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- Procurement
- Features
- Requisitions and approvals
Requisitions and approvals
A requisition explains what a department needs, when it is needed and which budget should carry it. Approval records the scope that sourcing may consume. Amounts and approval limits use US dollars. Direct orders and agreement releases have their own authority paths; the request remains traceable when it is the source.
OverviewRequisitions Awaiting My Approval×
Procurement · Requisitions and approvals
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Requisitions Awaiting My Approval
Purchase requisitions
| Req number | Requester | Department | Cost center | Total amount | Priority | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PR-35667 | Ravi Torres | Research and Development | Support center | 18,659.73 | Routine | |
| PR-98039 | Nora Patel | Information Technology | Regional distribution | 20,792.88 | Expedited | |
| PR-93765 | Amina Rahman | Customer Support | Finance operations | 1,248.70 | Emergency | |
| PR-73554 | Jonas Ferreira | Research and Development | Support center | 11,821.04 | Routine | |
| PR-92267 | Nora Patel | Information Technology | Finance operations | 18,579.96 | Expedited |
6 of 6 records
Existing doors no longer sealPurchase requisitions · PR-35667
RoutineRequesterRavi Torres
DepartmentResearch and Development
Cost centerSupport center
Total amount18,659.73
Submitted at16 Oct
What you can do
Raising a requisition
A Requester opens a requisition and adds lines. Each line contains a catalog item or free-text description, category, quantity, unit, estimated price, need-by date, expense GL account and optional project code. The header carries the department and cost centre, defaulted from the requester’s user record, a business justification and a priority: Routine, Expedited or Emergency. Lines can carry a suggested supplier, which the Buyer may or may not follow.
| Field | Why it is required |
|---|---|
| Business justification | The approver reads this before the amount |
| Need by date | Sets the expediting clock and tells the Buyer whether an RFQ is even possible |
| GL account | Carried to the PO line and then to the match, so coding happens once |
| Estimated price | Determines the approval band before a supplier has quoted |
| Cost center | Names the budget owner and scopes the approval rows that apply |
The requisition estimate is what the approval matrix uses. If the sourced price comes in above the configured tolerance of the approved amount, the purchase order routes for its own approval on the actual total. Split orders consume the same approved scope and remaining amount; each cannot independently reuse the full requisition allowance.
The approval matrix
Each matrix row identifies department, cost centre, category, amount band, tier and working-day target. Department head and budget owner resolve through the department and cost centre. Controller and procurement manager use their declared authority. CFO, CEO and Committee require an explicit named user with Approver access. Every represented category contributes its applicable rules, each tested against the full requested maximum including proposed tolerance. Specific and wildcard requirements combine; splitting categories cannot lower the approval band. A required RFQ remains a sourcing condition after approval.
Admin approves versioned matrix changes with effective dates. Each approval step retains the rule used, so a later policy change cannot rewrite the basis of an earlier decision.
Routing
Submission freezes the request revision and routing dimensions. Approval steps retain every applicable rule and assigned decision, sequenced by tier with the configured due date. Changes require withdrawal or rejection, a revised draft and fresh routing. The first-tier approver is notified. Each approval releases the next tier; the final approval moves the requisition to Approved and puts it on the Buyer’s queue. A rejection at any tier moves the requisition to Rejected with the reason and notifies the requester, who returns it to Draft, revises and resubmits.
An approver sees only the steps routed to them and only while they are pending. They see the lines and the justification. They do not see contract prices or other approvers’ queues. An approver who is also the requester cannot decide that request. Unresolved, conflicting or missing assignments hold routing for an authorised replacement; they cannot silently skip a required tier.
Approved authority after conversion
Spend approvals and spend approval lines retain the approved revision, amount, tolerance and line scope. Converting a requisition changes its lifecycle status while preserving that decision. Commitment allocations link the resulting order lines to the authority they consume. A changed category, item or amount requires a new authority check; cancellation releases only the supported unfulfilled portion.
Delegation and escalation
Approval delegations retain the delegator, delegate, effective dates and reason. Decisions record the actual actor and original authority, with conflict checks still enforced.
A step still pending past its due date is marked escalated and the Procurement Manager is notified. Procurement Manager reassigns it to an authorised person in the same tier. Reassignment does not grant authority to decide another role’s tier, and delegation cannot remove a conflict. Requisition Cycle Time shows delay by tier, department and priority, including escalated steps.
Emergency purchases
A requisition with Priority Emergency follows the same matrix and the same tiers. Priority shows on every approver’s inbox and on the Buyer’s queue to support prioritisation, and Requisition Cycle Time reports results by priority. Urgency does not remove required decisions.
What each role sees
- My Open Requisitions for the Requester: everything they have raised that is not closed, with status and submission date.
- Requisitions Awaiting My Approval for the Approver: the requisitions waiting on them, with requester, department, amount, priority and justification.
- Pending My Approval for anyone who approves: every step assigned to them across requisitions, orders and amendments, with its due date and whether it has escalated.
- Approved Requisitions To Convert for the Buyer: the queue to source.
What it keeps track of
Data model- Purchase requisitions
- The requisition header: a department user’s request to buy something. Lifecycle Draft → Submitted → Approved (or Rejected → Draft on revision, or Cancelled) → Converted once the Buyer picks a conversion path.
- Requisition lines
- Per-item lines on a requisition: what the Requester wants, when, and against which budget.
- Approval steps
- One row per approval tier a requisition, purchase order or amendment passes through. The audit trail: which matrix row, which person, on whose behalf, when, and what they said.
- Approval delegations
- Effective-dated, approved delegation of a principal approver to a named eligible delegate. Scope and limit cannot widen the principal authority. Self-approval conflicts, chains, overlapping delegates and expired grants block assignment rather than silently skipping a tier.
- Approval matrix
- Effective-dated approval rules for Department × cost center × Category × full-document USD routing amount × tier. All matching specific and wildcard rows apply; required steps are unioned, not replaced by a narrower match. Routing must cover every distinct line scope and amount, or submission blocks.
- Departments
- The organisational units that raise requisitions and own approval rows. The department head is the person the approval matrix resolves for approver role department head.
- Cost centers
- Budget units within a department. The budget owner is the person the approval matrix resolves for approver role budget owner.
- Users
- Internal user directory for everyone who requests, approves, buys or receives. Department and cost centre default onto a new requisition; approval matrix approver user and every Buyer, Approver, Owner and received by column point here.
- Spend approvals
- Versioned authority request and frozen decision for a complete source revision. Document lifecycle may progress independently. Submitted content and approved decisions cannot be overwritten; invalidation stops future use but does not erase existing commitments. Reused authority and Buyer-limit policy are explicit decision types, never a fabricated new human signature.
- Spend approval lines
- Immutable scope and approved allowance within a spend approvals decision. Separate lines retain routing dimensions and source identities. Parent and line ceilings are both enforced; changing supplier, item, category, quantity, scope or value outside this packet requires a new decision.
- Commitment allocations
- Immutable signed effects of a business event on a PO line and its funding authority. Amount delta measures actual order commitment; authority amount delta separately measures use or release of the linked approval allowance, preventing a new approval packet from duplicating agreement spend. Reversals are compensating Posted rows referencing the original.
Who uses it
Permissions- Requester
- Raises and tracks.
- Approver
- Decides at their tier and records their own delegations.
- Procurement Manager
- Reassigns escalated steps.
- Buyer
- Picks up what is approved.
- Admin
- Owns the matrix.
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