Purchase Request - Purpose and Introduction

Purchase Requests serve as a record in documenting the organization’s approval process of a purchase proposal prior to the issuance of a purchase order. This is also intended to authenticate the procurement team of an organization to issue Purchase Order to the vendors. For eg, When a requirement arises in an organization, it normally reaches the Admin/Technician as a Service Request who will then send the Service Request for the approval process to the management of the organization. On occassion of the unavailability of the purchase items, which can be assets, services, or other items, the Admin/Technician will create a Purchase Order for the vendor. With the new Purchase Request feature the Admin/Technician will be able to create a Purchase Requests based on the Service Requests they receive and also attach various quotes for the requested items. It also enables the Admin/Technician to associate the Service Requests to a Purchase Request. Once the Purchase Requests are approved, Purchase Orders can also be created from them.

Purchase Workflow - an overview

• The general overview of the Purchase Workflow can be seen by clicking on  icon. 
• Requests can be created, submitted for approval, rejected, approved, closed from this Workflow by clicking on the respective icons.
   

 Quick Links: 

• Accessing and Using the feature
• Creating Purchase Requests from Service Requests
• Associating Service Requests to Purchase Requests
• Creating Purchase Order from Purchase Request
• Using the filters and other options in the Purchase Request page.
• Purchase Request Notification settings

Accessing and Using the feature

This feature can be accessed from the Purchase module of the ServiceDesk Plus.

• Log in to the ServiceDesk Plus application.
• Click on the Purchase tab.
• Click on New Purchase Request if it's the first time or click on the icon on the left pane of the Purchase Request list view. This will take you to the Purchase Request details page.
• Enter the Purchase Request details such as the "Subject", "Suggested Vendor", "Requested Date", "Due Date", "Site", "Priority", "Cost Center", "Shipping Address" etc.
• If you want to add more fields, click on "Add more fields".
• Enter the Item Name, Description and the Estimated Cost details.
  

Note

Approval Process

Purchase Request approvers and approval levels can be set for the Purchase Request to make sure the Purchase Requests are approved by the management.

To configure the Approval Details,

• Click on the Enable Approval Process check box.
• Select approvers by clicking on the  icon.
• You can add more approval levels by clicking on the icon.
• Click on Save.
• The created Purchase Requests will be listed in the Purchase Request list view.
• Click on the Purchase module to view the list.
• Current status info of the requests can be seen by hovering over the request in the Purchase Request list view.

Attaching the quotes

Different quotes for the requested assets can be attached to a Purchase Request by using the Attachment option.

To attach quotes,

• Click on the Attach Files option in the attachments section.
• Select the file and click Open.

Creating and Associating Purchase Requests from Service Requests

You can create a purchase request for any item (asset, service, or other category item) from within a service request raised for the item.

Go to Requests and select a service request.

• In the Request details page, hovering over Associate Purchare Requests on the right pane you can select New to create new Purchase Request or select Search to associate an existing Purchase Request.  
   

  Selecting New opens a New Purchase Request form as discussed previously. Selecting Search opens a dialog box listing Purchase Requests. You can select one or more Purchase Request(s) and click Associcate.

                                                             

Associating Service Requests to Purchase Requests

When multiple service requests are raised for the same items (asset, service, or other category item) from a vendor, you can associate all the service requests to a single purchase request.

• Go to Purchase.
• Select a purchase request and click Sevice Requests.
• Click Associate Service Requests. If you have similar service requests (items' vendors will be checked first, followed by the items themselves), they will be listed.
• Select the service request(s) you want to associate and click Associate Service Requests.

Creating Purchase Order from Purchase Request

You can create a purchase order for your purchase request from within the purchase request details page.

• Click Purchase tab.
• Click a purchase request from the list view.
   

• Click Create PO.
• On the displayed window, map the purchase request items to corresponding categories and sub-categories (only for asset and service) and click Save and create PO.

• Fill out the details such as PO name, vendor details, and shippping and billing addresses in the purchase order form.
• You can edit all fields except Price and Quantity fields.
• To enable the PO approval process, select PO Approver's List checkbox. Then, clcik  icon, select the approvers, and click Add.
• Use icon to add more approval levels.
• Add attachments, if any and click Save Purchase Order.

Using the filters and other options in the Purchase Request page.

Purchase Request page comes with various utility tools such as quick action menus, request status snippet, filters, sort field options etc.

                                 

Using the Header menus.

• Actions menu lets you to approve a PR, cancel a PR,  mail a PR, close a PR and print preview a PR provided you have the permission for it.
• Use the Edit option to edit or update a PR.
• Use the Submit for Approval option to submit the PR for approval.

Using the filters and sort field option.

• You can select the suitable filter such as "All Requests", "Approved Requests" etc  to be displayed in the PR list view page.

Sorting the requests.

• Select the field to be used in the sorting order of the requests.

• Use the  icon to sort the order of the requests i.e ascending or descending.

Switching over to the Purchase Order page.

• Use the  icon to swictch to the Purchase Order Page.

Request Status snippet.

• The current status of the request will be displayed in the snippet. Hover over the request to view the status of the snippet.
   

Creating a Purchase Order for similar Purchase Requests

• If there are similar Purchase Requests to create a P.O it can be found by clicking on 
• The similar Purchase Requests can also be searched by using the filter option provided.
• Select Purchase Requests and click on Create PO.

Purchase Request Notification settings.

You can configure the notifications to be sent to the technicians, approvers, requesters at various stages of the Purchase Request process by clicking on the Purchase Request Notifications settings icon  on the top-right corner.

Customizing the E- Mail notification content

The content in the notification mail can be customized. To customize content of the email,

• Go to Admin>>Helpdesk Customizer>>Notification Rules.
• Click Purchase tab and then click on Customize template for the Notification you want to customize.
• Add subject and message body and then click Save.