Benchling’s request management features in Workflows—including Requests and Forms—make it easier to initiate and track work. These tools allow for better control of the work your team does and are built on top of a Workflow task to provide them a more customized experience. 

Requests simplify how work is initiated and tracked across your organization by enabling users to submit structured work requests through Request templates that reflect execution progress, while enabling fulfillers to execute and complete the work that needs to be done. Together, they ensure consistency, efficiency, and clarity in task management across teams.

Forms allow you to tailor the Task submission experience by controlling how fields are organized and labeled.  

Before you create a Request or execute a Workflow from a Form, your local admin needs to have configured Request templates and forms. 

Requests

Requests as a requestor 

If you are primarily making requests rather than fulfilling them, you would be considered a requestor. This means that you will primarily interact with a Request template by selecting the relevant Request template, filling it out, submitting it, and then tracking the progress of it. 

Though you can initiate Requests across many parts of Benchling, all of these actions can be taken in the Request Portal, which is the central hub for managing requests. To access the Request Portal: 

1. Click the Requests icon in the left-hand navigation bar
2. In the portal, navigate between two tabs:
   • Request types: Browse available request templates
   • Dashboard: Monitor draft, submitted, or completed requests

Note: Only Request templates you have permission to use will appear in the list.

Create a Request

You can create a request using one of the following methods:

From the Request portal

1. Navigate to the Request portal
2. Select a request from Request Types or click the Create request button in the dashboard

From structured tables or search

1. While working in a notebook or viewing search results, click the Create request icon
2. Choose a request type from the dropdown menu

From Global create

1. Click the Global create icon in the navigation bar
2. Select Request, then choose the desired request type

After selecting a request type, a pop-up window will appear prompting you to complete the following fields:

• Request Type: This dropdown menu shows only request types you are permitted to access
• Request Name: Type in a name - there are currently no uniqueness constraints on request names
• Project: Defaults to the most recently used project. Once a request type is selected, this may update to reflect the project defined in the associated task schema
• Studies: Optional - to tie the Request to a Study, link the Study here
• Watchers: Optional - this defaults to the request creator, but additional users can be added to get notified of request completion progress

Complete the Request template

In order to submit a request, you will need to fill out and submit the Request template so that fulfillers will be able to see that they have a request waiting for them as well as access any of the relevant context provided in the template. To complete a Request template:

1. Fill out the task table
   • If supported by the template, you can:
     • Use Add from worklist to add samples or containers to the table
     • View formula validations based on configured rules
2. Click Submit on the task table to save your submission. At this point, the request and the task table can still be edited and resubmitted
3. Click Send request to complete the submission

Note: Once a request is submitted, it becomes read-only and cannot be edited.

Discard Requests

If the request is no longer needed, you can discard it. Discarding a Request will archive it and any associated Tasks in the Request will automatically transition to a terminal state. 

Track Request status

You can monitor the progress of submitted requests from the Dashboard tab in the Request Portal. The dashboard provides:

• Request name and type
• Task status
• Assignee information and creation / modification timestamps

You can filter by request type or status to narrow your view.

Access Request outputs

After the request has been fulfilled, you can view results and associated outputs directly within the request record. These may include:

• Container links
• Result tables
• Workflow task data

Using Requests as a fulfiller

If you are primarily fulfilling requests rather than making them, you would be considered a fulfiller. 

Fulfillers do not need to take any action to adopt the Requests feature. Tasks created via a request appear in the Workflows dashboard as standard tasks. Fulfillers can reference the originating request for context, but the execution process remains unchanged.

Forms

Create a Task with Forms

If your team’s admin has configured a Form for the Task that you are creating, the way that you fill out Task details will be based on what they configured in the Form.

To create a Task from a form: 

1. In the Create Task group modal, click the Form option above the Task table
2. This will give you the custom form your administrator configured. Fill out the required fields and click Create to make your task 

For more information about creating and executing Workflows, please see the linked article. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: Can multiple users edit a draft request at the same time?

A: No. Only one user can edit a draft request at a time. If another user tries to access it, they will be locked out of editing.

Q: Does the new Requests feature have parity with Legacy Requests?

A: No. While this is meant to serve the same use cases as legacy requests, it does not have exact parity with legacy request features. That being said, we will be closing more of the feature gaps in the future. 

New functionality introduced:

• Improved requestor experience
• Request many items at once
• Request-level granularity and control
• Support for default values in the task table

Q: Can I use both Legacy Requests and Workflows + Requests?

Yes, but they do not interoperate. Both systems can exist on the same tenant, but:

• A task in Legacy Requests is not interchangeable with a task in Workflows
• Other Benchling features (e.g., Insights) treat them as distinct systems