Purchase & store glossary
What Is an Indent? Meaning in Purchase & Store
Indent, in short
An indent is an internal request raised by a department asking the store or purchase team for material. It lists the item, quantity, required date and purpose. Once approved, the store issues the item from stock or the purchase team buys it.
Also called: Material indent, Store indent, Purchase indent
In Indian factories, an indent is the first document in the buying cycle. A maintenance fitter needs a bearing, a production supervisor needs welding rods, or the boiler house needs refractory bricks. Instead of walking into the store or calling the purchase manager, they raise an indent.
What an indent contains
A typical material indent has:
- Indent number and date, so it can be tracked
- Department or cost centre raising the request
- Item name and code, as it appears in the item master
- Quantity and unit (nos, kg, metres, litres)
- Required by date, and whether it is urgent
- Purpose or machine, for example "Kiln 2 gearbox"
- Raised by and approved by
You can start with our free indent format in Excel.
Indent vs purchase requisition
The two words are often used interchangeably. Strictly, an indent goes to the store first. If the item is in stock, the store issues it against a material issue slip. If it is not, the indent becomes a purchase requisition for the purchase team, which then sends an RFQ and raises a purchase order.
Why indents go wrong on paper
Paper indents get lost, duplicated or approved late. Nobody knows whether an indent is still pending, already ordered or received. Urgent indents skip approval, and the owner finds out only when the bill arrives. Over a year, that shows up as emergency buying at higher rates and machines waiting for spares.
A simple example
The grinding section raises indent INDRLM/25-26/00159 for 1,000 nos of Bearing 6210 ZZ, required in 10 days. The store has 40 in stock, below its reorder level of 120, so the indent is approved and sent to purchase. Purchase asks three vendors for quotes, compares them on a comparative statement and places the PO.
How IndustryPrime handles it
Staff raise indents from any device, including a phone. Each indent routes to the right approver automatically and shows live status from created to approved to ordered to received, so nobody chases paper slips or WhatsApp threads. Open indent visibility, suggested order quantities and an indent MIS report are built in. See indent management software.