Materials on site
Request materials for a project
Ask for the materials a site needs, have someone else approve the request, and follow how much has been issued from stock, ordered from suppliers and is still to supply.
3 min readLast updated
In this article
A material request is how a site asks for what it needs. It names the project (and task), the store to supply it from, when it is needed and the items. Someone other than the requester approves it; the store then issues what is in stock, and purchasing orders the rest.
Raise a request
Go to Projects > Material Requests and select New material request.
Choose the project and, if the material is for one part of the work, the task.
Choose the Store that should supply it and the Needed by date.
For each item, choose the item, its unit and the quantity. Select Add item for more lines; each line can carry its own task.
Select Save draft to finish it later, or Send for approval.
Budget check
When your company checks Material requests beyond the budget in Process settings, each line is valued at the item's cost and the request is compared, per work package, with what is left: the locked budget less the cost so far, open commitments and other requests not yet issued. The Budget check card shows Requested and Left for each work package.
Warn: an Over budget request still goes for approval, and the project manager is told.
Block: it cannot be sent. Select Request budget revision to draft a budget increase on the project's Budget tab; once that is approved, send the request again.
A project with no locked budget has nothing left, so with Block every request waits for the budget.
Approve or reject
Someone with permission to approve material requests, other than the requester, opens the request and selects Approve or Reject. A rejection needs a reason, which the requester sees. While a request waits, the requester can select Take back to change it.
Supply it
An approved request shows, for each line, what was Issued, what was Ordered and what is Still to supply, in the line's own unit.
Issue from stock issues what the store holds to the project. See Issue materials to a project.
Raise purchase order opens a new purchase order with the lines still to supply, the project and the store already filled in. Saving it links the order to the request.
The request becomes Supplied when every line is issued or ordered. Select Close when nothing more will be supplied against it, or Cancel request if nothing was issued or ordered yet.
Common questions
Can site staff raise requests from their phone? Yes. The employee app has a Material requests screen; a request made without signal is sent when the phone is back online, once only.
Does a request reserve the stock? No. Stock leaves the store only when it is issued.
Submitting is refused as over budget. The work package has less left than the request is worth. Ask for a budget revision from the request, or reduce it.
Submitting is refused because an item is waiting for its submittal. Your company buys only released items: the item is listed on a submittal that is not approved yet. Wait for the A or B answer, or ask for an early order on the submittal. See Submittals and approval codes.