Untracked purchases are a budget management nightmare. This purchase request form creates a clear record of every request before money is spent — including what's being bought, from whom, what it costs, and why it's needed. Finance and managers get the context to approve quickly, and nothing slips through without documentation.
Purchase request forms exist at the intersection of operational efficiency and financial control. Without one, purchases happen through informal channels — a Slack message to a manager, an employee buying something and expensing it later, a verbal approval that nobody remembers. These informal processes create budget surprises, inconsistent spending decisions, and no paper trail when audits happen.
This template covers the full picture of what an approver needs: what is being purchased, from whom, how many, at what cost, and why. The product link field is a small but significant addition — sending an approver directly to the product page eliminates the 'can you send me more details' back-and-forth that delays approvals by days. The priority field lets your finance and operations teams triage incoming requests instead of processing them all in submission order.
For teams without formal procurement software, formformform provides the structured intake layer that makes purchase approvals manageable. Every request arrives in your approver's inbox immediately, is stored in a searchable dashboard, and can be exported for quarterly spend reviews. The total cost and expense category fields make it possible to track departmental spending against budget without a full ERP system.
Click 'Use this template' to open the purchase request form in formformform.
Update the intro paragraph to reflect your company's actual approval thresholds and process (e.g., under $500 = manager approval, over $500 = finance approval).
Customize the expense categories to match your chart of accounts or budget categories.
Set your finance team's or operations manager's email as the notification recipient.
Consider creating separate forms for different spending tiers — a lightweight 3-field form for small purchases under $50 and this full form for larger requests.
Share the form link on your company intranet and include it in employee onboarding documentation so everyone knows how to submit a purchase request.
employees submit better requests when they know upfront what approval level their purchase requires. State your thresholds (e.g., '$0-$500: manager approval, $500+: finance review') in the intro paragraph.
even a 'received and under review' response prevents employees from re-submitting or going around the process. Use the post-submit message to set timeline expectations.
a direct link to the exact product or subscription page lets approvers review specifications and pricing without requesting more information.
the category field over time reveals spending patterns. If 'Software & Subscriptions' is growing rapidly, that's worth investigating before renewal season.
'urgent' should mean blocking work, not 'I'd like this soon.' If you're seeing priority inflation, address it in your purchase request policy.
a monthly export of approved requests by category gives your finance team a running budget view that complements your accounting system.
Yes, completely free. You can collect unlimited purchase requests with no subscription required.
Every submission triggers an instant email to the notification address you configure. Set this to your finance team's inbox, a shared approvals alias, or the relevant department manager.
The form itself collects the information. For routing to different approvers based on cost, you can use Zapier to trigger different email notifications based on the total cost field value.
The form doesn't have built-in status tracking. Use the post-submit message to explain the review timeline, and build a communication step into your workflow to notify requesters of the decision.
Yes. All submissions are stored in your formformform dashboard and can be exported as a CSV. Filter by date range and expense category for quarterly budget reviews.
A purchase request is submitted before a purchase to get approval. An expense report is submitted after a purchase to request reimbursement. formformform has templates for both.
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Use this template