Free Purchase Order Template
A clean, auto-totalling purchase order template: vendor fields, Incoterms, line items, totals. Built around what scaling brands use, without the fields generic templates pad in.
Drop your email to download. Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers.
Sample populated view of the template
What’s inside the template
Built around the fields ops teams at scaling brands use, not a generic web form that asks for half a page of irrelevant detail.
PO header
PO number, date, vendor info, ship-to and bill-to addresses, payment terms, Incoterms.
10-row line-item table
SKU, description, quantity, unit price, line total (auto-calculated), notes column.
Auto-totalling formulas
Line totals, subtotal, and final total all auto-calculate. Add shipping and tax manually.
Instructions block
Step-by-step usage notes built into the file, including a one-line guide to Incoterms and payment terms. No need to keep a separate guide open.
Expected dates and a lateness check
Enter the supplier's lead time and freight transit; the template estimates ship and arrival dates and warns you if arrival lands after your required delivery date. Sits below the signature so you can delete it before sending.
How to use the template
Five minutes from download to a sent PO. The line-item formulas do the maths so you can’t fat-finger a subtotal under pressure.
- 1
Download the template
Drop your email and download the Excel file. It opens directly in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers, with the formulas working.
- 2
Fill in the PO header
Add a PO number from your own sequence (e.g. PO-2026-0001), the date, vendor name and contact, ship-to and bill-to addresses, payment terms, and Incoterms (who pays shipping and when risk passes; the file explains the common ones).
- 3
List each SKU on its own line
Enter SKU code, description, quantity, and agreed unit price. The Total column auto-calculates Quantity × Unit Price.
- 4
Confirm subtotals and totals
Subtotal sums the line items automatically. Add shipping and tax manually if applicable. The TOTAL row sums everything.
- 5
Send to the supplier
Save a copy for this order, or upload to Google Drive and share the Sheets link. Email it to your supplier's order-processing contact and keep a copy in your records or PO log.
- 6
Match to the receipt and invoice
When goods arrive, tick off line items against the PO. When the invoice arrives, match against the PO before approving for payment.
Why every supplier order should have a PO
A purchase order is the document that locks the deal before goods ship: agreed price, agreed quantity, agreed delivery terms. It’s the reference your finance team matches against the invoice when it arrives, and the document the warehouse team checks the receipt against.
Without a PO, every disagreement with a supplier becomes a memory exercise. With a PO, you have one document that all three sides, sales, ops, and finance, point at. That alone pays for the five minutes it takes to fill in.
For more on what a PO is, see the purchase order glossary entry. If you’re thinking about supplier minimums, see MOQ. If you want to lock pricing across a series of POs over a period, see blanket purchase order.
Frequently asked questions
What's included in the purchase order template?+
Vendor and ship-to fields, PO number and date, payment terms and Incoterms, a 10-row line-items table with auto-totalling formulas (Quantity × Unit Price), subtotal, shipping, tax, and total rows, notes, and a signature block. Below the signature, a planning block with lead-time inputs, expected ship and arrival dates, and a lateness check, plus the how-to steps with a one-line guide to Incoterms and payment terms. Delete that section before sending to the supplier.
Is the template free?+
Yes. The template is free to download and use, including for commercial purposes. No credit required (though a link back is appreciated). Drop your email to download.
What format is the template in?+
Excel (.xlsx), which opens in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, and Apple Numbers with the line-item formulas working. Upload it to Google Drive to keep working in Sheets.
How is this different from a generic PO template online?+
It's built around the fields scaling brands use (Incoterms, payment terms, vendor contact, line-item totals) without padding the page with fields nobody fills in. The instructions block at the bottom answers the questions ops teams have.
Do I need to create a PO for every supplier order?+
Best practice is yes. Even for a small order, the PO is the document that locks the price, quantity, and terms before goods ship, and the one finance reconciles against the invoice and the receipt. For repeat orders from the same supplier, a blanket PO with deliveries called off as needed reduces the per-order overhead.
When should I move from a template to PO software?+
Once you're managing more than around 10 active POs at any time across multiple suppliers, the template becomes a bottleneck: version control, status tracking, and matching to receipts get painful. Lumina builds the POs for you from your demand and stock position, sized to respect MOQs, lead times, and the constraints that matter, and tracks each one through to receipt.