What are purchase requests?
Purchase requests allow employees to record planned expenses before an invoice is received – and to get the necessary internal approvals. Once final approval is granted, Candis automatically generates a purchase order number.
The actual order is placed outside of Candis. Once the invoice arrives, it can be linked directly to the purchase request.
The benefit for your organisation: Finance teams and departments can always see which expenses have already been approved – and what amounts are still expected.
Prerequisites
Purchase requests are available from 19 May 2026 from the Plus package onwards.
You have the role of Administrator or Accountant in Candis.
The feature must be activated once in the settings.
Activating purchase requests
Open Settings in Candis.
Navigate to the Purchase Requests menu item.
Activate the feature using the toggle.
Optionally, define a prefix for purchase order numbers (e.g.
PO-orPR-).
Tip: Candis generates purchase order numbers automatically using the format prefix + ascending number once a purchase request has received final approval. You can update the prefix at any time in the settings.
Note: Only administrators and accountants can activate or deactivate purchase requests. Submitters do not have access to these settings.
Configuring invoice coding fields
Administrators and accountants define which accounting fields are visible when creating a purchase request and which of those are required fields.
The following fields are available:
Cost centre
Cost object
General ledger account
Extra cost info / Additional cost dimension (only available for certain integrations)
Fields can be configured per organisation as visible or hidden, and as required or optional.
Note: This configuration only applies to the creation of purchase requests. The mandatory field logic of invoice approval workflows has no impact.
Configuring the category field
In addition to invoice coding, you can activate an optional or mandatory category field. This dropdown field can be filled with your own options – for example:
Service / Goods / …
Within budget / Over budget
…
Category fields help your organisation classify and evaluate purchase requests internally.
Example
A mid-sized company wants to ensure that all planned expenses are approved internally before an order is placed. Administrators activate purchase requests, configure cost centre and the general ledger account as required fields, and set up a two-step approval workflow. The category field is configured with the options Capital expenditure and Operating expense.
Retrieving purchase request data via the API
You can use the Candis API to retrieve purchase request data programmatically – for example, to transfer it to a BI tool or an external system.
The endpoint returns a list of all purchase requests in your organisation, including status, supplier, amounts, cost centre, and other fields. You can filter results by status and time period, and sort and paginate the output.
Note: The API is currently in beta and may be subject to change.
The full technical documentation with all parameters and example responses is available in the API documentation.