Free Purchase Requisition Template | Downloadable Excel Form

What is a purchase requisition?

Before any purchase order gets issued, someone inside the company has to raise their hand and say "we need to buy this." That's a purchase requisition — an internal form that kicks off the procurement process.

It's not glamorous. But it's the difference between controlled spending and a free-for-all where anyone can commit company money without oversight. The requisition forces people to document what they need, why they need it, and how much it's going to cost — before a single dollar is committed to a supplier.

Purchase requisition vs. purchase order: know the difference

These get mixed up all the time, so let's clear it up.

A purchase requisition stays inside your company. It's the internal ask: "I need 500 units of X for the Q3 project." It goes through an approval chain — manager, procurement, maybe finance — before anything happens.

A purchase order goes to the supplier. It's the external commitment: "We're buying 500 units of X at $12 each, delivered by March 15."

The flow is simple: requisition gets approved, then procurement issues the purchase order. Skip the requisition step, and you lose all budget control at the front door.

What goes into a purchase requisition?

The more detail you include upfront, the fewer back-and-forth emails you'll deal with later. Here's what a well-built requisition covers:

• A unique requisition number for internal tracking
• Request date and when you actually need the goods or services
• Who's requesting — name, department, role
• What you need — clear descriptions, quantities, units of measure
• Why you need it — project name, replenishment, urgency level
• Estimated cost — even a rough number helps the approver make a quick decision
• Cost center or budget code it should be charged to
• Priority level — is this planned, routine, or someone's hair is on fire?
• Approval signatures — requester and whoever approves it

Best format for purchase requisitions

Excel wins here. It's fast to fill out, you can add dropdown validations to prevent bad data, and it calculates totals on the fly. When the requisition is approved, export to PDF for a clean, locked record.

Our template has both formats. The layout is simple: requester info at the top, item details in the middle, approval signatures at the bottom.

How to create a purchase requisition step by step

1. Figure out what your department actually needs. Be specific — "office supplies" isn't a requisition, it's a wish.
2. Check the budget. Is there money allocated for this? If not, flag it early rather than wasting everyone's time.
3. Fill out the template completely. Half-filled requisitions get sent back, which delays everything.
4. Add a clear justification. One or two sentences explaining why this purchase matters. Approvers don't have time to guess.
5. Submit it through the proper channel. Whether that's your manager, procurement, or a software system — follow the process.
6. Follow up. Don't just submit and forget. Track whether it's been approved and when the PO was issued.

Mistakes that slow everything down

Most requisition problems come down to one thing: not enough detail. Here's what we see over and over:

• Vague descriptions like "parts for machine" — which machine? Which parts? Your procurement team isn't going to guess.
• No justification. The approver sees a $15,000 request with zero context. That's going to sit in their inbox for a week.
• Missing budget estimates. Even a ballpark number speeds up the approval process significantly.
• Skipping the approval chain entirely. This is how you end up with surprise invoices and angry finance teams.
• No cost center assigned. If procurement can't charge it somewhere, the requisition goes nowhere.

Download your free template

Fill in the form and get a professional purchase requisition template in your inbox. Available in Excel (editable) and PDF.

Drowning in requisitions?

If your team handles dozens of purchase requests every month and approvals still happen over email, you're losing time you can't get back. See how Sourced automates purchase activation — from request to approved PO, powered by AI.