Create a purchase request

Operation ID: createPurchaseRequest

Group: Accounting › Purchase Requests

POST /accounting/purchase-requests

Retry-safe: A write that accepts Idempotency-Key: repeating a request with the same key replays the stored answer instead of executing twice.

Creates a purchase request. The purchase request is created with its lines, and the response contains only its id. The request starts as 'pendingApproval' and then goes through your tenant's approval policy, which approves it at once when no approvers are configured.

Each line is an item line or an expense line, set by isItem. An item line is priced by quantity times price and uses itemId and unitOfMeasureId. An expense line is priced by editableAmount.

If your tenant makes department required, send departmentId on every line. If it makes any other tag dimension required, this endpoint can't create the request. Either failure returns an error that has no code in the error list.

To stop a purchase request, reject it with POST accounting/purchase-requests/:id/reject.

To see the request, including its purchaseRequestNumber, use GET accounting/purchase-requests/:id.

Parameters

Name	In	Type	Required	Description
`Api-Version`	header	string · v1	yes	The API version this request targets, named by its public identifier. Required on every request; omitting it, or naming a version this company does not have, is answered with 400. This document describes version `v1`.
`Idempotency-Key`	header	string	no	An opaque caller-chosen string (1-255 characters) that makes this request safe to retry. Repeating the same key with an identical request body replays the original response instead of re-executing - but only once that original request succeeded; a failed attempt re-executes on retry. Repeating the key with a different body is answered with 422. A key still in flight is answered with 409 - as is a key whose original request was interrupted before it finished, for a few minutes afterwards, until that attempt is presumed dead. A completed response stays replayable for 24 hours. The key is scoped to the caller, not to the action: reusing it for a different action is answered with 409 or 422 rather than treated independently. On read actions this header is ignored. On write actions that cannot offer the guarantee it is answered with `400 IDEMPOTENCY_NOT_SUPPORTED` rather than silently ignored.

Request body

Required, application/json: createPurchaseRequestInput.

Field	Type	Required	Description
`entityId`	string	yes	The legal entity that owns the request. See id on GET base/entities. Example: `"8f2c1d40-5a6b-4c7d-9e80-1f2a3b4c5d6e"`.
`currency`	string	yes	The currency of the request. Format ISO 4217, for example 'USD'. Governs every line amount. Example: `"EUR"`.
`vendorId`	string	no	The vendor the request is aimed at, when one is known. See id on GET accounting/vendors/:id.
`departmentId`	string	no	The department the request is raised for. See id on GET people/departments/:id.
`description`	string	no	A public-facing description of the request. Example: `"Replacement laptops"`.
`internalDescription`	string	no	An internal description, visible only to internal users.
`externalMemo`	string	no	A memo carried onto vendor-facing documents.
`paymentTerms`	string	no	The payment-terms key requested for the resulting order, for example 'net30'. These are tenant data, not a fixed list of values.
`externalId`	string	no	The identifier this request has in the upstream system that produced it.
`needByDate`	date	no	The date the goods or services are required by. Use format YYYY-MM-DD. Example: `"2026-10-15"`.
`startDate`	date	no	The date the request starts. Use format YYYY-MM-DD.
`endDate`	date	no	The date the request ends. Use format YYYY-MM-DD.
`lines`	array<object>	yes	The lines this request asks for. At least one is required. Example: `[{"isItem":false,"description":"Laptop","editableAmount":"1800.00","priority":"high"}]`.
`lines[].isItem`	boolean	no	True for an item line, priced by quantity times price. False for an expense line, priced by editableAmount.
`lines[].description`	string	no	A description of what is being requested.
`lines[].itemId`	string	no	The item being requested. See id on GET inventory/items/:id.
`lines[].unitOfMeasureId`	string	no	The unit the quantity is expressed in. See id on GET inventory/unit-of-measures/:id.
`lines[].departmentId`	string	no	The department this line is allocated to. See id on GET people/departments/:id.
`lines[].quantity`	decimal	no	The requested quantity, as a decimal.
`lines[].price`	decimal	no	The unit price, in the request currency, as a decimal.
`lines[].editableAmount`	decimal	no	The manually entered line amount, in the request currency, as a decimal.
`lines[].needByDate`	date	no	The date this line is needed by. Use format YYYY-MM-DD.
`lines[].deliveryDate`	date	no	The expected delivery date for this line. Use format YYYY-MM-DD.
`lines[].priority`	string	no	The urgency of this line. Accepted values: 'high', 'medium', 'low'.
`attachments`	array<object>	no	Files to attach to the request. Each names an already-uploaded file by its id.
`attachments[].fileName`	string	yes	The display name of the attached file.
`attachments[].fileId`	string	yes	The identifier of the already-uploaded file. There is no endpoint for it.

{
  "entityId": "8f2c1d40-5a6b-4c7d-9e80-1f2a3b4c5d6e",
  "currency": "EUR",
  "vendorId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
  "departmentId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
  "description": "Replacement laptops",
  "internalDescription": "<internalDescription>",
  "externalMemo": "<externalMemo>",
  "paymentTerms": "<paymentTerms>",
  "externalId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
  "needByDate": "2026-10-15",
  "startDate": "2026-01-15",
  "endDate": "2026-01-15",
  "lines": [
    {
      "isItem": false,
      "description": "Laptop",
      "editableAmount": "1800.00",
      "priority": "high"
    }
  ],
  "attachments": [
    {
      "fileName": "<fileName>",
      "fileId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6"
    }
  ]
}

Response

200 Success

Under data (createPurchaseRequestOutput):

Field	Type	Required	Description
`id`	string	yes	The unique identifier for the created purchase request. Example: `"5f8a2c31-6b07-4d92-a4e8-1c93b0f7d254"`.

{
  "data": {
    "id": "5f8a2c31-6b07-4d92-a4e8-1c93b0f7d254"
  },
  "diagnostics": [
    {
      "code": "<code>",
      "message": "<message>",
      "severity": "error",
      "path": [
        "<path>"
      ],
      "details": "<details>"
    }
  ]
}

Response headers

Idempotency-Replayed — Present and true only when this response replays a previously stored one for the same Idempotency-Key, rather than reflecting a live execution. Absent on a live response - never sent as false.

Errors

Code	Status
`REFERENCE_NOT_FOUND`	400
`TOO_MANY_LINES`	400
`IDEMPOTENCY_KEY_CONFLICT`	409
`IDEMPOTENCY_PAYLOAD_MISMATCH`	422

Statuses

400 — Invalid request or business failure. Codes: REFERENCE_NOT_FOUND, TOO_MANY_LINES
401 — The request carries no valid access token.
403 — Not authorized
404 — Not found
409 — The Idempotency-Key is still being processed by another request.
422 — The Idempotency-Key was already used with a different request payload.
429 — Too many requests from this client address. The response has no body and no Retry-After header.
500 — Internal server error