Free Purchase Order Template | Downloadable Excel & PDF Format

What is a purchase order (and why should you care)?

If you're here looking for a PO template, you probably already know what a purchase order is. The real question is whether your company is using them properly — or at all.

A purchase order is the document you send to a supplier to confirm a purchase. Simple concept, but it's the backbone of any serious procurement operation. Without POs, you have no paper trail. No paper trail means no spend control, no audit readiness, and no leverage when a supplier delivers the wrong thing.

The PO locks in the what, how much, and at what price — before anything ships. It protects you and the supplier. And yet, a surprising number of mid-size companies still run purchases off email threads and verbal agreements.

Why bother with purchase orders?

Plenty of companies — especially smaller ones — get by without formal POs. It works fine until it doesn't. A supplier ships 200 units instead of 100, and there's nothing in writing to say otherwise. An invoice shows up with different pricing than what you agreed to on the phone.

Here's what POs actually give you:

• A clear record of what you ordered, how much, and at what price — before the invoice arrives
• Legal backup if a supplier doesn't deliver what was agreed
• An audit trail that makes compliance reviews painless
• Budget visibility: you know your committed spend in real time, not after the fact

What should a purchase order include?

A solid PO doesn't need to be complicated, but it does need to be complete. Miss a field and you're creating ambiguity — which is exactly what a PO is supposed to eliminate.

Every purchase order should have:

• A unique PO number (you'll need this for tracking, matching invoices, and resolving disputes)
• Buyer details — company name, tax ID, billing address
• Supplier details — company name, tax ID, contact info
• Line items with description, quantity, unit of measure, and unit price
• Commercial terms: payment terms, delivery deadline, shipping address
• Issue date and required delivery date
• Subtotal, applicable taxes, and total amount

What format works best for a purchase order?

Two formats dominate: Excel and PDF. Excel is what you'll use internally — it's editable, calculates totals automatically, and is easy to adapt. PDF is what you send to the supplier as the final, locked version.

The structure is straightforward: header with your company data, a table with line items and pricing, and a footer with commercial terms. Our template comes in both formats, ready to go.

Want the full picture on the process? Check out our complete guide on how to create a purchase order with real examples.

How to create a purchase order step by step

Most people overcomplicate this. Here's the actual workflow:

1. Start with the need. What do you need, how much, and by when? This should actually begin with a formal purchase requisition — that's the internal request that triggers the PO.
2. Pick the supplier. Pull from your approved vendor list or base it on recent quotes.
3. Fill out the template. Every field matters — incomplete POs create confusion down the line.
4. Get it approved. Depending on the amount, this might need a manager or finance sign-off.
5. Send it to the supplier. The PO is your commitment. Once they confirm, the order is live.
6. File it and follow up. Track delivery dates. Match the PO against the invoice when it arrives.

Download your free template

Fill in the form and get a professional purchase order template sent to your inbox. Available in Excel (fully editable) and PDF.

Processing more than 20 POs a month?

At that volume, templates start to break. You're copying and pasting, version control is a mess, and approvals happen over email chains nobody can follow. See how Sourced automates procurement — from requisition to purchase order, with AI handling the manual work.