Create Electronic Requests (for Non-Depot Locations)

Things to Know

This article discusses Electronic Requests created & submitted from Non-Depot locations only, i.e., your facility does not manage inventory through OpenBoxes and only uses OpenBoxes to submit E-requests.

Send E-Request to Depot VS Submit E-Request for Approval

Depending on different fulfilling warehouses, the process for fulfilling requisitions can be different. Some Depots require the Requisition to be approved by the correct managers for budgetary purposes while other Depots do not.

Hence, there are two ways that E-Requests can be set up :

  1. Send Electronic Requests directly to the fulfilling Depot OR
  2. Submit Electronic Requests to Approver, who approves the Requisition, and then the request is sent to the fulfilling Depot.

If you do not need approvals to send the requisition to the fulfilling depot, see Send an E-Request directly to the Fulfilling Depot, if you need your manager to approve the requisition first, see Submit an E-Request to the Approver.

Send an E-Request directly to the Fulfilling Depot

  1. Log into OpenBoxes using your username and password. If your admin has selected a default location for you, you will be directed to your facility's page directly. If your admin has not selected a default location for you, you can choose a location you want to request for from the location chooser.

    Location Chooser
  2. Once you are on the home page of the facility that you want to request for, you will see all of the requests for the facility. You can view the status of all the requests from this view.
Facility Home Page
  1. To create a new request, click on "Create New Request" in the upper right-hand corner.

    On the resulting "Create Page," Enter information for the Requisition.

    • Description (Required): Enter a brief description of the request that will help you identify the request in the future.
    • Requesting Location: This defaults to the facility you are requesting for.
    • Fulfilling location (Required): Enter the name of the depot you are requesting from - the location that will fulfill your request.
    • Requested By: This defaults to your name.
    • Date Requested: This defaults to today's date.
    • Request type (Required): Select "Stock" for a regularly scheduled request and "Adhoc" for an emergency, unexpected, or one-time request.
    • Stocklist: If you select "Stock" as the Request type, you can select a stocklist that will load a preset list of products in the next page.
    • Desired date of delivery: Select when you would like the request to be delivered.

      Once you have filled out each field, press "Next" to go to the add items page.


  1. Add Items on the "Add Items" Page.
    • Add Items Page
    • Requested Product (Required): Search for the product by using the product code or the product name. When looking for a product or when you hover over a selected product, you can also see the unit of measure for that product - which tells you the total quantity that you will be receiving.

      In the screenshot below, 20 hemoclips are being requested. Hovering over the product tells me that one hemoclip is actually a cartridge of 6 clips. Hence, the requestor is requesting for a total of 120 individual clips!

      Without the UoM (Cartridge of 6 clips) being displayed here, the requestor might be confused if they are requesting 20 individual clips or 20 'x' packs of individual clips.

    • Demand per Month: This will remain 0 because your facility does not track inventory through OpenBoxes.
    • QOH: Enter the product's current Quantity on Hand at your facility.
    • Needed Qty (Required): Enter the qty that you need. If there is demand data for your facility, OpenBoxes will auto-calculate the needed qty based on the demand and QoH, which you can manually change.
    • Comments: Enter any comments that might be helpful for the product you are requesting.

      To add additional products, click on the green "Add Line" button on the left-hand side of the screen. This will add another line below the table for you to add another product.


  2. When you are finished with adding all the products, click on Submit Request. If you want to save this request and return to it in the future, you can click on "Save and Exit" without submitting it.
E-Request Submission Confirmation

You will now be able to see your submitted request at the top of your request list.

Home Page after Sending the E-Request

Submit an E-Request for Approval

  1. Log into OpenBoxes using your username and password. If your admin has selected a default location for you, you will be directed to your facility's page directly. If your admin has not selected a default location for you, you can choose a location you want to request for from the location chooser.

    Location Chooser
  2. Once you are on the home page of the facility that you want to request for, you will see all of the requests for the facility. You can view the status of all the requests from this view.
Facility Home Page
  1. To create a new request, click on "Create New Request" in the upper right-hand corner.

    On the resulting "Create Page," Enter information for the Requisition.

    E-Request Create Page
    • Description (Required): Enter a brief description of the request that will help you identify the request in the future.
    • Requesting Location: This defaults to the facility you are requesting for.
    • Fulfilling location (Required): Enter the name of the depot you are requesting from - the location that will fulfill your request.
    • Requested By: This defaults to your name.
    • Date Requested: This defaults to today's date.
    • Request type (Required): Select "Stock" for a regularly scheduled request and "Adhoc" for an emergency, unexpected, or one-time request.
    • Stocklist: If you select "Stock" as the Request type, you can select a stocklist that will load a preset list of products in the next page.
    • Approvers: Select one or more Approver(s) from the dropdown to send notifications to one or multiple Approver(s).

      If you leave this field blank, no email notifications will be sent. However, approvers will still be able to access the request and approve/decline.

      If you do not see your desired approver, reach out to your administrator.


    • Once you have filled out each field, press "Next" to go to the add items page.

      Add Items on the "Add Items" Page.

      Add Items Page
    • Requested Product (Required): Search for the product by using the product code or the product name.
    • Demand per Month: This will remain 0 because your facility does not track inventory through OpenBoxes.
    • QOH: Enter the product's current Quantity on Hand at your facility.
    • Needed Qty (Required): Enter the qty that you need. If there is demand data for your facility, OpenBoxes will auto-calculate the needed qty based on the demand and QoH, which you can manually change.
    • Comments: Enter any comments that might be helpful for the product you are requesting.

      To add additional products, click on the green "Add Line" button on the left-hand side of the screen. This will add another line below the table for you to add another product.


  2. After you have completed adding the items, click on Submit for Approval. If you want to save this request and return to it in the future, you can click on "Save and Exit" without submitting it. Your selected Approver(s) will receive an email notification to approve the requisition.

After the approver approves the requisition, you will receive an email notification that the Requisition has been approved. You will also receive email notifications for any comments that the Approver adds to the E-request, before or after they approve/reject it.

You have the ability to edit the Request until it has been approved or rejected by the approver.

You will now be able to see your submitted request at the top of your request list. The initial status of the e-request is "Waiting for Approval." Once it is approved/rejected, the status will change to Approved/Rejected.

Facility Home Page

Updating an E-Request Rejected by the Approver


After you submit an E-Request for approval, the Approver can either Approve or Reject it. For Approved Requests, you will receive an Email notification and there is no further action needed; the Depot will start on fulfilling the request.

For Rejected e-requests, you can update the e-request and re-send it to the Approver for approval.

  1. If an Approver rejects an e-request, you will receive an Email notification. You can also check the status of the E-request from the facility's home page.

    Rejection Email Notification

    In the Email, you can see the status update to Rejected along with the comment on why the Approver rejected the request.


  2. Click on the "here" hyperlink to take you to the Requests List. Select the correct E-request that you need to update.

    Stock Requests list

  3. Click on "Rollback Approval." This reverts the E-request back to "Waiting for Approval."

    Rollback Approval

  4. Click on Edit. You can also see the comments by clicking on the "Comments" tab.

    Request View Page

  5. You will be redirected to the Add Items page, where you can update/delete the existing items or add new line items.


  6. Make the necessary updates to the request. Submit for Approval again.

    Add Items Page

  7. The Approver will get notified about the Submission for Approval and can approve it. The Warehouse team will see Approved E-requests can work on them.
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