Purchase requisition software has a single measurable purpose: to get a request in front of the right person and answered quickly, with a record of the answer. Products differ far less in what they can do than in how quickly a request actually moves through them in practice, which depends on four unglamorous details rather than on any headline feature.
Delegation, because absence is the main delay
The commonest cause of a stalled requisition is an approver on leave with no cover. Software that handles delegation properly, including automatically during declared absence, removes more delay than any amount of clever routing. Ask specifically how it behaves when an approver does nothing for a week, because that is the case that actually occurs.
Thresholds that reflect your policy
Approval limits should be configurable by value, cost centre and category without requiring the vendor to change anything. If a threshold change is a support ticket, the thresholds will not be maintained, and unmaintained thresholds are worse than none because people trust them.
Visibility for the requester
The person who raised the request should be able to see where it is and who has it without asking. Most of the informal chasing that surrounds requisitions is people trying to find out that one fact. Making it visible removes work from everybody, including the approver being chased.
The link through to the order
An approved requisition should become a purchase order without rekeying, carrying its approval with it. Where that link is manual, requisitions and orders drift apart and the approval trail breaks exactly where an auditor will look.
Questions people ask about purchase requisition software
Is requisition software worth it for a small team?
It depends on how many people raise requests. With two or three requesters an email rule and a spreadsheet often suffices; the case grows with the number of people who need to ask rather than with spend.
Should it include a catalogue?
Only if you buy repeatedly from a small set of suppliers with stable prices. Catalogues are maintenance work and they pay off in that specific case rather than generally.
What if requests are urgent?
Have an explicit fast path with a named approver rather than pretending urgency does not happen. Undocumented emergency routes are how approval processes quietly stop being followed.