Purchase Requests

A purchase request is how you ask before you buy. You say what you need, Muin checks the budget and the fund or grant it is charged to, and the request goes to the right approver.

When you’d use this

• You need to buy something for a program, such as 30 laptops for the after-school program.
• You want to know whether a purchase fits the budget before anyone spends money.
• You want to see where your request stands and who it is waiting on.

Find it

• Go to Muin for Spend > Purchasing > Requests. The address is /procurement/requests.
• The page reads: “Everything you have asked to buy, and where each request stands.”
• Mine shows your requests. All shows every request you are allowed to see.
• Filter by status or search by title.

Ask for something in plain words

1. Select New request. The drawer reads: “Tell us what you need in plain words. We check the budget and fund before it goes for approval.”
2. In What do you need?, write it the way you would say it, for example “30 laptops for the after-school program by March”.
3. Select Draft it for me. Muin drafts the title, the items, the program and the needed-by date.
4. Read the draft. Muin never saves it for you. Change anything that is wrong.
5. Check the Budget and fund card. It shows the budget left and any fund or grant rule that applies.
6. Select Submit for approval, or Save draft to finish later.

If Muin cannot draft it, the drawer says “We could not draft this automatically. Fill in the form below.” The form still works.

The fields

• Title: 3 to 255 characters.
• Description: optional, up to 4,000 characters.
• Program: the program the purchase is for.
• Fund and Grant: “Fund or grant: restricted money can only pay for allowed costs.”
• Needed by: “Needed by: the date the approver and buyer plan around.”
• Items: one row per item, with Item, Quantity and Estimated amount each. “Estimated amount: your best guess; the buyer confirms it with quotes.”

Request from the catalog

1. Go to Muin for Spend > Purchasing > Catalog.
2. Find the item and select Request this.
3. The New request drawer opens with the item as the first line.

Save a draft and come back

• Save draft keeps the request as Draft. The toast reads “Draft saved. Submit it when you are ready.”
• Open it from Requests later. Only you can edit or submit your draft.

Where is my request

Open the request from the list. The page reads: “One request from ask to order, with every decision on it.”

• The Timeline shows each step: Created, Submitted, “Waiting on” the approver’s name, “Approved by” or “Rejected by”, and Ordered.
• When a delegate decided for someone else, the timeline shows “Ana Ruiz on behalf of Omar Haddad”.
• A rejected request shows the approver’s reason.
• You can also ask Ask Muin “Where is my purchase request?”. It lists your requests, newest first, with each one’s status, who it is waiting on, and a link that opens it.

Statuses:

Status	What it means
Draft	Saved, not sent yet
Waiting for approval	With the approver named in the timeline
Approved	The buyer can get quotes or create the PO
Rejected	The approver gave a reason
Ordered	A purchase order was created from it
Cancelled	Stopped. It stays on record

When the request is approved, you get a notification that names who decided.

Cancel a request

1. Open the request and select Cancel request.
2. Give a reason of at least 3 characters. The requester and approvers see it.
3. Confirm. “It stops here: no approver acts on it and it cannot become an order.”

• You can cancel your own request while it is a draft or waiting for approval.
• Someone who manages purchasing can also cancel an approved request.

When it goes wrong

• “Pick today or a later date.”: the needed-by date is in the past. Pick today or later.
• “Enter an estimated amount above 0.”: every item needs an amount above zero.
• “Quantity must be more than 0.”: fix the quantity.
• “Add at least one item.”: a request needs at least one line.
• “(Fund) cannot pay for (category). Pick another fund or remove the line.”: the fund or grant does not allow that kind of cost. Charge it to another fund or remove the line.
• “No approval rule covers this request.”: your organization has no approver for this amount yet. The request is held, never approved. An admin adds a rule in Settings > Approvals.
• “This request is already waiting for approval.”: it was submitted already. Open it to see who it is waiting on.

Next step

Your approver decides. See Approvals. Once it is approved, the buyer gets quotes or creates the purchase order.