How to Create a Purchase Requisition

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

What Is a Purchase Requisition?
How to Create a New Purchase Requisition
How to Customize the Default PR Form
Supplier Field in Custom PR Forms: Document Level vs. Item Level
Other Ways to Create a PR
FAQs

What Is a Purchase Requisition?

A purchase requisition (PR) is an employee's formal request to buy goods or services for the company. As the first step in procurement, it ensures every purchase is:

Necessary
Properly approved
Within budget

Once a department head approves it, the procurement team sources and buys the items from suppliers.

Learn when and why to use requisitions, plus best practices, in our blog post.

If you prefer video guides, see the 2-minute video tutorial on creating a PR.

How to Create a Purchase Requisition in Precoro

📋 Before we start, make sure you have:

The Purchase Requisitions module activated.
The Create role for purchase requisitions.

See How to Set Up a Purchase Requisition Module for how to activate the module and assign roles.

Step 1: Create a New Document

Open the Purchase Requisitions module from the left-side menu.
Click Create.

If your company uses Custom Document Forms, select the form that fits your purchase type.

You can also customize your standard (default) PR form to ensure requests are easier to create without missing important details. See this section to find out how.
Once you select a form, the PR creation page opens, and you complete Steps 2–4 without leaving the page.

✍️ Note: To fill in the document details and add items on separate pages, click More Actions (…) in the top right corner and select Back to old creation flow.

Step 2: Fill Out the PR

Fill in the document details, add items, and attach supporting files, all on the same page.

Document Details:

Fill in the required fields, such as Location, Delivery Date, and any custom fields your company uses.
Optionally, add a budget. See Budget in Purchase Requisitions.

Please note, custom document fields on PRs remember your recent selections.

Choosing the same option across three consecutive PRs automatically pre-fills that value on subsequent standard and custom forms, while still allowing manual overrides.

Autofill works with your existing setup: supplier default values always take priority, and for dependent fields, Precoro only fills in a value that’s valid for the controlling field you’ve selected.

Items:

Add items to the item table below the document fields in any of these ways:

Select items already in the Catalog.
Enter item details manually.
Bulk upload items from external sources using Excel.
Bulk update items with an Excel file.

Learn more about adding items to documents in this article.

Tips:

Add a set of regularly purchased items at once with Item Bundles.
Pick frequently ordered items from your Favorite Item Lists, which appear as tabs in the item selection window.
Change a shared field across several items at once, or save several manually edited items in one go, see How to Mass Edit and Bulk Save Items in a Document.

Notes and Attachments:

Give approvers and the procurement team the context they need:

Add Notes: Include delivery times and other critical details that will appear on the printed document.
Attachments: Click the plus icon next to Attachments in the right panel to upload supporting files, such as images or documents. Your company can make attachments mandatory for PRs.

💡Tip: To fill in the PR from a file, such as a supplier quotation, drop it into Auto-create from attachment in the right panel.

Accepted files: PDF, PNG, JPEG, XLSX, XLS, DOCX, and MSG, up to 20 MB.

Step 3: Review and Confirm the Document

Review the document to ensure all required information is included.
Click one of the two buttons in the top right corner:
1. Save Draft: save the PR to finish it later.
2. Confirm: submit the PR. If the Confirm button is inactive, hover over it to see which fields you still need to fill in.
What happens next depends on your company's setup:
1. With an approval workflow: the PR goes to the assigned approvers for review. See How to Approve/Reject Purchase Requisitions.
2. Without an approval workflow: the PR moves to Approved status right after you confirm it.

Once the PR is saved, starting from Draft status, you can add comments. Tag users with "@" to notify them and keep the discussion inside the document.

To learn more about how to work with notes and comments, please follow this link.

Step 4: Download the PR

Download the PR as a PDF or XLSX file. Downloads are available in every status except Draft, Canceled, Pending, and In Revision.

To show or hide the signature block on the file, see How to Hide the Signature on Printed PRs.

