Free purchase order generator
For materials, stock and subcontract work: tell a supplier what you want, at what price, delivered where and by when.
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No lines yet. Add what you are ordering below.
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How this purchase order generator works
Pick your trade and the order starts with lines that already make sense for it: quantities, units, prices. Add your logo, your PO number, the delivery address and the terms, and the document builds itself as you type.
Print it, save it as a PDF, download it as an image, or paste it straight into an email to the supplier. It is free, there is no signup, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
How to write a purchase order
- Name the supplier. Their business, their email, and the quote you are ordering against if they gave you one.
- Give it a PO number. Sequential with the year in it, such as PO-2026-0142, so their invoice can quote it back.
- List the lines with units. Quantity, unit and unit price on every line. If the job is not priced yet, the construction cost estimator works out what to order first.
- Set delivery and terms. The site address, the required-by date, the payment terms and the lines about substitutions and late deliveries.
- Approve it and send it. Put the approver's name on it, sign it, then print it, save a PDF or email it to the supplier from this page.
Types of purchase order
- Standard purchase order: one order for set items, quantities, prices and a delivery date. This is what the generator makes.
- Blanket purchase order: the same items bought repeatedly over a period at agreed prices. Make it here as one order and put the date range and how you will call off deliveries in the terms.
- Planned purchase order: items and prices agreed now, with delivery dates confirmed later through releases against the order.
- Contract purchase order: the terms agreed with a supplier without listing items. The individual orders you place later refer back to it.
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.
Six things make a purchase order do its job, and all six are on the document this page builds: your business, the supplier, a unique number, what is being ordered with quantities and units, where and when it goes, and who authorized it.
Every trade orders differently, so the lines start differently
An order for ready-mix concrete and an order for takeaway cups have nothing in common except the shape of the document. Pick your trade at the top of the builder and the lines, quantities and units start where that trade starts, then you edit from there.
Contractors and trades
Cubic yards, tons, lengths and day rates, and a delivery address that has to be the site rather than your office. The required-by date is what the supplier plans the truck around.
Electricians, plumbers, HVAC
Rolls, feet and each. Panels, heaters and fittings are ordered by part rather than by description, so the line has to be specific enough that the wrong thing cannot arrive.
Kitchens, shops and workshops
Cases, gallons, pounds and pallets. Stock ordering lives on unit prices, and a PO fixes the price at the moment of ordering rather than at the moment of invoicing.
Studios, clinics, offices, fleets
Subcontractors and suppliers invoice weeks later, often for a figure nobody remembers agreeing. A PO number they have to quote turns that into a two-second check.
The unit matters as much as the line. A quantity with no unit against it is an argument waiting to happen: eight of aggregate is eight tons or eight bags depending on who reads it, and the difference turns up on a truck. Every line on this order carries its own unit, from each and hour through to cubic yards, pallets and lots, and the unit prints beside the quantity. It matters most where the same material is sold two ways, such as mulch by the bag and mulch by the pallet.
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: authorizing work to be carried out, usually on a site, usually signed. Make one with the work order generator, or start from the work order templates.
- Sales order: the supplier's side of the same order, confirming what they will ship. Make a sales order.
- Packing slip: the list that travels with the delivery, which you check against the PO when it arrives. Make a packing slip.
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 the stage of the order
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.
The stage prints on the order too, so nobody acts on a draft by mistake: Draft while the price is still moving, Issued once it goes to the supplier and is the version their invoice has to match, and Approved once it is signed off internally. Sign it by drawing, typing or uploading a scan, and the order prints two lines: the person who approved the spend, and whoever signs the delivery in.
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. If the order changes after it is issued, put the change in writing as a change order rather than agreeing it on the phone.
All four are already in the terms box, and payment terms sit alongside them as their own field, from due on receipt through to Net 60. Edit any of it: they are a starting point, not a contract you are stuck with.
Getting it to the supplier, and getting a PDF
Print or save PDF opens your own print dialogue, where the destination to choose is Save as PDF. The order is measured and scaled to a single sheet before the dialogue opens, so it does not split across two pages, and the page title is blanked for the duration so the browser does not print its own header across the top of your document.
