Who is ordering
Supplier
Delivery
The site, not your office. This is the field that most often goes wrong, and a load delivered to the wrong address is a day lost.
What you are ordering
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What a purchase order is for
A purchase order is you telling a supplier, in writing and before anything moves, exactly what you want, at what price, delivered where and by when. When their invoice arrives weeks later, the PO is what you check it against.
Without one, the argument has no evidence in it. With one, the conversation is short: this is what was ordered, this is what was agreed, here is the number your invoice has to quote.
What each trade actually needs on it
Building and trades
The delivery address has to be the site, not your office, and the required-by date has to be real. A slab poured Thursday needs the aggregate Wednesday, and a load sent to the wrong address is a day gone.
Agencies and studios
Subcontractors invoice weeks later, often for a figure nobody remembers agreeing. A PO number they must quote turns that into a two-second check.
Shops and workshops
Stock ordering lives or dies on unit prices. A PO fixes the price at the moment of ordering rather than at the moment of invoicing, which is when it tends to have moved.
Anyone approving spend
The approver's name is the whole point. A purchase order is an authorisation, and an authorisation with nobody's name on it authorises nothing.
Purchase order, invoice, quote and work order
- Purchase order: you asking a supplier to provide something, at an agreed price. You issue it.
- Invoice: them asking you to pay for it. They issue it, and it should quote your PO number.
- Quote: a price offered to your own customer before work starts. Write one here.
- Work order: authorising work to be carried out, usually on a site, usually signed. Templates here.
The direction is what separates them. A purchase order goes out from you to a supplier; an invoice comes in from them. Confusing the two is how businesses end up paying for things nobody ordered.
The PO number, and why it matters more than it looks
A purchase order number is the thread that ties an order to a delivery to an invoice to a payment. Most invoices that sit unpaid for weeks are not disputed: they are missing a reference, so nobody can match them to anything and they wait.
Keep the format simple and sequential. PO-2026-0142 tells you the year and the order in one glance, and sorts correctly in every spreadsheet. Put it on the order, insist on it on the invoice, and quote it on the payment.
Terms worth putting on every order
- Invoices must quote this PO number. The single most useful line on the document.
- Deliveries outside the agreed dates may be refused. Protects a site that has no room to store an early delivery.
- Substitutions require approval before dispatch. Stops a different grade of material arriving because the one you ordered was out of stock.
- Prices are fixed as stated. Removes the gap between the price quoted and the price invoiced.
Purchase order questions
What is a purchase order?
A document you send a supplier that authorises them to provide goods or services at an agreed price, with a delivery address and date. It is issued before the work or the order happens, and the supplier's invoice should quote its number.
What is the difference between a purchase order and an invoice?
A purchase order goes out from you to a supplier and requests goods. An invoice comes in from the supplier and requests payment. The PO comes first and the invoice should reference it.
Is a purchase order a legally binding contract?
Once the supplier accepts it, a purchase order generally forms a binding agreement on the terms it states. That is precisely why the price, quantity, delivery date and terms need to be on the document rather than agreed over the phone.
What should a purchase order include?
Your business and address, the supplier, a unique PO number, the order date, the required-by date, the delivery address, itemised lines with quantities and unit prices, the total, who approved it, and the terms the supplier is accepting.
How do I number purchase orders?
Sequentially, with the year in it: PO-2026-0001 upward. It sorts correctly, it tells you when the order was placed, and it never collides with last year's.
Do small businesses need purchase orders?
Any time you order materials or subcontract work, yes. The PO is what lets you check an invoice that arrives six weeks later against what was actually agreed, which is when memory has stopped being reliable.
Can I send a purchase order by email?
Yes, and most are. Attach the PDF or paste the text, and make sure the PO number is in the subject line so their accounts team can file it against the invoice.
What happens if the supplier invoices a different amount?
Query it against the PO before paying. A price that has moved between order and invoice is either a mistake or a change nobody agreed, and the purchase order is the evidence of what was agreed.
Is this purchase order generator free?
Yes. No signup, no watermark, and nothing you type leaves your browser. The PDF is produced on your own device through the print dialogue.