Requisitions vs Internal Purchase Orders for Procurement Teams

Growing SMBs need to separate three records that are often collapsed into one spreadsheet row: a request to buy, an internal stock transfer or fulfillment request, and a purchase order sent to a supplier.

The distinction matters. A purchase requisition records what a team needs before Procurement commits spend. An internal purchase order coordinates goods between a branch and a warehouse or central buying location. A supplier purchase order is the commercial order sent outside the business.

LineNow supports all three operational paths without pretending to be an enterprise spend-governance suite.

Quick answer

Use a purchase requisition when an employee or location needs Procurement to review a request before fulfillment or supplier commitment. Use an internal purchase order when one business unit is actually ordering stock from another. Use a supplier purchase order when the buyer is ready to commit an order to an outside vendor.

In LineNow, requisitions are separate records with configurable approval rules. Approval can be required for every request, requests above an estimated-total threshold, requests with enough line items, or requests containing unpriced items. Owners can assign default approvers or requester-specific approvers. This is operational request control, not a sequential multi-level approval chain or a departmental budget ledger.

The requisition workflow

A practical LineNow requisition workflow looks like this:

1. A requester records the needed item, quantity, need-by date, estimated price, and notes.
2. LineNow evaluates the business unit's approval rules.