Purchase Requisition vs Purchase Order: What's the Difference?

Quick answer: A purchase requisition is an internal request asking permission to buy something. A purchase order (PO) is the document you send to a supplier to place the order on stated terms. The requisition comes first because the business should agree on the need, the budget and the approver before anyone makes a commitment to an outside party.

Why PR and PO get mixed up

"PR" (purchase requisition) and "PO" (purchase order) look alike. Both list items, quantities and prices, and in a small team the same person may raise both. So people use the two terms as if they mean the same thing, or skip the requisition altogether: someone sends a WhatsApp message to the MD, gets a thumbs up, and calls the supplier.

That shortcut works until something goes wrong. A supplier delivers against a phone call and nobody can show who approved it. Two departments order the same item. The budget for the quarter is gone before finance hears about it. When an auditor asks why a ₦2 million order was placed, the only evidence is a chat thread.

Keeping the two documents separate fixes this, because each one answers a different question. The requisition answers "should we buy this?" The purchase order answers "what exactly are we buying, from whom, and on what terms?" That is why many organisations' purchasing policies say a supplier should not start work or deliver until a PO (or another approved authorisation, such as a signed contract) is in place.

The difference at a glance

Why the requisition comes first

A requisition is an internal document: its job is to tell purchasing what is needed and to collect approval for it. Depending on the organisation, it may pass through a line manager, a budget holder and a procurement review before it turns into an order.

A purchase order is different in kind. Under some purchasing rules, such as the US Federal Acquisition Regulation, an order is treated as an offer to buy on specified terms, and a contract exists once the supplier accepts it. The exact position depends on your own terms and the law that applies to you, so check with a lawyer for specific cases. The practical point is simple: once the PO goes out, you are much closer to owing money. The requisition is your last cheap chance to say no, change the quantity or choose a different option.

From need to payment: the 8 stages

The table shows the usual flow from a need to a paid invoice, who owns each stage and the document it produces. Job titles vary; in a small company one person may cover several rows.

Two variations are common. Some organisations collect quotes before the requisition is raised, so the approver sees the real price, not an estimate. And for a repeat purchase from a known supplier, stage 4 may be a quick price check rather than a full round of quotes. Either way, the order of the core documents stays the same: approval before the PO, the PO before delivery, and a match between PO, delivery and invoice before payment.

If you want the whole process from the buyer's side, with where time goes at each step, read the procurement process step by step. If your requests arrive half complete, how to organise purchase requests covers what a good requisition must include.

A worked example (illustrative)

A logistics company in Lagos needs to renew antivirus licences for 30 laptops before the current ones expire. The company, people and figures here are illustrative.

1. The IT officer raises a requisition: 30 endpoint security licences for 12 months, ₦14,000 each, ₦420,000 in total, needed within two weeks, with the justification "current licences expire in just over two weeks".
2. The IT manager approves it, then the department head approves it as budget holder.
3. Procurement confirms the price with the usual supplier.
4. Procurement issues a PO for ₦420,000 with payment terms and a delivery date, and sends it to the supplier.
5. The supplier activates the licences and invoices against the PO number. Finance checks the invoice against the PO and confirmation that the licences are active, then pays.

Notice that nothing reached the supplier until step 4. If the department head had rejected the request (say the company was switching products), there would be no order to cancel and no supplier to apologise to.

How RequisitionPro helps

You do not need software to keep requisitions and POs apart: a clear policy and a shared register can work at low volume. The difficulties tend to start when approvals happen in chat and POs are typed up from memory. Here is where the platform fits.

Difficulty: nobody can show who approved a purchase. Approval workflows are set up per department, with each step assigned to a person or a role. The requisition shows its status and the approval trail, so anyone checking later can see each step and when it was completed.

Difficulty: the PO does not match what was approved. A PO is created from an approved requisition. On the Create Purchase Order screen you choose the approved requisition, the vendor is filled in from it, and the line items carry over, so procurement is not retyping quantities and prices. The screenshot below shows that screen.

Difficulty: you lose track of an order once it leaves the building. On the PO page you can download a PDF, send the PO to the vendor by email with a PDF, mark it Acknowledged when the supplier confirms, and mark it Complete when the order is done. A Company Admin can put a PO on hold or cancel it. The page also links back to the source requisition, so the trail from request to order stays in one place.

Difficulty: you want quotes before you commit. On paid plans, a Request for Quotation (RFQ) collects quotes from vendors. Awarding an RFQ creates a draft requisition, not a PO, so the winning quote still goes through your normal approval before any order is placed.

One boundary to be clear about: RequisitionPro covers the stages from requisition to purchase order. It does not record goods receipt, match invoices or make payments. Stages 6 to 8 stay with your stores, finance team and accounting tools.

Where to see it: the section "Turn an approval into a purchase order" in the onboarding guide walks through these screens.

Related questions

Is a purchase requisition legally binding? Not on a supplier. It is an internal document, and the supplier normally never sees it. It binds people inside the business only as far as your own policy says.

Do I need a PO for every purchase? Your policy decides. Many businesses handle very small, routine spending another way, such as petty cash. Write down which purchases need a PO and which do not, so staff are not guessing.

What is the difference between a PO and an invoice? The PO goes from you to the supplier before delivery and says what you are ordering. The invoice comes from the supplier after delivery and asks to be paid. Finance compares the two, along with what was received, before paying.

Who should approve a requisition? Usually the requester's manager or department head, plus a budget or finance approver for larger amounts. Approval limits and a spending matrix covers how to set this out.

Next step

Watch the "Purchase Orders" video (2:11) on the tutorials page to see an approved requisition become a purchase order.