![Free Purchase Order Template Excel (2026) [Ready to Use]](data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgMTQwOCA3NjgiIHdpZHRoPSIxNDA4IiBoZWlnaHQ9Ijc2OCIgeG1sbnM9Imh0dHA6Ly93d3cudzMub3JnLzIwMDAvc3ZnIj48L3N2Zz4=)
A purchase order is the only record of what your company agreed to buy before the invoice arrives. If your team confirms orders by email, you have no record at all. This free Excel purchase order template gives you a print-ready PO form plus a tracker tab to log every order, and you can download it without filling out a form.
Download the Purchase Order Template (.XLSX)
It was built for finance teams at companies with 100 to 1,000 employees that are not ready for procurement software yet. The fields mirror the standard PO format we configure for ProcureDesk customers, so nothing here is theoretical.
Most free PO templates are a blank form and nothing else. This one includes the tracker log, and it tells you the exact point where Excel stops working, so you know when to move on.
Creating more than 20 POs a month? Skip the spreadsheet stage.
Request a demo →What’s Inside the Free Purchase Order Template
The template has two tabs. The Purchase Order tab is where you build and print individual POs. The Purchase Order Tracker tab is where you log every PO you issue, so nothing gets lost between order and invoice.
Every purchase order template should contain five things: item description, quantity, unit price, payment terms, and delivery date. This template covers all five, plus vendor details, ship-to and bill-to sections, tax and shipping lines, and an authorized signature block.
Download the template and work through these eight steps. The first PO takes about ten minutes. After that, expect three to five minutes per order.
1. Add your company logo
Click the highlighted cell in the top left of the Purchase Order tab. Go to Insert, then Picture, and upload your logo. A 150 x 150 pixel image fits without resizing.
2. Set the PO date and purchase order number
The header sits on the right side of the sheet. Enter the date you will issue the PO to the vendor.
Then assign a purchase order number. Sequential numbers (100001, 100002) are the most reliable to maintain by hand. If you run multiple business units, a prefix system like BU1-100001 keeps reporting clean. Pick one convention and hold the line. Duplicate or skipped PO numbers are the first thing that breaks manual tracking.
3. Complete the vendor section
Enter the vendor’s name, the address they ship or provide service from, a named contact, and that contact’s email and phone. Printing contact details on the PO saves you a search when something goes wrong with the order.
4. Complete the Ship To and Bill To sections
Ship To is your company name and delivery address. Include building, suite, or floor numbers so the courier does not guess. Add a contact name, email, and cell number for delivery questions.
Bill To is optional but useful. Rather than a mailing address, we recommend an instruction line such as: “Send all invoices to ap@yourcompany.com. Paper invoices will not be processed.” That one line pushes vendors toward your standard invoice channel and cuts down on lost invoices.
5. Add payment, shipping, and delivery terms
Record the payment terms you agreed with the vendor (Net 30, Net 45), shipping terms, any freight conditions, and a delivery contact if it differs from the order contact. Terms written on the PO are terms you can enforce when the invoice disagrees.
6. Enter line item details
This is the core of the purchase order. Each line includes:
Line number. Sequential.
Item #. Your internal item number, if you keep an item master. It preserves purchase history when you buy the same item from several vendors.
Supplier Item #. The vendor’s catalog number. Many suppliers will not process a PO without it.
Product/Service. Describe it precisely. Vague descriptions cause wrong shipments and disputed invoices.
Qty and UOM. Quantity and unit of measure (each, pack, case). For services, use 1 and “Each,” or hours for professional services.
Unit price. The agreed price.
Other. Agreed extra charges, such as expedited shipping.
Total. Calculated automatically from quantity, price, and other charges.
Delivery date. The expected date. Check vendor lead times before promising one.
The header fields are configurable, so rename them to match your internal terms.
7. Review totals, tax, and shipping
The subtotal calculates automatically from the line totals. Add tax and shipping charges, and the template computes the order total. Check the math against the vendor quote before sending. Catching a price gap now is far cheaper than disputing an invoice later.
8. Sign, save as PDF, and send
If your company requires an authorized signatory, replace the signature image: click it, press delete, then Insert, Picture to add the new one. Then go to File, Print, choose Save as PDF, and email the PDF to your vendor.
