Purchase request: Definition, Examples, Steps and Tips

What is a purchase request?

Definition of a purchase request

The purchase request is the first step in the corporate purchasing process. In the form of an internal document or online form, it enables an employee to officially request the supply of a good or service through a dynamic circuit of actors.

This request can take the form of an exchange, a paper form, an email or an online form tool. It generally includes :

• Information about the applicant (name, department, project).
• Description of the desired good or service (quantity, specifications).
• The provisional budget (or cost center to be allocated).
• The reasons or justification for this need.
• Complete with supporting documents if necessary.

Please note: The purchase request is not yet the formal act vis-à-vis the supplier. It is primarily a tool for internal communication and validation.

Difference between purchase request and purchase order

A classic confusion consists in mixing the purchase request (internal stage) with the purchase order ( official and external stage transmitted to the supplier).

• Purchase request: internal, designed to inform, justify and validate. This is the starting point.
• Purchase order: contractual document intended for the supplier, committing the purchasing company to payment, delivery date, etc.

	Purchase request	Order form
Objective	Enable an employee or department to officially request a purchase, justify the need, and forward the request to line management or purchasing.	Issue a contractual document that commits the supplier and buyer to a good or service, a price, a delivery date, etc.
Legal status	Internal document, no contractual value vis-à-vis a third party.	Official document, binding the company to the supplier.
Target audience	Internal departments (operator, manager, purchasing manager).	Supplier (external to the company).
When to create it?	Upstream, as soon as the need is identified, before any formal discussion with a supplier.	After the purchase request has been validated, when the purchase conditions and budget have been approved.
Final manager	The requesting or initiating department, validated by the hierarchy, and sometimes management or the purchasing department.	The purchasing or sales department, depending on the company’s structure.
Evolution	If validated, triggers the process to the purchase order.	Places a firm order with the supplier and initiates the purchasing process.

The benefits of good request and purchase order management

Steps in a digital request and purchase order process

To illustrate, let’s imagine a process built using the Lapala platform. As a reminder, Lapala can be used to create guided experiences for teams and automate non-value-added tasks.

Step 1 – The applicant identifies his or her needs and fills out a form online form

• It indicates product designation, quantity and estimated budget.
• He may enter the preferred supplier if he has one (or leave blank if not determined).
• Add a justification.

Step 2 – Manager approval based on various criteria (deadline, budget, stakes, etc.)

• The manager receives an automatic notification.
• He can consult the application and make comments.
• In the event of refusal, the application is returned to the applicant for revision or cancellation.
• If agreement is reached, the process moves forward.

Step 3 – If the amount exceeds an internally defined amount, validation by a manager

If the demand is below this limit, the process continues with purchase order step 6.

If it is higher, Lapala automatically triggers an additional circuit leading to a call for tenders, which begins with a manager validating the launch of the call according to various criteria.

Step 4 – Submitting the requirement to several suppliers

In this phase, the buyer or purchasing department contacts several suppliers, who may or may not respond to your call for tenders. Each supplier will be able to propose an offer and a quotation, which can then be integrated into the digitalized circuit.

Step 5 – Selecting the most suitable supplier according to criteria

This phase enables us to enter into negotiations and contracts with the service provider. This is when pricing conditions and delivery times are defined.

Step 6 – Consolidate and send purchase order

• Once validated, the purchase requisition becomes a purchase order, or at least automatically generates a draft purchase order.
• Data (prices, quantities, item codes) are automatically pushed into the ERP system.
• A standard email can be sent to the supplier to confirm the order and attach the purchase order.

Step 7 – Follow-up, payment and archiving

• The manager, purchasing department and requestor can track progress (order sent, awaiting delivery, etc.).
• The finance department can receive the invoice and proceed with payment according to the payment terms.
• The request is archived in the platform, together with its unique number and the purchase order reference.

Result: the employee no longer has to manage multiple Excel files or incessant emailing: everything is centralized, automated and transparent for teams.

Best practices and tips for managing purchase requisitions and purchase orders

1. Digitalize and automate purchase request

What do we mean by digitalizing and automating?

Digitalizing means moving from a manual process (with paper, Word, Excel, scattered emails, scanned PDFs…) to a centralized tool or platform. Lapala, for example, offers a guided path for teams to create a purchase requisition form with specific fields, an automated validation circuit, connectors to ERP or CRM, and so on.