NEXT STEPS:

Track the PR: follow its status and changes in How to Track a Purchase Requisition.
Turn it into a PO: see How to Create Purchase Orders from Requisitions, or How to Create a Purchase Order from a Purchase Requisition If the Supplier Is Not Specified.
Skip manual PO creation: set up Automatic Purchase Order Creation From Purchase Requisition.
Close the PR without a PO: see How to Manually Complete Purchase Requisition.

How to Customize the Default PR Form

You can customize your default (standard) PR form to ensure requests are easier to create without missing important details.

Your company's default PR form opens in every PR creation flow: from the side panel, the document list, an email, or another document.

To edit the default form, you need the Configuration role. See User Roles.

Go to Configuration → Custom Form Settings → Purchase Requisition.
On the Purchase Requisition tab, click Edit (pencil icon) on the default form.
Drag the fields to rearrange them.
Click Update to save the changes.

If you have the Intake Forms addon, you’ll notice the following changes to your PR forms:

Orderly form management: Your standard PR form appears in the list of PR forms alongside your custom forms, marked as Default, so you can manage every form in one place.
Default form selection: You can set any form as the default by clicking Set as Default button in form configuration.
Default form customization: All PR forms can be edited, including the default form.

See Custom Document Forms for how to create and configure custom forms.

To enable the Intake Forms add-on, contact your Customer Success Manager.

Supplier Field in Custom PR Forms: Document Level vs. Item Level

To avoid mismatched supplier data while creating, editing, and revising a custom PR, Precoro applies one consistent rule:

It isn't possible to have different suppliers at the document level and item level in a custom PR at the same time.

A custom PR can have either one supplier on a document level or a different supplier for each item.

If you fill in the document-level Supplier field, the same supplier automatically applies to all items in the custom PR.
If the document-level Supplier field isn't added to the form or is left empty, you can assign suppliers separately for each item in the Supplier column of the item table.
If the document-level Supplier is selected, the Catalog only shows items from the selected supplier and items with no supplier assigned.
If you change the document-level Supplier field during Revise, Precoro updates all existing items and hides the Supplier column on the item-level. Clearing the document-level Supplier brings back the column, and existing items keep their current supplier.

When you add a supplier while the document is in Draft status, you can either select an existing supplier from the drop-down list or create a new one by clicking Add New Supplier.

Other Ways to Create a PR

From a supplier quotation.
If your PRs are based on supplier quotations, let the AI Assistant fill in the data for you. See How to Automatically Fill a Purchase Requisition from a Supplier Quotation.
From a warehouse request.
When requested items aren't available in stock, create a PR directly from the warehouse request. See How to Create a Purchase Requisition from a Warehouse Request.
In the Precoro mobile app.
Create a PR on the go, or scan a document to fill it in automatically. See Creating Documents in the Precoro Mobile App.

FAQs

How can I view full details on purchase order items from a purchase requisition?

If a related Purchase Order exists, you can view the complete details of the items by clicking the "Show Purchase Order" button in the PR.

Can I enter negative item values?

Yes, you can enter negative item values in your purchase requisition. Find out how here.

Can I create zero-value documents?

Yes, you can approve and send documents with a zero total value to integrated partners. Please follow this link to learn more.

Can I revise a purchase requisition and add new items after approval?

Yes, you can revise a PR and add new items even after it's been approved. However, note that you cannot edit items already included in a related purchase order, and new items won't be added to the existing PO.

Can I update item prices in a purchase requisition using the Catalog?

Yes, you can update item prices in your PR by using the "Update Prices by Catalog" feature. To activate it:

Go to Configuration → Basic Settings → Documents Setup → Purchase Requisitions.
Check the "Display prices" option.

To use this feature:

Open the PR document and click "Update Prices by Catalog."
Review and accept the new prices to update them in your document.
Once you confirm, the price will be updated.

Is the number of items I can add limited?

While you can add as many items as necessary, we recommend keeping the number below 500. Creating PRs with more items can slow down document processing and cause unexpected errors.

What happens to existing Draft PRs that already have mismatched suppliers at the document and item level?

The next time you save the document or move it to a new status, item suppliers are automatically aligned with the document-level supplier. PRs already in Approved, Completed, or Pending status aren't affected and keep their current supplier values.