The requisition worksheet: planning purchases in Business Central

Where the requisition worksheet in Business Central fits in buying

Think of the worksheet as a draft. Nothing in it is an order until a buyer says so. Business Central checks sales orders, forecasts, transfers and stock against each item's policy. Then it writes one line per suggested action. Each line has a quantity, a due date and the vendor from the item card.

It handles items that you replenish by purchase or transfer. Items that you replenish by production or assembly belong in the planning worksheet, which has its own guide. So companies on the Essentials license that buy and resell do most of their supply planning on this one page, often once a day.

Running Calculate Plan in Business Central step by step

Open Requisition Worksheets, pick a worksheet name and choose Calculate Plan. The request page asks for a starting date and an ending date, which set the planning horizon. You can also filter by item, location or vendor. Buyers who each own a product group often keep one worksheet name for each buyer.

The batch job then fills the lines. Running it again replaces earlier suggestions for the same filter. So there is no harm in calculating again after data changes. Use a filter that matches how you buy. Planning every item at once works. Smaller slices are quicker to read.

Reading action messages in the requisition worksheet in Business Central

Every line carries an action message. New proposes an order that does not exist yet. Change Qty. and Reschedule propose editing an existing purchase order. Cancel proposes removing one that nobody needs any more. The original quantity and date sit beside the suggested ones, so the buyer can judge each change.

Buyers can change the quantity, date or vendor first. The Order Tracking action shows which demand a line is meant to cover. Lines with a warning deserve a closer look. They usually mean that stock will fall below the safety level, or that the suggested date is already in the past.

Turning the requisition worksheet in Business Central into orders

Tick Accept Action Message on the lines to keep. Then choose Carry Out Action Message. Business Central creates purchase orders grouped by vendor. It also creates transfer orders where the replenishment system is Transfer. Accepted lines leave the worksheet. The rest stay until the next run.

The same page serves two special cases. Drop Shipment, Get Sales Orders pulls sales lines that a vendor will ship straight to the customer. Special Order does the same for goods that you buy for one customer but receive in your warehouse. Both link the purchase line to the sales line automatically.

Why the requisition worksheet in Business Central suggests the wrong order

Odd suggestions nearly always trace back to item data. A blank reordering policy means the system never plans the item. A missing vendor number produces lines that cannot become orders. Lead times left at zero make every suggestion due today. Fix the item card, and the worksheet is fixed.

Too many small reschedule messages are another complaint. Dampener period and dampener quantity on the item tell planning to ignore changes below a threshold. The lot accumulation period combines nearby demand into one order. If your buyers have stopped trusting the worksheet, our consultants can go through the settings with them.

Requisition worksheet in Business Central: buyer questions

What is the difference between the requisition worksheet in Business Central and the planning worksheet?

The requisition worksheet plans items that you purchase or transfer. The planning worksheet also plans production and assembly, and it runs full MRP across bill of material levels. Distributors mostly use the first. Manufacturers mostly use the second. Some companies use both, one for each type of item.

Why does Calculate Plan return no lines?

Usually the items have no reordering policy, the date range does not cover the demand, or a filter excludes the location. It also happens when supply already covers demand. That is a good result and not an error.

Can I change a suggested quantity before creating the order?

Yes. Edit the quantity, due date or vendor on the line before you carry out the action message. The purchase order then carries your values. Planning has already applied order multiples and minimum quantities from the item. So check them if the final quantity looks odd.

Will the worksheet create one purchase order per vendor?

Yes. When you carry out action messages, accepted lines for the same vendor and location combine onto one purchase order. It has a line for each item. That saves buyers from keying separate orders by hand.

Does the requisition worksheet need the Premium license?

No. Essentials includes the requisition worksheet, reordering policies, forecasts for purchased items, drop shipments and special orders. You need Premium only when your company needs production orders and the manufacturing side of planning.

Further pages on supply planning

Good purchase suggestions in the requisition worksheet in Business Central depend on the settings behind them. These pages explain reordering policies, the planning worksheet for manufactured items, how we set up purchasing and how drop shipments work. Read the reordering policy page first, since it drives most lines. Our consultants can go through the settings with your buyers and make the worksheet something they use every day. For the product detail, see Business Central documentation on Microsoft Learn.