Requests
Follow a request for self stock, school sampling or a workshop through both signatures to the warehouse, including shipments that go out in parts.
A request asks the company for something that isn't a sale: specimen books for yourself, sample books sent to a school, or a teacher-training workshop. Every request needs the same two signatures as an order, first your manager's and then an administrator's, before anybody acts on it. This page explains the whole path. The Requests page covers the form.
The three kinds
| Kind (as the form lists it) | What it is for | What you give | It ends when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self stock (for me) | Specimen books for you to carry | Titles and quantities, Ship to, Shipment mode | Every book has shipped. The books land on your My Stock. |
| School sampling | Books sent to a school as samples | The school, titles and quantities, Ship to, Shipment mode | Every book has shipped, to the school |
| Workshop (teacher training) | A training workshop for a school's teachers | Workshop topic, Budget (INR), optionally the school and a Proposed date | An administrator marks it conducted |
In lists, the kinds read Self stock, Sampling and Workshop.
The path
A self stock or school sampling request:
A workshop:
The name under each badge is who moves the request on from there. A request that goes out in one shipment skips PART SHIPPED. Either signer can stop a request as REJECTED.
Statuses
| Status | What it means | Who acts next |
|---|---|---|
| PENDING | Raised and waiting on your manager | A manager above you, or an administrator: Validate or Reject |
| WITH ADMIN | Your manager has validated it. Waiting on an administrator's final approval. | Any administrator: Approve or Reject |
| VALIDATED | Approved by an administrator. A workshop waits here until it is held. A stock or sampling request sits here only if nobody was named to pack it, which happens on requests from before packers were named. | An administrator: Mark conducted for a workshop, or ship the books |
| ASSIGNED | Approved by an administrator and with the dispatch employee your manager named | That dispatch employee, or an administrator: ship the books |
| PART SHIPPED | Some of the books have gone, and the rest are still owed. The request stays open. | The same dispatch employee, when the rest are in stock |
| SHIPPED | Every book asked for has gone | Nobody |
| CLOSED | The workshop was held | Nobody |
| REJECTED | Stopped by your manager or an administrator | Nobody. Raise a new request if you still need it. |
A rejected request can't be resubmitted, unlike an order. A request also can't be edited or withdrawn once it is raised. If yours is wrong, ask your manager to reject it, then raise a new one.
1. Raise the request
Open Requests, select New Request, choose the Request type, fill it in and select Submit request. There is no draft: the request goes straight to your approver, by email and in the bell. Who that is, is named on the line under your name at the foot of the sidebar. See Approvals and the reporting line.
Where self stock is shipped
For Self stock (for me), Ship to starts from the address an administrator keeps on your employee record, because your own specimen books go to you.
- When the box holds that address, the hint reads Your address on file. Change it if these books should go somewhere else.
- If you typed another address, Use my address on file puts yours back.
- If no address is on file, the hint says so: an administrator can add it, and until then you type where the books should go.
Samples go to a school, not to you. Switching the type to School sampling takes your own address back out of Ship to so that you enter the school's.
2. Your manager validates it
Your manager opens the request from Approvals → Pending review with Review.
- For self stock and school sampling, they choose Packed by, the dispatch employee who will pack it. It is required to validate, for the same reason as on an order: the manager knows who in the warehouse has the stock, and naming them now means a validated request never waits for somebody to hand it over.
- They can add a Review note (optional), then select Validate or Reject.
Validating moves the request to WITH ADMIN. You are told your manager validated it, and the administrators are asked to approve.
3. An administrator approves it
Administrators see the request under Approvals → Requests to approve. The request says who validated it and who will pack it: Your approval releases it. They can add a Note (optional), then select Approve or Reject.
- Self stock or school sampling. Approving hands the request straight to the named dispatch employee, as ASSIGNED. They are told it is theirs, with a link to Dispatch → Requests to pack.
- Workshop. Approving leaves it VALIDATED, waiting to be held.
You are told when it is approved. Requests are decided on the portal; the Android app's Approvals tab doesn't list them.
4. The warehouse ships the books
Only the dispatch employee the request was handed to, or an administrator, can record a shipment. An administrator covers requests with nobody named, and corrects mistakes.
They record it in either place:
- Dispatch → Requests to pack. The row shows each title's To ship and Shipping quantities. Ship records the shipment.
- Approvals → To ship / conduct or Partially shipped, then Review. Under Ship quantities, each title shows how many are left. Record shipment records it.
Every title starts at what is still owed on it. The warehouse lowers any title it is short of, and ships what it has. A shipment must contain at least one book, and no title can go out in more copies than are still owed on it.
Shipping in parts
When some titles go short, the request moves to PART SHIPPED and stays open. Each later shipment adds to what has gone. When every line has shipped in full, the request moves to SHIPPED.
This is different from an order, which closes when it is dispatched short. A request stays on the warehouse's Shortfall tab as Part shipped, balance to follow until the balance goes.
What a shipment does
- The books come off the warehouse stock. If a shipment takes a title below its low-stock level, the administrators are told.
- Self stock lands on your shelf. The books shipped on a self-stock request are added to your My Stock. School samples go straight to the school, so they land on nobody's stock.
- You are told whether it shipped in full or in part.
Shipping a request raises no invoice. Nothing on a request is billed.
Workshops
A workshop ships nothing. Once an administrator has approved it, it waits as VALIDATED. After it has been held, an administrator opens it under Approvals → To ship / conduct and selects Mark conducted, which moves it to CLOSED. Until then, anyone else opening it sees Waiting for an administrator to mark it conducted.
The progress tracker
Opening a request shows the same kind of strip as an order, with its steps filled in, the one it is waiting on ringed, and a broken step where it was rejected.
| Milestone | When it has happened | While you wait for it |
|---|---|---|
| Request raised | Submitted for validation | Not submitted yet |
| Manager validated | Validated by the reporting manager | Waiting for your manager's decision |
| Admin approved | Approved by an administrator | Waiting for an administrator to approve |
| With dispatch | Handed to the dispatch team | Waiting to reach the dispatch team |
| Shipped | Packed and sent | Waiting for the dispatch team to pack it |
A workshop has the first three steps, then Conducted: "The workshop was held". With dispatch carries the name of the person packing it, and Shipped says how many copies have gone, such as "12 of 20 copies sent". A part-shipped request still shows Shipped as the step it is on, because the balance hasn't gone yet.
Your own stock
A self-stock shipment is what fills your My Stock. Samples you record handing out on a visit come off it, and a visit can't record more copies of a title than you hold. If you hand books back to the warehouse, the return takes them off your stock too, and you can't return more than you still hold. See My Stock and Returns.
Good to know
- Who sees a request. You see your own. A manager sees their own and their team's. The dispatch employee sees the ones handed to them.
- Up to 999 copies of a title fit on one line of a request.
- Books from a request can come back. The warehouse records them against the request once it has shipped. Nothing was billed, so nothing is credited. See Returns.
Related
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