Purchase Requests#

Tabs#

Purchase Requests Table#

The Purchase Requests tab lists requests with these columns:

You can search by PR Code and filter by Status. The list defaults to newest-first.

Creating a Purchase Request#

1. Open Assets → Purchasing.
2. Click + New Request (top right).
3. In the New Purchase Request dialog, choose a Workflow template from the dropdown (templates are grouped into Pre-built and Custom Templates). Procurement SOP — the company's end-to-end SOP, ending with a Payment Request that's automatically routed through Finance's approval and release — is preselected by default; pick Standard Procurement or another template instead if you need a different flow.
4. Click Start Request. Step 1 ("Submit Purchase Request") is assigned to you and its form opens immediately.
5. Fill in the request form (see below).
6. When the details are complete, click Mark as Done on the task to finalize the request and advance the workflow.

Filling in the Request Form#

The Submit Purchase Request form has a toolbar, an items table, and a notes/totals footer.

Toolbar:

• Tax type (required) — Value Added Tax (VAT 12%) or Non Taxable. If the workflow's Tax handling setting is fixed to one of these instead of Filer's choice, this field is pre-selected and locked, with a note that it's set by the workflow.
• Destination warehouse (required) — where the items should be delivered. ANTE fills this in for you automatically (your company's main warehouse, or the first warehouse if none is marked main); if your company has no warehouse at all yet, one is created automatically and a notice tells you so. You can still change it before submitting.
• Delivery date — when the items are needed

Items table — for each line:

• Item — search the item catalog or create a new item
• Qty — quantity needed (minimum 1)
• Description — line description (pre-filled from the catalog when you pick an item)
• Unit price — expected cost per unit (pre-filled from the catalog rate; refined later during canvassing)
• Total — calculated automatically (Qty × Unit price)

Use Add item to add another line. A blank line is added automatically once you pick an item on the last row.

Footer:

• Notes — justification, urgency, or special handling for the approver
• Totals — Subtotal, VAT (12%) when the tax type is VAT, and Grand total

The form saves automatically as you work; a save indicator shows the last-saved time.

Tracking a Request#

1. On the Purchase Requests tab, click a request row.
2. A tracking view opens showing the workflow timeline and the task buttons for each step, so you can see where the request is and act on the current step.
3. If the current step already has a related sub-process running (for example, the Payment Approval / Release steps spawned during Payment Request Processing), the tracking view drops you straight onto that active step instead of the parent timeline, so there's something to act on right away. Closing it returns you to the parent timeline.

Once at least one step's form has been submitted, an Exportable toggle appears next to Timeline at the top right of the timeline section. Switching to it lists each completed step's document (Purchase Request, Canvass Sheet, Supplier Selection, Purchase Order, and so on) with an Export <Name> button that downloads a PDF copy, plus an Excel button next to it that downloads the same document as a real .xlsx workbook. It uses your company's active spreadsheet template for that document type if you've set one up (see Project Processes → The Spreadsheet Designer), or a default layout otherwise — for the Canvass Sheet, the default Excel layout is the same supplier tabulation matrix as its PDF (below).

Each step also carries its own Download button directly on its card in the Timeline view, once that step's document is locked in — a shortcut for grabbing just that one document without switching to Exportable.

The Purchase Request PDF is a branded document showing the requested line items (item, SKU, description, qty, unit price, and amount), the destination warehouse's name, the tax type, the preferred supplier when one was set, your notes, and a Subtotal / VAT / Total footer that matches the request form.

The Canvass Sheet PDF prints the supplier-comparison matrix you built while canvassing: each requested item down the left with its quantity and unit, one column per supplier showing that supplier's quoted unit price and extended cost (unit price × quantity, or a dash if they didn't quote that item), and a per-supplier Total row at the bottom so you can compare suppliers' grand totals side by side.

The Supplier Selection PDF lists the awarded winners: one row per item with the supplier it was awarded to, the awarded unit price, and the line total, followed by a grand total and — when you added one — a Justification section showing the text you entered in Notes.

Checking Request Status#

1. Open the Purchase Requests tab.
2. Read the Status column, or use the Status filter to narrow the list.
3. Click a request to open its workflow timeline for full detail.

Cancelling a Request#

While a request's workflow is still running, open its tracking timeline (click the request row) and click Cancel at the top of the dialog. If a step already generated a document — a Purchase Order, for example — the dialog lists what cancelling will do to each one before you type a reason.

1. Click a request row on the Purchase Requests tab to open its tracking timeline.
2. Click Cancel.
3. Review the list of documents the cancel will void and the ones it will leave untouched (with the reason why).
4. Type a Reason for the cancellation — this is required.
5. Click Cancel process to confirm, or Keep it to back out.

What happens next depends on your permissions:

• An administrator cancelling cancels the workflow immediately — its status becomes Cancelled right away.
• Anyone else allowed to cancel — the person who submitted the request, or someone holding cancellation permission — only requests the cancellation; the toast confirms a cancellation was requested and is awaiting approval. An administrator must approve it from Processes → Instances before the request is actually cancelled (the same void list is shown there too).

Once the cancellation takes effect:

• Every step in the workflow — completed ones included — turns Void, and their open tasks are closed.
• Any document the workflow already created — a Purchase Order, a Purchase Request, a Sales Order — is voided too, unless it can't be safely nullified (a payment already recorded, goods already received, an invoice already posted to the books, and so on), in which case it's left untouched exactly as the warning said. Purchase orders that already have a vendor bill or a payment recorded are always left untouched.
• The request's own Status becomes Voided and it moves out of the Procurement Pipeline counts (see Request Status).
• The instance's detail page then shows who cancelled it, when, and the reason — see Cancelling an Instance.

Canvass Suppliers / Supplier Sourcing#

Adds suppliers and records their quoted price for each requested item.

• The requested items are shown immediately — even before any supplier has been added — so the canvasser knows what to source.
• Add Supplier to pick an existing supplier or create a new one on the spot.
• You need at least the company's configured minimum number of suppliers in the comparison before you can submit — up to 5 can be compared at once. This minimum defaults to 2 and can be changed (1–5) by an administrator — see Minimum Canvass Suppliers.

Supplier Selection / Comparative Analysis & Supplier Approval#

Compares suppliers and awards each item to a winner.

• Every supplier that quoted is shown side by side with their total quoted cost across all the canvassed items — not just the items they won — so you're comparing suppliers as a whole. The cheapest supplier is tagged lowest.
• For each requested item, pick the winning supplier from the dropdown. You must award every item before you can submit.
• Add a justification in Notes (e.g. lowest bid, preferred vendor, faster delivery).

Purchase Order Generation / Issue Purchase Order#

Issues the Purchase Order to the awarded supplier(s) — see Purchase Order. Issuing the PO automatically starts tracking its fulfillment (acknowledgement, delivery, and receiving/QC).

Payment Request Processing (Procurement SOP only)#

The Procurement SOP's final stage. Every Purchase Order automatically gets its own Request for Payment, so once the goods are received, this step just shows that request read-only — there's nothing to fill in — alongside a status chip:

This step finishes on its own once the payment is released or rejected — there's no Mark as Done button to click.