How to Write a Purchase Order with Template and Example

To write a purchase order, start from a template with five blocks: a header with a unique PO number and date, the vendor details, ship-to and bill-to addresses, a line-item table, and a terms and totals block. Fill in each block, check the totals, and send the document to the supplier for acceptance. Below is a free purchase order template you can copy into a spreadsheet or a document, followed by a filled-in example. This page is about the document itself; the approvals and requisition steps that come before it are covered in the purchase order creation process.

Most businesses sit on both sides of this. You send purchase orders to your suppliers, and you receive purchase orders from your own customers. When a customer PO lands in your inbox as a PDF, you can upload it above and get every field back as clean Excel, CSV, or JSON in seconds, so the order you need to fulfill becomes data you can drop straight into your system instead of retyping.

What is a purchase order?

A purchase order is a document a buyer sends to a supplier to order specific goods or services at agreed quantities and prices. It records what is being bought, from whom, at what cost, and on what terms. Once the supplier accepts it, the PO becomes a legally binding contract, which is what separates it from a casual email or a verbal order. That paper trail is why finance teams insist on POs: they make spending reviewable before the money goes out and give accounts payable something concrete to match the later invoice against.

What a purchase order template includes

If it helps to see the finished article before building one, what does a purchase order look like walks through an annotated example zone by zone.

Every purchase order, no matter what created it, carries the same core fields. Miss one and the supplier has to call you back, which is the slowest part of the whole exchange. Here is what a complete PO needs.

Free purchase order template

Copy this layout into a spreadsheet or a word processor. Each row is a block of the document, top to bottom, and the right column says what to write in it.

In a spreadsheet, set the line total column to quantity times unit price and the subtotal to the sum of the line totals, so the arithmetic cannot drift from the rows above it.

Purchase order example

Here is the same template filled in for a small office order. The names and figures are illustrative.

The header above those rows reads PO-2026-0042, dated the day it is issued, from the buyer's office to the supplier, with the ship-to set to the receiving desk. Below the rows sit the subtotal of $271.00, tax and shipping as the supplier quotes them, the grand total, Net 30 payment terms, and a required delivery date. Line 3 shows why the unit column matters: one case of twelve binders, not one binder. What each common term means is covered in purchase order payment terms.

How to fill in the template, block by block

Work down the template in order. Each block answers one question the supplier would otherwise have to ask you.

1. Assign a PO number. Give the order a unique number using a consistent format so it can be tracked through receiving and payment. This is the reference everyone will quote later.
2. Add your details and the vendor's. Enter your company name, address, and buyer contact, then the supplier's name, address, and sales contact so there is no doubt who the order is between.
3. List the line items. Add one row per product: item code, description, quantity, unit of measure, and unit price. Get the unit of measure right, because ordering 10 cases is not the same as ordering 10 each.
4. Set terms and totals. Fill in the subtotal, tax, and shipping to reach the grand total, then state the payment terms (for example Net 30) and the delivery or required-by date.
5. Review for accuracy. Check the quantities, unit prices, addresses, and the total against the original request. This is the cheapest place to catch a mistake, before it reaches the supplier.
6. Send it and get acceptance. Email or transmit the PO to the supplier. It becomes binding when they accept, so ask for a written confirmation. For a clean, signed record you can send the PO through an online document signing tool and keep the accepted copy on file. Which format and channel to use is its own decision, covered in how to send a purchase order. Once the supplier accepts, record the order in your purchase order log so it can be followed through receiving and payment.

Before you raise one at all, it is worth checking that the purchase actually warrants it: most companies set a dollar threshold, and the guide to when you need a purchase order covers where to draw that line.

How to number your purchase orders

Number POs with a simple, sequential format so every order is unique and easy to sort, for example PO-2026-0001 counting upward. Many teams add a prefix for the department, location, or vendor, but keep it short and consistent. The one rule that matters is that no two purchase orders ever share a number, because the PO number is the thread that ties the order to its goods receipt and its invoice. If you start numbering by hand in a spreadsheet, decide the format on day one, since changing it later breaks your records.

Purchase order template, spreadsheet, or software

How you create POs should match your volume. Below a handful of orders a month, a reusable template or spreadsheet is fine. As volume grows, the manual approach starts costing more in errors and time than software would.

If you already run accounting software, create the PO there so it links to your vendor and ledger. QuickBooks, for instance, generates the PO number and stores the vendor, and when a supplier PO comes back to you as a PDF you can push its data in with a purchase order to QuickBooks workflow rather than keying it twice.

Common mistakes when writing a purchase order

The errors that cause the most back-and-forth are small. Reusing or skipping a PO number breaks the audit trail. Leaving the unit of measure blank invites a shipment ten times too large or too small. Forgetting the delivery date or payment terms leaves the supplier guessing and slows fulfillment. And sending a PO before the spend is approved defeats the control the document exists to provide. A quick review pass against the original request catches almost all of these before they leave your desk. If you want to double-check a supplier's PO field by field before you act on it, our guide to how to read a purchase order walks through each one.

Receiving, matching, and paying after you send a PO

Writing the PO is the start. When the goods arrive you record a goods receipt, then accounts payable runs a three-way match that compares the PO, the receipt, and the supplier's invoice before releasing payment. Teams that receive a lot of supplier POs and invoices as PDFs usually automate the data entry on that side, both to feed the match and to keep the ledger current. Our own tool handles the capture step: upload a PO and it returns the header, every line item, and the totals as a clean file. The invoice that arrives later is captured the same way, which is what makes the three-way match possible without retyping either document. If you would rather export straight to a spreadsheet, the purchase order PDF to Excel converter does exactly that.

Frequently asked questions

How do you write a purchase order?

Write a purchase order by assigning it a unique PO number, adding your company and vendor details, listing each item with its quantity and unit price, and stating the delivery date and payment terms. Review the totals and addresses against the approved request, then send the PO to the supplier. It becomes a binding order once the vendor accepts it.

What should a purchase order template include?

A purchase order needs a PO number and order date, your company and buyer details, the vendor's name and address, ship-to and bill-to addresses, a line-item list with quantity and unit price for each item, and the terms: subtotal, tax, shipping, grand total, delivery date, and payment terms. Missing any of these usually means the supplier has to call you before they can ship.

Can I make a purchase order template in Excel?

Yes. A spreadsheet works well for a small number of purchase orders: set up a template with your header fields, a line-item table with quantity times unit price formulas, and a totals block. The limits show up at volume, when tracking status across many open POs and keeping numbers unique by hand becomes error-prone. At that point accounting or procurement software is usually worth it.

How do I create a purchase order in QuickBooks?

In QuickBooks Online, turn on purchase orders in account settings, then choose New and Purchase Order, pick the vendor, add the items and quantities, and save and send. QuickBooks assigns the PO number and links the order to the vendor record. When you instead receive a supplier PO as a PDF, extract its fields first and import them so you are not retyping the order by hand. Teams doing this at volume eliminate manual purchase order entry altogether rather than speeding up the typing.

What makes a purchase order legally binding?

A purchase order becomes legally binding when the supplier accepts it, either in writing, by signing it, or by fulfilling the order. On its own, a PO you have written is an offer to buy. Acceptance turns that offer into a contract, which is why asking the vendor to confirm or sign the PO matters before either side relies on it.

How do I number purchase orders?

Number purchase orders with a simple sequential format that keeps every order unique, such as PO-2026-0001 counting upward, optionally with a short prefix for the department or location. Decide the format before you issue your first PO and never reuse a number, because the PO number is what links each order to its goods receipt and invoice throughout the process.