How to Streamline Your Purchase Requisition Workflow With Google Forms in 10 easy steps

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Introduction

If you're looking to streamline your purchase requisition workflow with Google Forms, look no further. In this article, I'll show you how to use Google Forms to create a simple system that will make it easier for your employees to request new items and services. By the end of this post, I hope that you'll feel confident enough to implement this strategy in your own organization.

1. Create a Form with Google Docs

A Google Form is a simple way to create surveys, quizzes, and more. You can easily add questions and responses to your form by clicking the Add button on the right side of your screen. The first question will be automatically populated with “Question 1” text as well as an “Answer submission type” dropdown menu that allows you to select how you want users to answer each question (text in box, radio buttons, multiple choice).

The response will also have an additional option called Send Notification at the bottom which allows you to send automatic notifications via email when someone submits their answers for this particular question (this is useful for reminding people about due dates or providing feedback on submitted answers).

2. Ensure purchase requisition questions correspond to your business requirements

Ensure purchase requisition questions correspond to your business requirements. If you wish to streamline a specific workflow with Google Forms, consider the following:

  • Ensure the questions are relevant. Purchase requisitions are often used for purchasing goods and services within an organization, so they should be tailored to meet business requirements. Consider including information such as whether the item being purchased is new or refurbished, how long it should last before replacement (e.g., years or months), whether it must be delivered immediately or can wait until later on in the company's lifecycle (e.g., start-up phase vs established operation), and who will be responsible for ensuring that orders get fulfilled correctly—will it be someone from IT? Sales? Marketing? Or will we outsource it?

3. Setup Google Form automation

Once you've got the basic form setup and have added all of your fields, it's time to automate the workflow with Google Forms. In this section, we'll show you how to set up automated triggers for when a purchase request is submitted, approved and rejected.

Automated triggers are powerful ways to save time and reduce errors by not having to manually trigger actions from one form after another. By automating these triggers, we can eliminate the chance of mistakes being made in our workflow process which would otherwise require human intervention.

For example: if someone submits an incorrect form or forgets a field they need on a later step in their requisition process but doesn't realize it until later when they try submitting again (or worse yet at all), then that could cause problems down line as well as waste precious time trying figure out why something isn't working correctly. Instead by using automation tools like Google Forms' "Auto Complete" feature along with conditional formatting rules (which we'll show next) we can streamline our workflow while still providing users with helpful prompts when necessary.

4. Add custom fields to your form

Custom fields can be used to collect data that is not available in the default fields. They can also be used to store data that is not available in the default fields. For example, you could create a custom field for your company's product code and then use it as a drop-down menu for product selection. Or you could create a custom field for customer type and then add options such as "B2B," "B2C" and so on, depending on what makes sense for your business needs.

5. Create video tutorials for users

Video tutorials are a great way to communicate with your users. You can use them to train users on how to use the integration, the Google Form and even what they should do when they get notified of a Google Forms workflow approval or rejection!

Here's how:

  • Set up a script of what you want each video tutorial to say; this will help keep things consistent across all your videos
  • Upload it as an attachment in the live form and select whether you want users to watch it before submitting their request or after submitting their request (they'll need access rights for either option). If they need access rights, you'll also have the option of allowing them only after they've completed the entire process successfully.

6. Include supplemental documentation for your users

If you're planning on using Google Forms to collect purchase requisitions, you should include a link to the Google Form or Google Sheet that's being used in the requisition form.

7. Add Google Form API Integration with Google Sheets

  • First, add a Google Form to a spreadsheet. Go to your Google Drive and create a new spreadsheet. Then, go to the Add-ons menu and click on “Forms” (top right corner).
  • Now you can add rows of data into your form. You can do this by typing in the first row and then pressing enter so it will move down below each time you type in another row of data or press enter again if you have already typed in enough information for one row.
  • After all your rows are filled out with whatever information you need, select each column heading that contains data by clicking on it once (you don't have to select each individual cell itself), then click "Format" at the top left of screen under Tools & Options > Formatting > Column Headings > Right Align Text > OK twice when prompted (once after selecting/editing all columns' text formatting options; second time after exiting out). This will ensure that any future updates are aligned correctly when making edits later on!
  • Save changes using Ctrl+S shortcut key combination at any time throughout this process if necessary!

8. Customize how the integration presents data in the spreadsheet and configure this to meet your reporting needs

  • Use a pivot table to make the data more readable. A pivot table is a great way to transform and summarize your data, so you can see what’s happening at a glance. For example, if you want to quickly add up all of your expenses by department or year, create one by clicking on the “Insert” tab in the top menu and then selecting “Pivot Table” from the dropdown menu.
  • Use conditional formatting to highlight data values. If you want certain cells in your spreadsheet formatted differently than others based on their contents (for example: green for approved purchases, red for rejected purchases), use conditional formatting rules that will automatically change their appearance based on whether or not they meet certain criteria (for example: approved purchase = $0).
  • You can set these up by clicking Format > Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules in Excel 2016 or later versions of Excel; otherwise use Home > Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules instead if using an older version of Excel.*Use filters to limit what appears across multiple tabs within Google Sheets as well as limit which rows are included when copying/pasting from one sheet into another.*Use charts that represent time periods rather than dollars spent over time; this will help keep things clear for those who don’t know about budgeting projections and other areas where currency fluctuates over time due.

9. Set up notifications for purchase order approval and rejection

Now that you have set up notifications to send purchase orders, it’s time to set up workflow on Google Forms for approval and rejection! There are a few ways to do this

  • Use the Google Sheets API: Use the Google Sheets API to send notifications to users when someone approves or rejects a purchase order. You can also use the API in conjunction with other third-party apps like Slack, Asana or Evernote if you want additional functionality beyond what is available in Google Forms and Sheets on their own.*
  • Send emails: If form responses are stored as emails in Gmail, then you can just forward them straight into other inboxes—no need for complicated integrations whatsoever.*
  • Notify others directly: If response data is stored as an attachment in your email account (like Gmail), then simply attach it as an image file attachment whenever necessary so that recipients can read through the contents without having access to edit anything themselves

10. Integrate with other third-party apps as necessary to streamline processes even further

You can also integrate it with other third-party apps as necessary to streamline processes even further. For example, if you need to collaborate with someone outside of your team on a purchase requisition, use apps like Zapier, IFTTT and Google Sheets to automate your workflow. For example:

  • When someone creates a new purchase requisition in Google Forms, the data from that form is automatically sent to their email address and added into the relevant spreadsheet for tracking purposes (like this one).
  • If an employee wants to pay for something using their company credit card without going through the whole approval process (and waiting 3 days!), then they can simply import their corporate card information into the appropriate field on the form (instructions here) and submit it directly through our custom webhooks integration system - giving them instant access when needed most!

Conclusion

The best part about this tool is that it’s easy to use, even if you aren’t tech-savvy. We recommend using Google Forms in combination with other third-party apps as well to streamline processes even further. You can also create custom workflows with Google Forms based on the information collected through your form submissions and automate processes based on these responses. This will allow you to simplify your purchase requisition process while reducing human error and time spent collecting data manually!

paresh

Paresh Deshmukh

Co-Founder, BoloForms

11 Oct, 2022

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