Documents · 3 min read
By Murtaza Aziz
What to Include on a Purchase Order: Fields, Numbering, and a Reusable PDF
A purchase order is a numbered offer to buy. Put supplier, ship-to, lines, tax, and a PO number on it, then reuse the same PDF layout for every order instead of a new spreadsheet.
A purchase order is the document you send to a supplier when you want to buy, not sell. It is the opposite direction of an invoice, which is why copying last month's invoice and changing the title to "PO" produces a file the supplier cannot match in their system.
The point of a PO is a number both sides can cite: "against PO-1048". Everything else on the page exists so receiving and accounts can close the loop when the invoice arrives.
Fields that almost always belong
Your legal name and address (the buyer). Supplier name and address. A unique PO number. Date. Ship-to if it is not your billing address. Line items with quantity, description, unit price, and line total. Tax if you expect to be charged it. A requested delivery date. A notes line for "quote Q-22 attached" or "deliver to bay 4".
Optional and often useful: a cost centre or job code, an accounts-payable email, and a signature or name of the person who approved the spend. Skip unit prices only if you truly have a contract price on file and the supplier already knows it; most POs should show the expected amount.
Numbering that does not collide
Do not reuse invoice numbers. INV-100 and PO-100 in the same sequence is how someone pays the wrong document. A prefix (PO-) plus a monotonic integer is enough. Resetting to PO-1 every January looks tidy and then collides with last January in a search box.
Store the next number in the system that creates the payload (your inventory app, a Sheet, Docuplate Example data for manual runs). The PDF should print the number, not invent it.
Three-way match, in plain language
Warehouse receives goods against the PO. Supplier sends an invoice that cites the PO number. Accounts pays if quantity and price roughly match. The delivery note and the packing slip (if you are the supplier) are the other side of this. As the buyer, you care that the PO PDF is the thing you can email in 30 seconds when someone says "we never got an order".
The PDF purchase order template starter has buyer, supplier, lines, and totals as blocks. Bind poNumber, supplier, items, requestedDate. Download one, or batch a week of orders from CSV.
When the PO is wrong
Do not silently edit PO-1048 after the supplier has it. Send a revised PO with a new number or a clear revision mark, and say which lines changed. If goods already shipped, you are in credit-note territory on their side, not a quiet PDF swap.
If you raise dozens of POs from a materials list, CSV batch is the same flow as invoices: one template, one row per order. If a procurement tool already exists, POST the order JSON to the generate API on Pro.
Standing orders (the same timber list every Monday) still deserve a new PO number each week. Reusing PO-1048 because "it is the same stuff" is how a delayed invoice matches the wrong week. Put the delivery week in the notes block and keep the number unique. The PDF is cheap. The mismatch in accounts is not.