Student Guide: Submitting a Budget or Purchase Request

What's my access level?

Access Level: Leader, Manager, Student Org Admin or Org Admin

This article is intended for users with Leader, Manager, Student Org Admin or Org Admin access in Suitable. If you don’t have one of these roles, some of the steps outlined below may not be available in your account.

Ineligible Roles: Member

Keep in mind...

Budget and purchase requests help your organization get funding for its plans, with every item, total and approval in one place. You can see your balances update right on your organization's page.

Note: You can request funds only from accounts your campus has added your organization to. You cannot request more than the fund holds or more than your budget. These requests track funding in Suitable. They do not move money on their own.

How to start a budget or purchase request:

1. Navigate to your student organization's profile page.
2. Select the Financials tab. The Financials Summary shows your balances, and the Accounts tab lists each account your organization can request from.
3. Find the account you want to request from and select Financial Request + on its row.

4. The Create Request window opens. It lists the requests set up for that account. Select the one you need, such as Budget Request.

5. When a Request Title field appears, enter a title and select Next. Your request opens on its own page.

How to fill out your request:

1. Look at the Timeline. It lists every form you need to fill out, ending with Expenses, and the review step that follows.
2. Answer each form and select Submit to move to the next one. To finish later, select Save draft.

3. On the Expenses form, select Add new line item. Each line item is added to your total automatically.

4. Enter the details for the item; you may or may not see all these fields depending on how your organization set the workflow up.
   • Name (required)
   • Description (up to 250 characters)
   • Amount (required)
   • Attribute - your insitution may or may not have turned this on to help categorize expenses (ex: you might apply for travel expenses labeled "travel" and event related expenses labeled "programs")
   • Link, if the item can be found online. It must be a valid URL.
   • Attachment, such as a quote or receipt (up to 100MB)
5. Select Add.

6. Repeat for each item. The Total Line Items and Total Amount update as you go. To change or remove an item, select the pencil or trash icon on its card.

Note: Your campus may require more fields, such as a description or attachment. Required fields are marked in the window.

How to submit your request:

1. When your line items are complete, select Submit. The message "Your changes have been submitted." appears.
2. Select OK. The Timeline shows your forms as Completed, and the review step shows a count like 0 of 1 until a reviewer acts.

3. Return to the Financials tab to see your balances. They typically update when you submit and again when your request is approved.

Note: When each balance changes depends on how your campus set up the request. Check with your campus if a balance looks different from what you expect.

Good to know

Add a link or attachment for each item. Your reviewer uses it to check the amount, and they may send it back without the link or attachment.

Workflows can be sent back by reviewers for edits, but you do not have to start over! Simply navigate to your requests page, find the workflow you are working on, and make edits there before resubmiting. If you need to make edits, you will recieve an email and a notification in Suitable.

Need to tell your reviewer something? You can return at any time and add a comment. Your reviewer might also leave comments for you in the approval process. 

Get more from Suitable

If your request is sent back, your earlier answers are kept, so you only fix what your reviewer asked for. Learn how in Student Guide: Submitting a Workflow Request. 

If you have additional questions, chat with us below or send us an email at support@suitable.co.