Raising a request

Some companies let anyone raise a request. Others route everything through IT and HR, so employees ask them and they raise it on that person’s behalf. Your company chooses which, and a single person can be allowed or blocked individually.

You do not have to guess. If raising is turned off for you, the buttons are not shown and the page says who to ask instead. If you can see a New request button, you can raise one.

There are three ways in, and they all reach the same form.

1. 1

   From the device itself — the shortest route

   Open My assets. Every device you hold carries three buttons: Report issue, Replacement and Upgrade. They open the form with the type already chosen and the device filled in, so nobody types an asset tag by hand.

2. 2

   From Requests

   Open Requests and choose New request. Use this when the request is not about a device you already hold — new equipment, furniture, pantry supplies.

3. 3

   From your phone

   The PioAssets app has a Requests tab with the same form. Useful when the problem is in front of you and your laptop is not.

Report issue asks what is wrong rather than what type of request it is, and picks the type for you:

• Laptop performance issue
• Display issue
• Keyboard / mouse issue
• Headset / camera issue
• Software issue
• Hardware damage
• Replacement request
• Other asset issue

Hardware damage is raised at High priority automatically; the rest start at Normal. You can change it.

Ten types, so the right people see it and the right questions are asked.

Additional equipment

You need something you do not have yet.

Replacement

Something you hold needs swapping for another unit.

Upgrade

What you hold works, but you need a better specification.

Damaged item

Equipment has been damaged and needs attention.

Lost item

Equipment cannot be found.

Repair

Something is faulty but repairable.

Office / furniture

Desks, chairs and workplace items.

Kitchen / pantry

Pantry and kitchen supplies.

Accessibility

Equipment needed for an accessibility requirement.

Project requirement

Equipment for a specific project or client.

Cost is not your job. Only finance roles can enter an estimated cost. Describe what you need; procurement prices it.

The request enters an approval chain your company configured. A step is either a role — HR, IT, Office, Finance — or your manager. Each step is decided in turn: the next reviewer only sees the request once the one before them has agreed, so nobody is asked to approve something that may still be rejected upstream.

The manager step needs no setup. If a line manager is recorded on your profile, the request goes to them alone; if not, it goes to everyone who holds the Manager role. Either way, somebody real receives it the moment you submit.

A step nobody staffs is skipped, not waited on. If a step points at a role no account holds, the chain marks it “skipped — nobody holds this role” and moves straight to the next reviewer. The one exception: the final step is never skipped, so every request ends with a human decision.

Approvers are notified by email and see it under Requests → Awaiting me. An approver can also mark your request under review — the chain then shows “Under review by …” instead of a silent “awaiting decision”, so you can tell progress from neglect. You get an email at every step: each approval with the reviewer’s note, and each fulfilment move — ordered, arrived, ready, done.

One request per thing: if you already have an open request for the same item, the second is refused rather than quietly duplicated.

The rules above, as a single worked example. This is a real four-step chain — a laptop for a new starter, estimated at 1,699 — and every line is what the product actually does, not an illustration of what it might.

1. 1

   Raises itRavi (requester)→ Manager approval

   Fills in the type, what he needs and why, and submits. He can cancel it himself right up until somebody decides.

   The request lands with the manager within seconds — inbox and email.

2. 2

   Marks it under review, then approvesDaniel (manager)→ HR review

   Finds it under Requests → Awaiting me. Three choices: mark under review, approve, reject — each with a note.

   Ravi gets two emails: “Manager review is reviewing”, then “Manager review approved — Team needs it, approved.”

3. 3

   Confirms the joinerSofia (HR)→ IT review

   A fresh step: HR does not inherit the manager’s review mark, and cannot see the manager’s step as theirs to decide.

   Ravi hears again, with Sofia’s note attached.

4. 4

   Confirms the specificationMarcus (IT)→ Finance approval

   Decides what to actually issue. If nobody held the IT Administrator role, this step would skip itself rather than stall.

   Ravi hears again. The chain moves to Finance because the estimate is above the Finance threshold.

5. 5

   Approves the spendHannah (finance)→ Approved

   The last step. Cost is visible here and to nobody below it.

   Ravi is told the request is fully approved and being prepared.

What Ravi received: eight messages — one as each desk picked it up, one as each approved, each carrying that reviewer’s own words. At no point did he have to ask where it had got to.

After approval it continues through fulfilment — reserved or ordered, arrived, ready, handed over — and Ravi is emailed at each of those too. The PDF on the request prints the whole trail: every step, who decided it, when, and their note.

If somebody rejects instead: the request stops there, the remaining steps are marked skipped so the chain reads as a finished history rather than a half-done one, and the rejection reaches Ravi with the reason.

These are the exact badges you will see on the request, so you can match what is on your screen to what it means.

Your requests are under Requests on the web and in the Requests tab on the phone. Open one to see the full approval chain: what has been decided, what is outstanding, and who it is sitting with.

If a request has not moved, the request page names the person or role it is waiting on — or that they have started reviewing it. When it says nobody can approve this right now, the final step of the chain points at a role no account holds — earlier steps skip themselves, but the last one always waits for a person. That is a configuration fix, not a delay: send the request number to whoever administers PioAssets for your company.

You can cancel your own request at any point before it is decided, and add a comment to it at any time — a comment is usually faster than a new request.

Once it is issued to you the request reaches Assigned and the device appears under My assets with a prompt to confirm you received it. Confirming closes the loop for IT — until you do, their records say the device left the store but nobody has said it arrived.