Automations can also be used to automatically pre-fill in information, efficiently assign a task to an employee, and automatically notify suppliers….

The immediate benefits of digitalization

A new generation of software like Lapala 100% customizable and easy to learn

2. Define circuit and approval conditions

Once the application has been completed, to whom does it go? Who needs to approve it to move forward?

You can create circuits based on multiple allocation criteria such as purchase amount, type of purchase, urgency of purchase…

Examples of possible circuits:

• Simple case: Amount < $5,000. Validation by department manager only.
• Intermediate: between $5,000 and $15,000. Validation by manager + purchasing department.
• Complex case: Amount > $15 000 . Validation by manager, BU director and general management.

All this can be automated via rules set up in the Lapala software…

3. Set up monitoring and traceability systems

Thanks to the platforms, all relevant data is stored and presented for better use by managers. They can then :

• Track progress of purchase request and purchase orders
• One-click history retrieval if a dispute arises.
• Monitor budgets consumed.
• Measure process performance (processing times, refusal rates, etc.).

4. Raising employee awareness

Even with the best platform in the world, if teams don’t understand the point or the rules of the game, they’ll bypass the procedure. So you need to :

• Explain the role of the purchase requisition (securing purchases, avoiding unpleasant surprises).
• Show how the tool or form works (a short video, a simple guide).
• Emphasize the importance of justification (budget, urgency, etc.).

And thanks to intuitive software like Lapala, there’s no need for costly, time-consuming training.

5. Regular audits and adjustments

Like any process, the requisitioning process needs to be re-evaluated periodically. Teams may encounter new constraints:

• Market trends (more expensive suppliers, longer lead times).
• Organizational transformation (new departments, new managers).
• Need to shorten the supply cycle to be more competitive.

By occasionally asking users for their opinions and analyzing the data. You’ll simply discover areas for improvement. And thanks to no-code software, you can effortlessly modify your purchase request and purchase order management processes.

6. Define performance indicators

To measure the efficiency of your request process, you can track, for example :

• Average validation time: How long does it take from request creation to final validation?
• Refusal rate: Indicates if there is a problem with the relevance of requests.
• Budget variance: Final negotiated amount vs. initial budget.
• Volume of requests per service: Can highlight over-consumption.

Case study: how to set up Lapala in an SME that is completely dematerializing its purchase request

An industrial SME with 50 employees. Previously, each salesperson or stock manager sent an e-mail to the purchasing department for each new order. Delays were frequent, and some purchases were validated “a posteriori”.

• Problem: the management realized that there was a big mess in the tracking of inventory, budget and payments.
• Selected solution: Use Lapala’s purchasing management solution.
• Set up:
  • Contact with Lapala
  • Quick and easy 1-day setup of Lapala and invitation of 50 employees according to specific roles and rights
  • 30-minute flash training session for teams, including a user video
  • Continuous and ad hoc improvement along the way
• Results:
  1. Drop in processing time: from an average of 4 days to less than 2 days to validate or refuse a request.
  2. Better collaboration and less friction between the purchasing department and operational staff, who have a single tool at their disposal.
  3. 30% time saving for teams in preparing purchase requisitions and purchase orders
  4. Quick search at any time
  5. No more scattered Excel spreadsheets thanks to data centralization.

Conclusion: Purchase request

The purchase request, often underestimated, plays an important role in a company’s supply management and cost control. Far from being a mere formality, requisitioning is the key to structuring and ensuring the reliability of the chain from internal need to actual delivery of goods or services.

• From an organizational point of view, it clarifies who asks for what, why and with what budget.
• From a financial point of view, it prevents abuse, secures negotiations with suppliers and contributes to the company’s economic health.
• From a collaborative point of view, it ensures greater fluidity between internal departments, providing traceability and transparency at every stage.

Today, thanks to digitalization tools such as those offered by Lapala, it is possible to go a step further and transform these purchase request into a fully automated process:

• Customized forms and workflows,
• Conditional approval rules,
• Automatic reminders,
• Automatic system updates (ERP, accounting, inventory, etc.),
• Real-time reporting and performance indicators.

Finally, the challenge is not just technical or digital: it’s also cultural. To make purchasing requests an asset, we need to communicate its benefits, train our teams to use it, and ensure that our corporate values (compliance, collaboration, respect for budgets) are shared by all. This is the way to create an agile organization, capable of facing market challenges with serenity and efficiency.