A purchase order template saves less typing than an invoice template but prevents more expensive mistakes, because the fields people skip on a PO are the ones that cost money: the delivery address, the required date, and the approval.
Fix these once
- Your business name, registered address and billing address.
- Your standard delivery address, if you usually receive at one place.
- Your standard payment terms.
- Your approval wording.
- Any supplier-facing instruction you repeat, such as “Quote this PO number on all documents.”
Leave these blank
The supplier, the PO number, the dates, the lines and the total. And the delivery address if you receive at several sites, because a default that is wrong four times out of five is worse than a blank.
A template to copy
[Your business name]
[Registered address]
[phone] · [email]
PURCHASE ORDER No. PO-____
Date: ____
Required by: ____
Vendor
[left blank]
Deliver to
[site address, or left blank]
[access notes]
Description Qty Rate Amount
____________________________ ___ ______ ______
____________________________ ___ ______ ______
Subtotal ______
Tax __% ______
Total ______
Terms
[Payment terms.]
Please quote this PO number on your delivery note and invoice.
Authorised by ____________________ Date ____________That last line matters more than it looks. An order with no name on it is an order nobody owns.
Variants worth keeping
Stock. Item codes, quantities, your usual delivery address, standard terms. Opened weekly.
Services. No item codes, an Hours column instead of Qty, and a scope line rather than a part number.
One-off. Everything blank including the delivery address, for the order that is nothing like the others.
Each is a saved file. Save as file writes the sheet to your own disk and Open a saved file brings it back, so a variant costs thirty seconds to create.
Columns
For goods, keep Qty and Rate and add Item code from the column bar. For services, swap Qty for Hours.
If you order in units the supplier prices differently, add a Unit column and state it explicitly. “12” meaning twelve boxes rather than twelve items is a common and expensive misunderstanding.
Renaming labels
Every label is editable. Rename Vendor as Supplier if that is your word. Rename Notes as Delivery instructions, which is what the field usually holds on a PO.
A check before saving
- Is the PO number field blank?
- Does the approval line exist, with a space for a name?
- Is your standard instruction to quote the PO number present?
- Are the dates blank rather than left on the last order?
What it will not do
The template cannot track your PO sequence, and it cannot tell you whether the last order arrived. Both stay with you, and the second is what the goods received note is for.
Next
For the fields and why each matters, see how to raise a purchase order. For the checking process afterwards, see three way matching. Or open the purchase order generator.