A requisition is the internal ask: an employee needs new laptops, a manager needs a consulting engagement approved, and they submit a requisition describing what's needed, the business justification, the estimated cost, and the cost center it should be charged to.

Once approved against budget and policy, the requisition converts into a purchase order, the formal document sent to the vendor. The requisition is entirely internal; the PO is what the outside world (the vendor) actually sees.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between a requisition and a purchase order?

A requisition is the internal request, seeking approval before anything is bought. A purchase order is the resulting formal commitment sent to the vendor once the requisition clears approval and budget checks.

What information does a good requisition include?

The item or service needed, quantity, estimated cost, business justification, preferred or required vendor if any, cost center, and urgency. Missing or vague details are the most common reason a requisition gets bounced back for clarification.

How can an AI agent help with requisitions specifically?

It can check the requisition against budget availability, vendor approval status, and category policy in real time, and route it to the correctly authorized approver, work that otherwise means an analyst manually checking three separate systems before anyone can act.

Why do requisitions sit in approval queues for so long?

Usually because the approver is waiting on information (budget confirmation, vendor status) that someone has to manually go pull from another system, not because the approval decision itself is hard. Assembling that context automatically is where most of the delay gets removed.