FREE Purchase order Template Excel [Ready to use]

Are you looking for a free purchase order template in Excel to help you with your purchase order tracking system? You have come to the right place!

In this blog post, we will walk you through a simple purchase order template you and your procurement teams can use to create and track orders.

Download the purchase order template for free by using the link below.

Purchase order template (.XLSX)

If you are a fan of automation for your purchase order processing, you can automate the purchase order creation and get the same purchase order template using ProcureDesk app.

The details in this template match one of the standard purchase order templates you will find in ProcureDesk and our purchase order forms. Feel free to use our purchase order tracking template for your business.

 

Purchase Order Template Excel Format

The template is ready to use; you can even print and export the template in PDF. In the next few sections, we will break down the different sections of the template and how you can customize it to meet your needs.

In this template, you will find an:

1. Purchase order tab
2. Purchase order tracker tab

To start, download the template, then open it with Microsoft Excel. Here is what to do next.

Step 1:

The first step is to update the logo.+

To update the logo, open the spreadsheet and click on the highlighted cell.

We recommend a logo of 150 x 150 pixels.

If you have a logo saved on your computer, you can upload it.

• Click on Insert from the main menu.
• Then select the “Picture” option.
• Upload the picture and resize the logo as required.

Step 2:

Update the purchase order header details.

The purchase header is on the right-hand side of the sheet. See the example below:

• First, update the date of the purchase order. This is when the purchase order for the electronic purchase will be issued to the vendor.
• Then update the purchase order number. This could be a sequential purchase order number for yourpurchase order tracking process, or you can use an intelligent number. For example, if you have multiple business units, you can use a numbering system like BU1-100001. Again it is up to you to. Your track of purchase orders is easily maintained with sequential numbers compared to the custom number.

Step 3:

As a business owner, always update the vendor details, Billing details, and Delivery information.

The next step for your purchasing department is to update the vendor details, where the order needs to be shipped, and where the vendor should send the invoice.

Next, we will cover each section in detail so you can be better at leveraging your tracking software.

Vendor

The vendor details are pretty straightforward. Things that you need to enter on your purchase requests:

• Name of the vendor
• Address of the vendor. In the case of multiple locations, choose the address from where the vendor will ship the product or provide the service.
• Name of the supplier contact.
• Contact detail like email and phone number of the vendor. This is helpful in case you need to reach out to the vendor. Since the information is printed on the purchase order, you don’t have to spend time finding the vendor’s contact details.

Ship to

The Ship to section lists the contact details and the address information. No matter the volumes of purchase orders, this is a very important step.

• You want to put your company name and address. Vendors use this information to ship the product. Add specific details like building number, suite, or floor number to ensure the delivery can be made without confusion.
• Contact is the person the courier can contact if they cannot find the location. Also, the vendor can contact this person in case of an issue.
• Email and cell number so that it is easy for the shipping company or vendor to reach out.

Bill to

Here is another step to your purchase order tracking methods: Always remember that the Bill to section is not mandatory, but you can use this information to provide instructions on sending the bill for the purchase order.

Specifically, suppose you are in a situation where you don’t have a standardized process for receiving invoices. In that case, this section can be very useful in driving compliance with your standard process of receiving invoices and your entire purchase order tracking solution.

• Address if you want the bills to be mailed to a specific location. We don’t recommend putting an address here, but it is your call.
• Instead, we recommend that you put some instructions here – for example., Send all bills to ap@yourcompany.com. All paper bills will be rejected and not processed for payment.
• Billing email and contact information.

Step 4:

The next step is to enter any additional information for the purchase order.

This generally includes the following steps to make it easier for your purchase tracker:

• Agreed on payment terms with the vendor
• Delivery contact if it is different from the order contact.
• Any special freight terms that apply to the purchase.
• Special notes or comments for the supplier.

Step 5:

In this step, we update the line item details for the purchase orders. This is a critical step to achieve a complete purchase. The line item details cover what you are trying to purchase from the vendor, thus contributing to better purchase order management.

Above is a screenshot of the line item details from the purchase order template.

The header fields are configurable, so change them to match your headings.

