Purchase Order Template, Purchase Order Form, and a Worked PO Example
A copy-ready purchase order template you can rebuild in Excel, Google Sheets or Word in minutes, a PO numbering scheme that still makes sense at order five thousand, a filled-in example, and the three-way match that stops you paying for things you never received.
In one answer
A purchase order is a document a buyer sends a seller that commits to buying specific goods or services at agreed quantities and prices. Every purchase order needs a unique PO number, the buyer and vendor details, the ship-to and bill-to addresses, one line per item with quantity, unit price and total, the delivery date, the payment terms, and an authorized signature. Once the vendor accepts it, the PO is a binding contract. Copy the template below.
Human approval on every send · 14-day money-back guarantee
Try it on a real task
Routing slip · Officeagent
Status: Ready
Action requested
Pick a task above and press RUN IT. Officeagent handles it end to end; you approve the send.
Reading page /
☐ Approve · nothing sends without you
In the product you edit the draft right here; the agent learns your correction.
Officeagent drafted, you approved, it executed.
Sample data · Officeagent always waits for your approval before anything is sent
What a purchase order is, and when you actually need one
A purchase order is the buyer's document. You issue it before anything ships, it states exactly what you are buying, at what quantity and price, when you need it, and on what payment terms. When the vendor accepts it, that document becomes a contract between you, which is the whole point: the price is now the price, and the quantity is now the quantity.
That is the difference people ask about most. An invoice is the seller's document and it arrives after the work, asking for money. A purchase order is the buyer's document and it goes out before, authorizing the spend. They are two ends of the same transaction and they share a key, the PO number, which is how you later confirm that what you were billed for is what you ordered and what arrived.
Not every business needs POs, and it is worth being honest about that. If you buy from three vendors and the owner approves every purchase personally, a PO system is overhead. You need them once any of these is true: more than one person can commit company money, you buy the same category from the same vendor repeatedly, your vendors want a PO number on file, or your accountant is chasing you about spend that appeared with no authorization behind it. At that point the PO is what converts "someone bought something" into an approved, budgeted, traceable commitment, and the approval step in front of it is what makes the whole system worth having. Buying repeatedly from the same suppliers is also the point at which the wider vendor management process starts to pay for itself, since the PO only covers the transaction and not the relationship around it.
The purchase order template
Copy this into Excel, Google Sheets or Word. The header identifies the order and both parties, the line table carries what you are buying, and the footer holds the terms and the authorization. Every field earns its place.
PURCHASE ORDER
PO number: [unique number] · PO date: [date]
Buyer (bill to):
[company name, billing address, AP email, phone]
Ship to:
[delivery address, receiving contact, phone]
Vendor:
[vendor name, address, contact, vendor account number]
Requested by: [name, department] · Delivery date required: [date]
Shipping method / terms: [e.g. ground, FOB destination]
LINE ITEMS
Line · Item / SKU · Description · Quantity · Unit · Unit price · Line total
[one row per item]
TOTALS
Subtotal: $[ ]
Shipping: $[ ]
Tax: $[ ]
Purchase order total: $[ ]
Payment terms: [e.g. Net 30 from invoice date]
Notes / special instructions: [packaging, access hours, quote reference]
Authorized by: [name] · [title] · [signature] · [date]
Reference this PO number on all invoices, packing slips and correspondence.
That last line is not decoration. It is the single most useful sentence on the document, because an invoice that arrives without a PO number is an invoice your accounts payable person has to research by hand, and researching invoices by hand is where small companies quietly lose hours every month.
A worked purchase order example
Here is the template filled in for a routine office purchase, at the level of specificity that avoids a phone call to the vendor.
