The Purchase Requests tab Create | Request Items | Attachments | Purchase Request The Purchase Requests tab is where your users will go to request the supplies that they need. Each purchase request consists of request items. Each individual product that a user requests in the quantity required is stored as a request item within a purchase request. Once a user has completed a purchase request, it is sent through a submission and approval process. Once a purchase request has been approved, request items within each request will be available for purchase orders (POs). When you create a purchase order, the request items associated with the vendor are transferred to the PO as purchase items. (Note: request items that are not associated with a vendor or that allow vendor substitution can be transferred as purchase items and assigned to any vendor when creating a PO.) Note that if you modify a purchase item, the request item from which it was originally copied is not modified. Please note that purchase requests can contain request items of all kinds, from different vendors. A PO is vendor-specific. Therefore, you may have request items from different purchase requests becoming purchase items on the same PO (and request items from the same purchase request ending up as purchase items on different POs). To create a purchase request: 1. Click on the "Purchase requests" tab. 2. Select "Purchase request" from the "Create..." drop-down list box. 3. Select the client and project to which this purchase request is associated. This is a required field, so for regular purchases, you may want to create a client with your company name, and create a project with a name such as "Internal," and associate your purchase requests with this client:project combination. 4. If you have enabled multi-currency functionality, select the base currency in which you want the purchase request to be recorded. 5. Enter the date of the request (the default is the current date), and if you need the products by a certain date, enter the required date as well. 6. Enter a description, if needed. 7. Enter any notes, if desired. 8. Click on the "Create purchase request" button. Once the purchase request has been created, you will be taken to the "New request item" dialog box, from where you can begin to add request items to your purchase request. To modify or delete a purchase request 1. Click on the "Purchase requests" tab. 2. Click on the number of the purchase request you want to modify or delete. 3. Click on the "Edit" link. 4. Make your changes and click "Save." To delete the purchase request, click on the "Delete" button. You will be warned that any associated request items will be deleted as well. Click "OK" to delete the purchase request and its associated request items. Note: You cannot modify or delete an approved purchase request. REQUEST ITEMS Request items are basically line item details in purchase requests. Each request item is a unique product, with a unique combination of quantity, price, and/or vendor. For example, if you request 5 units of Product A and 6 units of Product B, you would have two different request items within the same purchase request. Line item details (purchase items) in POs will be created from these request items when you create a PO. To create a request item: 1. Click on the "Purchase requests" tab. 2. Click on the number of the purchase request to which you want to add a request item. 3. Select "Request item" from the Create menu to open the "New request item" dialog box. 4. Enter a reference number. 5. Select the product you are requesting from the drop-down list box and enter the description if the correct description does not automatically appear. 6. Choose a manufacturer from the dropdown menu and enter the part number, if any. 7. Select the vendor from the dropdown menu, indicate whether or not to allow substitution. If this box is checked, the request item will be available to users when they create POs for any vendor. If you do not select a vendor, a vendor can be assigned at the PO creation phase as well. 8. Modify the vendor SKU if necessary and enter the vendor quote number, if desired. The quote number will be moved to the purchase item. It can later be configured on the purchase request and/or purchase order. 9. Adjust any of the information as necessary. Specify the needed quantity of the product. If you have enabled multi-currency functionality, select the base currency in which you want the new request item to be recorded. 10. Add any notes, if desired. 11. Click on "Save" or "Save & create another request item." To modify a request item: 1. Click on the "Purchase requests" tab. 2. Click on the number of the purchase request. 3. Click on the "Request items" link. 4. Click on the name of the request item in the list. 5. Make your changes in the "Edit - [name of request item]" dialog box. 6. Click on "Save." To delete a request item: 1. Click on the "Purchase requests" tab. 2. Click on the number of the purchase request. 3. Click on the "Request items" link. 4. Click on the name of the request item in the list. 5. In the "Edit - [name of request item]" dialog box, click on the "Delete" button. Note: You can add custom fields to your purchase request and request item dialog boxes by going to the My Account > Company > Custom Fields tab, and selecting one of the types of custom fields available from the "Create..." drop-down menu. ATTACHMENTS You can attach documents to both purchase requests and individual request items by clicking on the "View/Add Attachments" link at the bottom of the "Edit purchase request" dialog box and the "Edit - [name of request item]" dialog box respectively. Note: You must first create and save a the purchase request or request item before this link will appear. To add an attachment, click on the "Create new attachment" link in the upper left corner of the attachments window that will pop up. Enter the file pathway in the "New attachment : purchase request/request item" dialog box, and click on "Save." The file name is saved and can be accessed by clicking on the "Download" link, or the file pathway can be edited by clicking on the "Replace" link, or the attachment can be deleted by clicking on the "Delete" link. You can attach as many documents as you need to your purchase requests and request items; when finished, click on the "Close" button to return to the main "Edit purchase request" or "Edit - [name of request item]" dialog box. Note that any attachments you add to request items will be copied over to their associated purchase items when POs are created ONLY IF you have enabled the setting in My Account > Company > Settings > Purchases to "Duplicate request item attachments to their respective purchase items when creating POs". With this feature enabled, if a document is attached to a purchase request item, and the request item is added to a purchase order, the attachment will be duplicated to the purchase order, without the need for further action on the part of the user creating the PO. Since the attachment is duplicated, twice the amount of storage is used. PURCHASE REQUEST Once you have created all your request items and edited them to your liking, you are ready to view your complete purchase request. Click on the "Purchase Requests" tab, select the purchase request from the list, and then click on the "View" link. If you do not like the layout of the purchase request, you can go to the Options > Purchase Request Layout tab to change the settings for the layout, if you have been given access to this tab. To see how the purchase request will look online, click on the "HTML version" link. Printing Purchase Requests To see a printable PDF (portable document format) version for an individual purchase request, click on the "PDF version" link to generate a PDF file, which you can then view and print. You can simultaneously create multiple pdf format purchase requests as follows: 1. From within the Purchase requests tab and appropriate sub-tab, click the "Customize" link at the bottom of the screen. 2. Select "Run an action" by highlighting it and clicking the green arrow to add it to your "Selected Items," then click "OK." 3. Check boxes will appear at the left of the screen. Check the boxes for the purchase requests you want to create and click the icon with circular arrows at the top of the column of boxes. 4. Click "OK" from the popup screen.