NetSuite Requisitions

If you need your employees to be able to request items for your company to purchase, you need to use the Requisitions feature. Let’s take a quick look at NetSuite Requisitions and see how to set up and use this feature in your account.

A requisition in NetSuite provides a way for employees to request purchases. Some of the information a requisition would track includes the item being requested, when the employee needs it, and the expected amount the item will cost. A requisition is less formal than a purchase request, so including the vendor and the exact item price are optional. In addition, you can include multiple line items on a requisition. A requisition is a somewhat informal request, so even though a buyer can create purchase orders using the requisition, the POs will not be linked directly to the requisition. This means that multiple POs may be created from a single requisition.

To set up your account for requisitions, first you will need to enable both the Purchase Orders feature and the Requisitions feature. You can find both of these features on the Basic Features section of the Transactions tab in Enable Features. You will also need to give employees access to the Employee Center role, since employees will need to log into the Employee Center in order to create requisitions.

There are also several requisitions preferences that you can set up in Accounting Preferences (Setup > Accounting > Accounting Preferences). One of these preferences is requiring approvals for any requisitions that are created. To turn on this preference, navigate to the Approval Routings subtab and select the Requisitions checkbox. You can also enable expenses on both requisitions and purchase orders by selecting the Allow Expenses on Purchases checkbox located under the Order Management subtab.

You’ve enabled all the right features and chosen your requisition preferences. Now, let’s look at exactly how you would create a new requisition. There are two ways to do this: either as an employee from the Employee Center or while logged in as a NetSuite administrator.

To create a requisition from the employee center, log in to your employee center and choose the Requisitions tab on your Purchases tile. Here, select the button Enter Requisition.

You’ll notice that the requestor field is auto-populated with your name, but if you are making this request on behalf of someone else, choose their name in the dropdown. The Receive By field allows you to indicate when you need the item(s) on the requisition. You can use the Classification field group to connect this record to a specific subsidiary, department, class, or location. Then, using the Items subtab, enter the expenses and/or items that you are requesting. When you are finished, save the record to submit it.

To create a requisition as an administrator, navigate to Transactions > Purchases > Enter Requisitions. This will take you to the same requisition record as the one employees have access to, and filling out the record will be similar.

To create POs from NetSuite requisitions, you will use the Order Requisitions page. To access this page, navigate to Transactions > Purchases > Order Requisitions.

This page lists line items from requisitions that have been approved and have the statuses of Pending Order or Partially Ordered. Using the filter region, you can filter the results by requisition number, subsidiary, vendor, item, department, or class. You can enter or change the vendors and quantities that are listed for these requisition lines. Once you’ve narrowed down your results and made necessary edits to the requisition lines, select the Include checkbox next to every requisition line you wish to purchase. Then, hit the Submit button.

The NetSuite Requisitions feature provides your employees with a simple way to make requests for items they need. If you enjoyed this blog, be sure to subscribe to our mailing list below to receive each week’s latest NetSuite blog post directly in your inbox.