PO number: PO-2026-0342 · Date: Jul 6, 2026
Buyer: Harbor Point Consulting, 1400 Commerce St Suite 210, Dallas TX 75201 · AP: [email protected]
Ship to: Same address, attn. Receiving, Mon to Fri 9am to 4pm
Vendor: Meridian Office Supply, acct #HPC-2291
Requested by: D. Okafor, Operations · Required by: Jul 17, 2026
1 · DSK-4830 · Sit-stand desk, 60in, walnut · 4 · each · $612.00 · $2,448.00
2 · CHR-1120 · Task chair, adjustable lumbar · 4 · each · $289.00 · $1,156.00
3 · MON-ARM2 · Dual monitor arm, clamp mount · 4 · each · $94.50 · $378.00
Subtotal $3,982.00 · Shipping $185.00 · Tax $328.51 · Total $4,495.51
Payment terms: Net 30 from invoice date. Quote ref MQ-8841, valid through Jul 20.
Authorized by: R. Vance, Director of Operations · Jul 6, 2026
Two details there do real work. The quote reference ties the prices back to what the vendor actually offered, so a price change on the invoice is immediately visible. And the receiving hours prevent the delivery that shows up at 6pm and gets refused. Assembling POs like this from a quote is repetitive transcription, which is why it tends to become routine data entry an assistant can prepare for a person to authorize.
PO numbering that still works at order five thousand
Pick your numbering scheme before you issue the first PO, because changing it later means two systems running in parallel forever. The rule is that a PO number must be unique, sequential enough to spot a gap, and readable enough that a human can tell roughly when it was raised.
The format that holds up for most small businesses is a prefix, the year, and a sequence: PO-2026-0001. The prefix keeps it from colliding with invoice or job numbers, the year gives you an instant age check and a clean reset each January, and four sequence digits carry you to 9,999 orders in a year, which is more than enough. If you buy for several locations or departments, add one segment (PO-DAL-2026-0001), not three. Every extra segment is another thing someone can type wrong.
What not to do: do not use the date alone, because you will raise two POs in a day and have a collision. Do not include the vendor name in the number, because vendors change and the number should not. And do not let anyone hand-write a number outside the sequence for an urgent order, because the gap it leaves is indistinguishable from a lost PO during a year-end review. Keep the log in one place, and treat the sequence as the source of truth.
The three-way match, and why it protects your cash
The three-way match is the control that makes purchase orders worth the paperwork. Before an invoice gets paid, someone compares three documents: the purchase order (what you agreed to buy), the receiving document or packing slip (what actually arrived), and the vendor invoice (what you are being billed for). If all three agree on item, quantity and price, the invoice is cleared for payment. If any of them disagree, the invoice stops. The match only works on a clean supplier record, which is what a vendor onboarding checklist produces: one record per supplier, with the agreed terms and the tax paperwork already on file. The match itself is one step inside the wider accounts payable process, which is where the invoice is captured, coded, approved and paid.
It catches the failures that are otherwise invisible. Billed for ten when eight were delivered. Billed at list price when the PO locked a quoted price. Billed twice for the same shipment under two invoice numbers. A duplicate invoice from a vendor whose system was re-run. None of these require bad intent, and all of them cost real money when the only check is whether the total looks about right.
A two-way match, PO against invoice only, is a reasonable compromise for services and software where there is nothing to receive. For physical goods, do the third leg. It takes a minute per delivery and it is the only step that proves the thing you paid for actually showed up. Whoever runs the match needs the three documents in one place, on time, which is a filing and chasing problem more than an accounting one, and exactly the sort of thing automatic document filing is for.
- PO: what you agreed to buy, at what price
- Packing slip or receiving record: what physically arrived
- Invoice: what the vendor is billing you
- All three agree on item, quantity and price, then pay
- Any mismatch stops the invoice until it is explained
Running purchasing without a procurement system
Between "the owner approves everything by text" and "we bought procurement software" there is a long stretch where most small businesses live, and the template above is built for it. A shared PO log, a numbering scheme, a named approver per spend threshold, and a folder where the PO, packing slip and invoice land together will run a company of thirty people without a single license purchased.
What breaks first is not the form. It is the administration around it: raising the PO from the quote, emailing it to the vendor, remembering to chase a delivery that is four days late, matching the invoice when it arrives, and filing all three documents in the same place so the match is possible at all. Every one of those is a small task that only matters when it is missed.
