Your branch asked for stock on Monday. By Thursday, nobody can say who approved it, whether it was sent, or why the customer is still waiting.
If your requisitions live in WhatsApp groups, phone calls and paper books, your team is not short of effort. It is short of one system.
The problem today: requests that disappear in the chat.
WhatsApp is quick for a question. It is a poor place to run requisitions. Requests get buried under photos and voice notes, an approval is a thumbs up, and nobody can search last month's requests with confidence.
The cost shows up in four places:
- Time. Branch managers and buyers spend hours chasing replies, phoning the warehouse and retyping requests into the stock system.
- Stock and cash. Without a clear record, branches order twice, transfers go unrecorded, and stock sits at one branch while another buys it in.
- Control. When head office asks who approved a transfer or a purchase, the answer is a screenshot, if anyone kept one.
- Customers. A contractor waiting on stock does not care whose phone the request is on. They go to the next store.
A branch requisition system fixes this, but only when the rules behind it are clear. Put a messy process into software and you simply get the mess faster.
How to fix it: six steps for multi-branch requisitions
You can work through these steps with your own team, whether or not you ever speak to us.
- Map of how a requisition travels today
Pick five recent requests from different branches. Trace each one from the first message to the stock arriving. Write down every person, every channel and every wait. Most groups find steps that only one person knows about.
- Give every request one way in
Use one form in one place, and make every requisition carry the same details:
- The requesting branch and person.
- The item, the quantity and the reason, such as a customer order or a reorder.
- The date the stock is needed.
- Whether it is a transfer from another branch or a purchase from a supplier.
Keep WhatsApp for conversation, not for requests.
- Separate stock transfers from purchases
A transfer moves stock you already own. A purchase spends new money. They need different checks and often different approvers. Treat them as two routes from the start, so a simple transfer does not wait in the buyer's queue.
- Write your approval rules down
Decide who approves what, by value, by branch and by type of request. Name a stand in for every approver for leave and busy weeks, and set how long a request may wait before it moves up. If the rules only live in someone's head, no system can follow them.
- Close the loop at the receiving branch
A requisition is not done when it is approved. It is done when the receiving branch confirms what arrived. Ask the branch to confirm quantities on receipt and flag short or damaged stock there and then, not at stock take.
- Keep one record and review it weekly
Every request should carry its own history: who asked, who approved, what was sent and what arrived. Review open requests by branch every week. Patterns show quickly, such as the branch that always orders late or the approver who always holds things up.
What it looks like in BCMFlow
BCMFlow turns those steps into one requisition workflow that your branches, warehouse and head office share.
- Request: branch staff complete one digital form with the details your rules need.
- Route: transfers and purchases follow their own approval paths, based on your written limits, with reminders when a request waits.
- Fulfil: the warehouse or sending branch sees what is approved and what is due.
- Confirm: the receiving branch records what arrived, and every step is logged with role-based access, so your records stay audit ready and POPIA aware.
Operations managers see what is open, at which branch and with whom, without scrolling through chat groups.
See how it works on our Hardware and Building Supply page: https://bcmtransform.com/bcmflow/hardware-building-supply
Map your branch requisition process.
If your requisitions still travel by WhatsApp, phone and paper, start by mapping one. We will show you where requests stall and what one traceable flow could look like across your branches.
Use the Map of my process box on our Hardware and Building Supply page, or book a free 30-minute consultation. Your solution can be live in weeks, not months, with your timeline agreed in writing after a free discovery session.
Call 012 023 0405 or WhatsApp 072 637 8678.
Related reading: Accounts Payable Automation: A Checklist for Finance https://bcmtransform.com/blog/accounts-payable-automation-a-checklist-for-finance
Anriët Pretorius
General Manager