Free Purchase Order Templates

The purchase order form is one of the important documents issued by the buyer intending to purchase products from the seller at a specified price. Purchase Order includes all the important information that an invoicing document must have like buyer and seller details, product name and description, quantity, rate, and specified amount.

Usually, a purchase order is placed via a mediator called buying agent or indent agent which helps in buying the product or service you are in need of. The purchase order itself is not a legally binding contract for both parties.

If both do not have any purchasing contracts, then both the party sign the purchase order and consider it as a contract for the transaction.

To get a more clear idea of what purchase order is? Let's understand this with an example:

Suppose you need a computer for your small business, so first you find the perfect supplier that can provide the product as per requirements at a low price. Then you tell the supplier your needs (via purchase order). They provide the product and you pay for it. This is how most small businesses are operated.

But many times this is not what actually happens. You are running a business and small goes for your supplier as well. There are chances that this process can get hindered because of some issues like shortage of product, shipment delay, payment issues, miscommunication when ordering the product, and many more.

Whereas it happens the exact opposite when working with a trusted supplier. All the work and processes get smoother and timely finishes delivery, and all this can be done via purchase order.

Moreover, a purchase order can be used by both parties to check and reverify the transaction that happened between two parties.

What is an Online Purchase Order?

An online purchase order is a financial document summarizing the purchase of goods or services that are agreed upon by both buyer and seller under certain terms and conditions. By creating a purchase order online, a company or an organization can effectively manage and track their purchase expense with minimal human error. It also helps you cut the business purchasing expenses and helps to improve the purchase order cycle.

Why is a Purchase Order Necessary?

Generally, the purchase order is mostly used by mid to large size enterprises to keep ongoing purchases smoothly from the vendors. But for small businesses, this is not the case, because of the simple purchasing habits they don’t feel to create purchase orders.

But as the business grows, demand for purchase increases and more people get involved in the purchasing process. Here the business realizes the importance of purchase order and it also helps to make financial accounting more efficient and easier. Purchase order makes the transaction between vendors and business more relevant and transparent.

While creating a purchase order, there are a few details that should be fulfilled by every purchase order template which are as follows:

Here are the elements one should look into when having the purchase order template:

• PO Number
• PO Date and Due Date
• Order By
• Order To
• Shipping Details
• Line Item Name and Description
• Quantity
• Rate
• Discount
• Total Amount
• Terms and Conditions
• Signature
• VAT (if applicable)

How to Create Online Purchase Orders with Templates?

Here is the step-by-step guide to creating a purchase order using the purchase order template

Start with adding the title of the document as “Purchase Order” and then add your company logo to give a more professional look to the PO. Adding a company logo is completely optional but it is good to add a logo since it gives more of branded look to the PO.

The second step is to add the PO number, PO date, and due date so that the vendors know when is the last day to ship the product.

In Order By section, add buyer details and in Order To section, add the vendor details. Details you can include are the name of the company, address, email, phone number etc.

Add Shipping Details, this is the section where you add the shipping details, and where you want your product to be shipped.

In the line item section, add the name and detailed description of the product with the quantity required and also the estimated amount of the product you want from the vendor.

Add Terms and Conditions, here is this section add payment terms. Shipping terms or any other important terms you want to mention.

Here is your purchase order get created but if you want to add more details then Refrens also provide the option to add attachments, and to add notes.

How do send Purchase Orders to Suppliers?

Once the purchase order is created on Refrens, you will get multiple options to share the PO with your client. One of the most popular sharing methods on Refrens is to use Email Purchase Order options, where users share the PO directly to their seller via email.

The email option is one of the useful features, as you can easily track if the PO is delivered to the client or not and also whether the seller has opened your PO. Hence, tracking of PO makes it easy and you can also schedule to send the PO for a future date.

Other option includes downloading the PO in PDF format, sending it via WhatsApp, or sharing the common PO link with the client.