Officeagent runs that layer. It drafts the purchase order from the quote, routes it to whoever has to authorize the amount, sends it once approved, tracks the delivery date and chases the vendor when it slips, then matches the invoice against the PO and the receiving record and flags the differences for a person to look at. Nothing is sent, committed or paid without a human approval, which is the correct control on anything that spends money. See how it handles filing, task tracking and chasing what is late, or read the difference between a purchase order and an invoice if you are setting the process up from scratch.
Purchase order fields and what each one prevents
| Field | Why it is there | What goes wrong without it |
|---|---|---|
| PO number | The key that links PO, packing slip, invoice and payment | Every invoice becomes a manual research job |
| PO date and required-by date | Sets the clock on delivery and on the quote validity | Late deliveries with no agreed date to point at |
| Vendor details and account number | Routes the order to the right account | Order raised against the wrong vendor record |
| Bill-to and ship-to (separately) | AP is rarely at the delivery address | Invoices sent to reception, deliveries sent to accounting |
| Line items with quantity and unit price | The agreed commercial terms | Vendor bills list price instead of the quoted price |
| Payment terms | Fixes when the money is due | Net 30 assumed by you, due on receipt assumed by them |
| Quote reference | Ties prices back to what was offered | Silent price increases between quote and invoice |
| Authorized signature | Proves the spend was approved before it happened | Commitments nobody approved appearing in the month-end |
Pricing
Assistant $149/mo · Office $399/mo · Enterprise from $1,500/mo
Office covers the whole team, up to 10 people, with the follow-up engine and CRM sync. Full limits on the AI assistant pricing page.
Questions on this
What is a purchase order?
A purchase order is a document a buyer issues to a seller that commits to buying specific goods or services at stated quantities, prices and delivery terms. It goes out before anything ships. Once the vendor accepts it, the purchase order becomes a binding contract between the two parties, which fixes the price and quantity and gives both sides something concrete to reference later.
What is the difference between a purchase order and an invoice?
A purchase order is created by the buyer before the transaction and authorizes the purchase. An invoice is created by the seller after delivery and requests payment. They describe the same transaction from opposite sides and share a PO number, which is how accounts payable confirms that what is being billed matches what was ordered and what actually arrived.
What should a purchase order include?
Include a unique PO number and date, the buyer's bill-to and ship-to addresses, the vendor's details, the requester and required delivery date, one line per item with description, quantity, unit price and line total, the subtotal with shipping and tax, the payment terms, any quote reference, and an authorized signature. Add a note asking the vendor to reference the PO number on all invoices.
How do I create a purchase order in Excel?
Put the PO number, date and both addresses in the top block, then build a line table with columns for item, description, quantity, unit price and a line total formula (quantity times unit price). Total the line column, add rows for shipping and tax, and put payment terms and a signature line beneath. Save it as a template file and keep a separate sheet as your PO number log.
Is a purchase order legally binding?
A purchase order becomes legally binding once the seller accepts it, either explicitly or by fulfilling the order. On its own, before acceptance, it is an offer to buy. That is why the terms on the PO matter: the prices, quantities, delivery date and payment terms you write are the ones you are offering to be held to, and the ones a vendor can hold you to.
What is a three-way match?
A three-way match compares the purchase order, the receiving document or packing slip, and the vendor invoice before payment is released. If all three agree on item, quantity and price, the invoice is cleared. If they disagree, payment stops until it is explained. It is the control that catches overbilling, short deliveries and duplicate invoices before money leaves the account.
Do small businesses need purchase orders?
Not always. If one person approves every purchase and you buy from a handful of vendors, POs are overhead. Start using them when more than one person can commit company money, when you buy repeatedly from the same vendors, when vendors ask for a PO number, or when spend is showing up in your books with no approval trail behind it.
Also on the routing slip
Your office admin, off your plate by Monday
Connect your calendar, inbox and drive. Officeagent drafts the work, you hit approve, and the busywork leaves your desk for good.
14-day money-back guarantee · Cancel anytime