Purchase Requisition or Purchase Request is a precise document generated by an internal organization or external to notify the purchasing department of items it needs to order, their quantity, and the time frame that will be given in the future. It may also contain the authorization to proceed with the purchase. It is also called Purchase Order Request.

As part of an organization's internal financial controls, the accounting department may institute a purchase requisition process to help manage requests for purchases. Requests for the creation of purchase of goods and services are documented and routed for approval within the organization and then delivered to the accounting group.

Typically an accounting staff member is assigned responsibility for purchase order management, referred to commonly as the PO (purchase order)

Purchase order

A purchase order is a commercial document issued by a buyer to a seller, indicating types, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services the seller will provide to the buyer. Sending a purchase order to a supplier constitutes a legal offer to buy products or services...

 Coordinator.

Purchase requests are tracked against both internal departmental budgets as well as general ledger

General ledger

The main accounting record of a business which uses double-entry bookkeeping. It will usually include accounts for such items as current assets, fixed assets, liabilities, revenue and expense items, gains and losses. Each General Ledger is divided into debits and credits sections. The left hand...

(GL) categories.

Structure

A purchase requisition is a request sent to the purchasing department to procure goods or services. It is originated and approved by the department requiring the goods or services. Typically, it contains a description and quantity of the goods or services to be purchased,preferred make, a required delivery date, account number and the amount of money that the purchasing department is authorized to spend for the goods or services. Often, the names of suggested supply sources are also included.

A purchase requisition is owned by the originating department and should not be changed by the purchasing department without obtaining approval from the originating department. This important distinction (e.g. essential control) is not clearly defined in some of the more popular integrated procurement software systems on the market today.

In some industrial (e.g. production line) environments, the purchasing department may be assigned responsibility for requesting and purchasing goods. This is especially true for raw material purchases where the purchasing department is also responsible for inventory management.

A purchase requisition is not a purchase order and therefore should never be used to purchase goods or services or be used as an authorization to pay an invoice from a supplier or service provider.