Purchase requisitions are sometimes treated as an administrative layer on top of ordering, and their whole purpose is timing. They put the approval at the only moment when saying no is still free: before a supplier has been told anything. Once an order is out, or goods have arrived, refusal costs a relationship and usually money, and the approval becomes a formality.
What a requisition asks
Should the organisation spend this money at all. That is a different question from whether the price is right, which purchasing handles, and from whether the invoice is correct, which payables handles. Keeping the three questions separate, and asking each at the right moment, is what makes each of them answerable.
What goes on one
What is wanted, roughly what it costs, which budget carries it, when it is needed, and why. Five fields. Requesters are not finance staff, and every additional field reduces the number of requests actually raised rather than improving the decisions made on them. The why field is the one approvers read first.
Why speed is a control question
A requisition process that takes days sends people to buy on a card instead, and that spend then arrives with no order, no approval and no match. So the speed of the requisition process directly determines how much of your spend is controlled at all, which makes elapsed time a control metric rather than a convenience one.
Questions people ask about purchase requisitions
Is a requisition the same as an order?
No. The requisition is internal and asks permission; the order is external and makes the commitment.
Do all purchases need one?
Most organisations set a threshold. Setting it deliberately is better than leaving people to guess, which produces inconsistent practice.
Who approves requisitions?
The budget holder for the cost centre, against a value threshold taken from your existing delegated authority.