How to use the Purchase Order Generator
- Enter your company details, the vendor's details, a PO number and the date.
- List what you are ordering: description, quantity and unit price per line. Set the tax rate and the totals are calculated for you.
- Add delivery instructions and payment terms, then export the PO as a PDF and send it to the supplier.
When to use it
A purchase order is your side of the paperwork: it tells the supplier exactly what you agreed to buy, at what price, delivered where and by when, before their invoice arrives. It matters most when the order is verbal or by phone, when several people in your business can place orders, or when you need to match a supplier's invoice against what was actually agreed.
What a purchase order must carry
A PO is the buyer's authorisation, so it has to be specific enough that a wrong delivery is provably wrong: your company details, the vendor's, a unique PO number and date, each item with description, quantity and agreed unit price, the delivery address and required date, the tax treatment, and the payment terms you expect the supplier to invoice on. If the price came from the supplier's quote, cite the quote number. The reasoned checklist is on what to include in a purchase order.
Worked example
A café orders from a roastery: "Espresso blend, 1 kg bags" 24 × $18 and "Filter blend, 1 kg bags" 12 × $16, delivered to the shop address by 30 September. Subtotal $624, tax at 10% $62.40, total $686.40, PO-2026-058, terms "Net 30 from delivery, per quote R-441". When the delivery note arrives with 22 bags of espresso instead of 24, the PO is what the café points at; when the roastery's invoice arrives, the accounts check is three numbers: PO, delivery note, invoice.
Common mistakes
- Issuing the PO after the goods arrived. Then it authorises nothing; it is just a copy of the invoice.
- Leaving the delivery date off. A PO without a date cannot be late.
- Mismatched units. Ordering "24" when the supplier sells by the case of 6 gets you either 24 bags or 24 cases. Write the unit.
- One PO number for several orders. Each order gets its own number; that is what makes matching possible.
When this tool is the wrong one
It writes the buyer's document. If you are the seller confirming an order you received, that is a sales order or an order confirmation, not a PO. If you are billing, use the Invoice Maker. For the full sequence from quote to receipt, and where the PO sits in it, see the business documents hub and purchase order vs delivery note.
Good to know
Use a simple sequential PO numbering scheme and quote it on every related email. Unlike an invoice, a PO does not request payment; the supplier's invoice does that, and it should reference your PO number. The Invoice Maker linked below covers the other direction of the same transaction.