Requisitions are a special type of Task record that can be raised to request some work to be allocated via the Resource Bookings system. The creator can suggest the number of hours, the resource and the charge code for the booking. However, in a requisition these are just the preferred values. The person making the bookings can override these defaults and make a decision based on the resources available at the time.
When processing a requisition the system will automatically allocate the booking to an estimate if it already exists. Otherwise it will simply create a zero hour estimate, for the selected charge code, at the point of booking the requisition into the calendar.
Creating requisitions:
From within a job, or a phase of a job, you can raise a requisition. This is done from the ‘Tasks’ tab of a job or phase by clicking 'new':
The only mandatory field is the Activity type (select ‘Requisition’).
Once you have specified this as a requisition task, you can suggest the number of hours required, the preferred resource, charge code, the phase, and the stage from the phase schedule (if applicable). It is also good practice to add a subject and some text in the details section. It’s here you might wish to specify exact work instructions – or attach relevant files.
Booking a requisition:
In the calendar booking screen 'Get requisitions' button is available at the bottom for all staff who have the access rights to make bookings:
This will open a list of all the open requisitions. Hovering the mouse cursor over any of the requisitions will show full details of the requisition. From this list it is also possible to open a requisition (in a new tab). Once you are ready to make a booking based on the request you can drag the requisition to the calendar as you would a typical booking. At this point a booking input form opens with the requisition details shown:
The top of the form comprises the booking itself. The hours requested, the charge code, phase and stage are all copied over from the requisition if they have been specified there. At this point you can change any of this – e.g. reducing the number of hours, or even changing the phase / stage that the booking will be linked to. On clicking ‘Save’ the booking is made.
A requisition will disappear from the list of open requisitions once the requisition is ‘completed’ or the related job/phase is closed. If you wish to hide requisitions that are open – but which you have already booked, click the ‘eye’ icon on the far left of the list. This will hide the requisition (on the next refresh). To bring it back simply click the ‘Display actioned work requests’ checkbox.
Any resource bookings made for a requisition will appear on a new tab on the requisition input form:
Timesheet for requisitioned work:
It is possible to create a timesheet from a requisition. This is typically useful when requisitions are being used as work tickets, or kanban tickets, and the requisition task is set to show in calendars. The user whose calendar the requisition appears in uses this as an instruction to work, and also to enable creation of a quick timesheet:
Clicking this button opens the quick timesheet window with the job / phase / charge code choices filled out already. The timesheet date defaults to today (but can be amended), all that is required is the number of hours worked and a description of the work done.
Any timesheets booked against an activity in this way will appear on a new tab on the activity input form:
Requisitions on kanban boards:
As an alternative to the above way of working requisitions can be used as work tickets on kanban boards. This is a more agile-oriented approach that removes some of the need for estimating as a pre-cursor to planning who by and when work will be done. As long as the requisition activity type is set to appear on kanban boards, these activities can be created with start / due dates & times and either assigned to a preferred staff resource or left unassigned - your team would be encouraged to self-assign these activities to themselves from an unassigned kanban.
These tickets can then be used as the basis for timesheets, and they can be made to appear in the task owner's calendar as well. This is either default behaviour, as set on the task type, or individual tasks can be made to show in the owner's calendar by clicking the calendar icon next to the owner drop-down:
Changing the kanban status of a ticket or completing the requisition task here is reflected immediately on the appropriate kanban board.