1. What Does This Page Cover?
Learn about requests and understand the crucial role they play in initiating and guiding the acquisition of required goods or services.
2. Overview
In the procurement process, requests play a pivotal role in initiating the acquisition of goods, services, or works. Requests are formalized documents submitted by internal stakeholders to communicate their needs and requirements to the procurement department. Properly understanding and managing requests is essential for a streamlined and effective procurement process.
3. Requests for Procurement by Zoho Creator
Requests mark the starting point of the procurement cycle. They are typically initiated by internal stakeholders, such as department heads, project managers, or end-users, who identify a need for specific goods or services.
Types of Requests:
Purchase Requests (PR): Used for standard procurement needs. These requests detail the items or services required, quantities, and specifications.
Request for Quotation (RFQ): Used for simpler, well-defined procurement needs. It involves requesting quotes from vendors for specific goods or services.
Based on the stakeholders who raises them, Requests in Procurement can be of three types:
1. Employee Requests
2. Manager Requests
3. Finance Requests
Employee Requests:
These requests in the Procurement app allow employees to submit and track various procurement-related requests efficiently. This module streamlines the submission process for PRs initiated exclusively by employees, facilitating smoother communication between employees and the procurement team.
Take a look at our Employee Requests for detailed information about the employee requests.
Manager Requests :
These requests in the Procurement app allow managers to initiate, review, and approve procurement requests efficiently. This paves the way to streamline the procurement process, allowing managers to oversee and approve requests in a centralized manner.
Take a look at our Manager Requests doc for detailed information about manager requests.
Finance Requests:
These requests in the Procurement app allow the finance team to initiate, review, and approve procurement requests efficiently. This helps the team not only to approve requests but also enables them to raise requests to the procurement team when there is a need of procurement for their own or team for specific goods or services.
Note that the requests raised by finance team will be auto-approved.
Take a look at our Finance Requests doc for detailed information about finance requests.
3.1 Use Cases
1. Standard Purchase (Purchase Request - PR):
Scenario: A department needs to restock office supplies, including pens, paper, and printer ink.
Use Case: The department head initiates a Purchase Request (PR), specifying the quantities and details of the items needed. This request goes through an approval process before procurement proceeds.
2. Specific Goods or Services (Request for Quotation - RFQ):
Scenario: A company needs to purchase a specific quantity of laptops for its employees.
Use Case: The procurement team issues a Request for Quotation (RFQ) to multiple vendors, asking for quotes on the specified laptops. Vendors provide their pricing, and the organization selects the vendor offering the best value.
Employee Requests
Manager Requests
Finance Requests