Overview

Purchase types consist of two main configurations:

1. Request form – contains the questions employees need to answer to request a specific product or service.
2. Workflow – defines the process the purchase request must go through to be approved.

Step 1: Access Purchase Types

To manage purchase types:

1. On your sidebar click Spending
2. Then go to Setting page up in the right corner
3. Click procurement
   

   

Once in Procurement settings, go to the Purchase Type tab. Here you can:

• Edit or manage existing purchase types
• Create new purchase types
• Edit the two initial purchase types: New product or Software

Step 2: Create a new request type

1. Click New purchase type
2. Provide a name and description
3. Click Save
    

Step 3: Configure request form

By default, the system provides 7 questions that cannot be deleted but can be made non-mandatory:

• Request title
• Cost and currency
• Vendor name
• URL of the product
• Due date
• Description
   

To add new questions:

1. Click Add Content
2. Choose the question type:
   • Single select
   • Multiple choice
   • Date
   • Numeric
   • Text
   • URL
   • Dropdown
   • Section
3. Preview the form using Preview
4. Click Save when done
   

   If no workflow is set, clicking Publish will automatically create a default workflow with a single level of approval for the admin role.

    

Step 4: Configure workflow

Factorial provides a flexible visual workflow builder.

4.1 Understanding workflows

• The first node is always a Trigger (cannot be edited or deleted)
• To add steps, click + under the trigger node. Three block types are available:
  1. Condition
  2. Task
  3. Approval

4.2 Configure Conditions

Conditions determine the possible paths a purchase request can follow. Variables include:

• Request amount
• Team of the employee submitting the request
• Role of the employee submitting the request

You can add multiple conditions. An alternative path is always available if the request does not meet the requirements.

4.3 Configure Tasks

Tasks represent actions that must be completed:

• General task – manual action, e.g., “Contact the supplier to obtain their tax details”
• Request document – upload a document, e.g., “Upload the quote sent by the supplier”
• Provide document – provide a document for reference or completion

To configure a task:

1. Select the task type
2. Provide a title and description
3. Assign a person
4. Specify the document (if applicable)
5. Set a due date

Tasks allow actions to be completed entirely within Factorial.

4.4 Configure Approvals

Approval blocks offer three options:

• Manual approval – assign one or more approvers, set expected completion days
• Auto-approval – automatically approve based on a condition
• Auto-rejection – automatically reject based on a condition

4.5 Delegator for assignees

To prevent workflows from stalling:

• Assign a Delegator (person or team) for both tasks and manual approvals
• This acts as a fallback if the primary assignee is unavailable

4.6 Version history

The workflow version history allows you to:

• Review previous versions
• Restore previous versions if needed
   

To delete a condition, task or approval, just clik on it and you will be able to edit it or  delete it.