=8.= Any discussion of the routine duties of the purchasing department is necessarily more or less theoretical and any method of procedure laid down is subject to such modification as will reduce it to a practical working basis for the individual establishment. To present the subject in a practical manner, therefore, this discussion will be confined to the needs of an average manufacturing business. As has been stated elsewhere in these papers, it is much less difficult to modify a system designed to care for all details in a large establishment than to expand the simple systems of a small business. The duties of the purchasing agent in respect to the actual purchase of goods may be classified as follows: 1. Receiving _requisitions_, or orders for materials and supplies required for stock or in different departments. 2. Placing and following up orders. 3. Checking receipt of goods. 4. Checking invoices for prices. 5. Filing order copies and requisitions. =9. Requisitions.= Under ordinary circumstances the purchasing agent will place no orders until he has first received a requisition from either the stores department or the department that requires the material. The requisition should in every case state the purpose for which the material or supplies is required, as well as by whom wanted. Each department should be supplied with its own requisition blanks, and, to make them distinctive, a different color should be adopted for each department. Each department should also be identified by a letter which will be printed on the requisition blank in connection with a serial number. Thus the requisition numbers of one department will start with _A_1, another _B_1, etc. A positive rule should be laid down that all requisitions issued by one department are to be signed by one person, usually the foreman. This rule must be rigidly enforced and no requisitions honored without the proper signature. While requisitions should be drafted in a form to meet individual requirements, Fig. 10 is given as a typical example that will be found suitable in a large majority of offices. The requisition, as a rule, is made in duplicate. The original goes to the purchasing agent and the duplicate is retained by the foreman. In some of the larger establishments a triplicate form is used, the original and duplicate being sent to the purchasing agent. The duplicate is then returned to the foreman with proper notations to show that the order has been placed. There are very few cases, however, where this is necessary. It is not a good plan to require the foreman to keep records that can be eliminated, and the average foreman does not care when or where the order is placed; all he wants is the material. He has no interest in going back of the purchasing agent on whom he has made requisition.