the requisition is approved.

Tip

The Preferred Supplier you name here is carried forward as a default when you convert the requisition or award an RFQ — but it is only a suggestion. You choose the real supplier at the point you actually raise the order, so a better quote can still win.

What happens next

An approved requisition is a sanctioned request to buy — but you still have to decide from whom and at what price. You have two paths. If you already know the supplier, convert the requisition straight to a purchase order; see Convert an Approved Requisition Into a Purchase Order. If you want to shop the requirement around first, raise a request for quotation from it and let the best price win; see Run an RFQ and Award the Winner. Either way, the next document — the purchase order — is still only a commitment; the ledger does not move until the goods are received.

Follow the trail

• Next: Run an RFQ and Award the Winner · Convert an Approved Requisition Into a Purchase Order
• Related: Auto-Reorder Stock When It Runs Low · Three-Way Match and Post a Purchase Invoice