Email supplier opens a message already addressed, with the PO number in the subject and the whole order in the body. Copy as text does the same thing for a system that wants pasting into. Copy order as image puts the finished document on your clipboard as a picture, which is what you want for a chat or a message thread. Everything is produced on your own device, and nothing you type is uploaded anywhere.
Purchase order questions
What is a purchase order?
A document you send a supplier that authorizes them to provide goods or services at an agreed price, with a delivery address and a date. It is issued before 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.
Which comes first, the purchase order or the invoice?
The purchase order. You send it before anything is supplied, the supplier delivers against it, and their invoice comes afterwards quoting the PO number. An invoice that arrives with no purchase order behind it is the one to query before paying.
What is the difference between a purchase order and a purchase requisition?
A purchase requisition is an internal request asking someone in your own business for permission to buy. A purchase order is the document that goes to the supplier once the purchase is approved. Small businesses often skip the requisition and let the approver's name on the purchase order do the same job.
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 belong on the document rather than in a phone call.
Does a purchase order need to be signed?
Not always, but a signature or an approver's name is what shows the order was authorized, and many suppliers will not act on an unsigned one. Add the approver in step six and sign by drawing, typing or uploading a scan. The order also prints a second line for whoever signs the delivery in.
Can a purchase order be changed or cancelled?
Yes, by agreement with the supplier, and it is easiest before they have acted on it. Send a revised order under the same number with a revision mark, or a written change order, and confirm a cancellation in writing. Once goods have shipped or been made to order, a cancellation depends on the terms the supplier accepted.
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, itemized lines with quantities, units and unit prices, the total, who approved it, and the terms the supplier is accepting.
Does a purchase order include sales tax?
It can. Enter the rate in the tax field and the order shows tax as its own line, so the total matches what the supplier will invoice. If you are buying for resale or hold an exemption certificate, leave the rate at zero and put the certificate number in the terms.
How do I number purchase orders?
Sequentially, with the year in it: PO-2026-0001 upward. It sorts correctly in every spreadsheet, it tells you when the order was placed, and it never collides with last year's.
Why does the unit matter on a purchase order line?
Because a quantity without a unit is an argument waiting to happen. Eight of aggregate is eight tons or eight bags depending on who is reading it, and the difference arrives on a truck.
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 exactly when memory has stopped being reliable.
Can I send a purchase order by email?
Yes, and most are. Use Email supplier to open a message with the order already in it, or Copy as text to paste it. Keep the PO number in the subject line so their accounts team can file it against the invoice.
How do I save the purchase order as a PDF?
Press Print or save PDF and choose Save as PDF as the destination in your browser's print dialogue. The order is measured and scaled to one sheet first, so it does not split across two pages. Nothing is uploaded to produce it.
What happens if the supplier invoices a different amount?
Query it against the PO before paying. A price that 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.
Can I put my own logo on the purchase order?
Yes. Add a logo and an accent color in step two. The image is read straight into the page and never uploaded, and it prints and exports with the document.
Is this purchase order generator free?
Yes. No signup, no watermark, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
Do you store what I type?
No. The purchase order is built in your browser, and printing and downloading happen there too, so nothing you type is uploaded or stored. If you sign in and send a document as a tracked link, that document is saved to your account so the link works.
How do I know if the supplier opened the purchase order?
Send it as a link from your account instead of downloading it, and the document gets its own page. You see when it was opened, how long they stayed on it and which lines they questioned, all on your dashboard. The first four documents you send that way are free with an account. Building and downloading is free with no account and stores nothing.
Can a supplier sign a purchase order online?
Yes. Sent as a tracked link, your supplier signs on the page with a finger or a mouse, with no account and nothing to install. The signature is kept with the document along with the date, the time and the address it came from, and it appears on the copy you export. The invoice tracking page sets out what is recorded, what is stored and what stays free with no account.
The order goes out, the invoice comes back
A purchase order is the only document that makes a supplier invoice checkable six weeks later. When the work it paid for is yours to bill, price it with the service price calculator, the retainer calculator or the billable hours calculator, quote it with the quote generator, and raise the invoice from the same lines. If the order authorizes work on a site rather than goods, the work order generator makes the document you want instead. Send any of them as a tracked link from your account and you see when it was opened and who signed it. How tracking works.
Raise an invoice