Requisitions Pt. 1 – Overview

Introduction – 00:00

Hi there and welcome to our overview of the new Requisitions Module in Freezerworks 2017.  Requisitions are requests from internal users or external contacts for certain aliquots to be checked out or shipped to them.  Now, requisitions involve a step-by-step procedure that always culminates in a Workflow Template being processed on the requested aliquots. 

Requisition Steps – 00:38

After a requisition is initially created, the Aliquot Status of each aliquot in the request changes to Requested.  Depending on your Aliquot Status settings, this may restrict what you can do with the aliquots outside of the requisition.  One of those restrictions might be that you cannot request the aliquot again if it is already requested, like so.  When a requisition is created, more aliquots can be added to it after the fact.  Aliquots can be removed as well, but this is done inside requisition records rather than from the inventory list view.  Adding and removing aliquots can be done by either the requester or any users with permission to approve requisitions.  Of course, a requisition can also be rejected by an approval authority, which returns all Aliquot Statuses to their previous states and the requisition becomes read-only.  The user who created the requisition can also cancel it before it is approved; once approved, however, or once a single E-signature has been provided, it cannot be canceled.  After approval, the requisition can then be fulfilled, which is completed by processing a Check Out or Shipment workflow on the requested aliquots. 

E-Signature – 02:10

I mentioned E-signatures a second ago, let's elaborate.  The system administrator can choose to require a certain number of E-signatures for approval and/or fulfillment of requisitions.  E-signatures are forms where users attempting to approve or fulfill a requisition must provide their username and password in order to finalize the action.  These E-signature forms also allow users to lock the requisition from further editing while more E-signatures are given by other users.  This is so that no more aliquots can be added or excluded from the file after users have already given their approval.  Now, the default number of E-signatures required for both tasks is zero, so if you need the extra security open System Properties and go to the Security page.  On the E-signatures tab, there are two boxes where you can set the number required for both approval and fulfillment.  

List View – 03:10

Let’s look at the requisitions list view. As you can see, there are five separate tabs on this list view.  The Pending tab includes all Initial Requisitions; those are requisitions that have been approved and ones that haven't had any work done on them yet.  Use the status column to differentiate between these requisitions.  The Fulfilled tab includes only those requisitions that have been fulfilled; this means that a workflow has been run on the requested aliquots.  The Rejected and Canceled tabs are pretty self-explanatory; just remember that all requisitions on these two tabs are read-only.  The last tab is also self-explanatory, as it is just “All”.  Again, especially on this tab, use the Status column to differentiate between requisitions.

Emails – 04:05

Finally, let's quickly discuss emails and requisitions.  If you have properly set up email in System Properties, then email reminders will be sent throughout the requisition process.  Here's how they work:

1. When a requisition is created or requested, an email is sent to all users that have permission to Approve Requisitions so that all your approval authorities in your database are alerted to the new requisition.
2. After a requisition is approved or rejected an email is sent to the requester, unless the requester is also the one approving or rejecting it.
3. When a requisition is fulfilled, emails will depend on the Email settings in the Workflow Template. Watch our workflows videos for more information on this.
4. No emails are ever sent when a requisition is canceled.

Now, take special note of the Send email notifications to shipping contact box, which you can check on if you've added a shipping contact that has an email address.  This will make it so that they are included in all emails regarding this requisition.  

Conclusion – 05:15

Well that was a quick overview of requisitions.  We'll take a much deeper look at every step of the process in the next couple videos.  Thank you for watching and see you next time!