Here is an explanation of the various fields in the line item details you may use for your purchase order systems:

1. Line number: This is the sequential number for the lines used in your procurement processes.
2. Item #: If you maintain an internal item master, this is your item number. This is generally very helpful when purchasing the same item from multiple vendors because you don’t lose the purchase history. Aside from that, it also helps you have a more efficient procurement process.
3. Supplier Item #: This is the supplier item number. Many suppliers need this number to process the purchase order because this is how they refer to the item in their catalog.
4. Product/Service: This describes the product or service purchased from the vendor. The more descriptive this is, the better it is for your entire procurement process.
5. Qty: The quantity that is being purchased. In case of a service purchase, make it one.
6. UOM: It is the Unit of measure for the purchase, For example – Each pack, case, etc. In case of a service purchase, you can leave this as Each unless it is professional services and you are purchasing a fixed set of hours. In that case, the UOM is going to be HR or HOORS
7. Unit price: The agreed price you will pay to acquire the product or service.
8. Other: Any other charges that you have agreed with the vendor. This could be expedited shipping.
9. Total: This is the total for that line item. The formula automatically calculates the total based on the line amount and other charges.
10. Delivery date: This is the expected delivery date. Some vendors have fixed lead times and will not accept an order with expedited delivery requirements.

Step 6:

This section covers any additional shipping and taxes that are added to the purchase order for your full-scale procurement system:

Here is how it looks in the template:

 

• The sub-total is automatically calculated based on the line total.
• Calculate the taxes and any shipping charges and add them to the spreadsheet.
• The template then automatically calculates the order total based on the above three factors giving a real-time status.

Step 7:

This step is not mandatory, but many companies want to put an authorized signatory on the purchase order.

The idea is that this ensures that the purchase order comes from the authorized buyer and not anyone from the company.

Here is how it looks in the template:

You can replace the image with the signatures of the authorized signatory.

• Click on the image and hit delete on your keyboard.
• Then Insert the image using Insert -> Picture option on your spreadsheet.

Step 8:

This is the final step in the purchase order process. Once the purchase order is ready, you need to send this to the supplier.

We have done all the work for you. All you need to do in this step is to print the purchase order and save it as PDF so you can gain real-time insight into your business

Here are the steps:

1. Click on File and then the Print option

2. This will open the following dialog box:

Click on the PDF option, select the location where you want to save the purchase order, and then save the purchase order in the PDF version.

And That’s it; you now have a purchase order that you can send to the vendor for better real-time tracking and real-time updates for your business.

Step 9:

Optionally, you can also keep track of the purchase orders for our administrative tasks.

To update the purchase order tracker for your preferred suppliers or even individual suppliers, go to the “Purchase Order tracker” tab and update the information:

Here is a screenshot of the purchase order tracker for your supplier systems:

The fields are self-explanatory, but here is a brief overview of the fields for a better database solution:

1. Purchase order # that you just created.
2. Purchase order date: The date that is printed on the purchase order.
3. Name of the vendor for whom the purchase order is issued.
4. Amount of the purchase order.
5. The issue date is when the purchase order was sent to the vendor. This date should be the same as the purchase order date. In case there is a delay in sending the purchase order, then this could be different. This also prevents any invoice fraud.
6. Expected delivery date so you can use this information to follow up with the vendor if the delivery is delayed.
7. The status could be “Sent to Supplier,” “Delivered,” or “Closed” so that you know what are the next steps for the purchase order.

Benefits:

Using a purchase order template is the first step toward keeping track of your company’s purchasing history. In addition, it also helps you leverage your:

Here are some of the key benefits of this purchase order template:

1. It is Free, and no investment is required. Most companies already have a Microsoft Excel license.
2. It is simple to get started, and you don’t have to worry about a learning curve.
3. You can track purchase orders in one place to know how much you owe to other trading partners.3
4. Inventory management for your inventory solutions
5. Helps you gain optimal inventory levels
6. Assists in better vendor management for your individual vendors.Reduces the risks of human error during your approval process and approval workflows. Some important areas you can reduce risks include calculating your shipping costs, organizing your legal contracts, identifying your delivery status, etc.
7. Boosting your organizational performance by using tracking sheets and modern technology. Compared to leaning into traditional purchases, using a purchase order template makes processing purchases easier and more efficient.

Drawbacks:

While there are some obvious advantages of using a purchase order tracker Excel sheet, there are some disadvantages too:

1. Manual effort: Filling in the relevant information takes time to generate a purchase order. The larger the volume, the longer it takes to generate purchase orders.
2. Accuracy of information: Every new person you add to your team needs training on the tracker. This leads to inaccurate data and, as a result, delays in getting the required material or service.
3. Lack of scalability: This process is not scalable enough to support growing companies, especially when you don’t have a purchasing team to generate the purchase orders manually.

The Bottomline

A purchase order template is the easiest way to generate purchase orders. This is probably the simplest way to start if you are not using any purchase orders today.

However, when you create more than 20 purchase orders per month, you need a system to create and manage purchase orders. More importantly, you need to control costs to only order what is required.

That is where ProcureDesk can help you ensure you have a central place to track all your purchase order commitments and a cost control process so that only approved purchases are issued to the supplier.

If you want to see how ProcureDesk can help you, click the link below to schedule a free demo with one of our product specialists to learn more about our purchase order software.