A signed, numbered PDF is your audit evidence that the purchase was authorized before money moved.
How to Track Purchase Orders in Excel
The second tab is the purchase order tracker, and it is the part most free templates skip. Without a log, POs disappear into sent folders and you find out at month-end which orders never arrived.
Log every PO in the tracker with these seven fields:
Purchase order tracker fields
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| PO # | The number from the purchase order you created |
| PO date | The date printed on the PO |
| Vendor | Who the PO was issued to |
| Amount | Total PO value |
| Issue date | When you actually sent it (a gap from PO date signals a process delay) |
| Expected delivery | Use this to chase late orders before they block work |
| Status | “Sent to Supplier,” “Delivered,” or “Closed” |
Review the tracker weekly. Open POs past their delivery date get a vendor follow-up. Delivered POs get matched against the invoice before payment. That single habit is the difference between a tracker and a spreadsheet nobody trusts.
Is Excel Good Enough for Purchase Orders?
For low volume, yes. If your company issues fewer than 20 purchase orders a month, this template plus the tracker tab will hold. It costs nothing, most teams already have Excel, and one owner can keep the log accurate.
Past that point, three things break, in a predictable order:
Manual effort compounds. At three to five minutes per PO plus tracker upkeep, 50 POs a month is roughly a full day of admin work. The time goes to typing, not to controlling spend.
Accuracy decays. Every new requester needs training on the file. Versions fork. Two people issue PO 100041 in the same week, and the tracker quietly stops being the source of truth.
There are no controls. Excel cannot route a PO for approval, enforce a budget, or match an invoice against the PO and receipt. Approvals move to email and Slack, which is where unauthorized spend hides.
In our onboarding work with 200+ mid-market companies, the pattern is consistent: teams hit these walls at around 20 POs a month, and the first symptom is invoices arriving for purchases nobody can find a PO for.
When to Move From the Template to a Purchase Order System
When the template becomes the bottleneck, the next step is a purchase order system that creates, approves, and tracks POs in one place.
ProcureDesk is a procurement and AP automation platform built for mid-market finance teams at companies with 100 to 1,000 employees. After implementation, the workflow you just read about runs itself: a requester picks items, the PO routes for approval against budget, and the system sends it to the vendor and logs it. Your tracker tab becomes a live dashboard instead of a Friday chore.
Employees buy through 200+ punchout supplier catalogs, including Amazon Business, Staples, Grainger, and Thermo Fisher, so requests arrive with accurate item numbers and prices instead of free-typed descriptions. Every order is captured at the point of request, before a dollar moves.
What changes for the finance team, stated as results:
Approvals leave your inbox. Multi-level routing enforces your delegation of authority automatically, with a full audit trail on every PO.
3-way matching runs on its own. The system matches PO, goods receipt, and invoice, and flags discrepancies before payment instead of after.
Your accounting system stays. ProcureDesk syncs both ways with QuickBooks (Online, Desktop, and Enterprise), Sage Intacct, NetSuite, and Microsoft Business Central. It adds a procurement layer; it does not replace your ledger.
Coast Flight, an aviation training company, cut invoice processing time by 30% after moving its purchasing into ProcureDesk. Implementation is done for you in 2 to 3 weeks, with pricing published here.
See a PO go from request to approved, sent, and matched in a 20-minute walkthrough.
Request a demo →The Bottom Line
This template is the fastest free way to issue proper purchase orders, and the tracker tab keeps you honest about what you have committed to spend. Use it as long as your volume stays low.
If your team is at 100 to 1,000 employees and POs are climbing past 20 a month, the spreadsheet is already costing more than software. ProcureDesk gives you the same PO discipline with approvals, budget checks, and 3-way matching built in, live in 2 to 3 weeks.
See what replaces the spreadsheet.
Approval routing, automated 3-way matching, and 200-plus punchout catalogs, synced with QuickBooks, NetSuite, and Sage Intacct. Implementation in 2 to 4 weeks.
Request a demo and see it liveFrequently Asked Questions About Purchase Order Templates in Excel
How do you create a purchase order in Excel?
Start from a purchase order template, then fill in five sections: your logo and header, a unique PO number and date, the vendor and ship-to details, the line items with quantity and unit price, and the totals with tax and shipping. Save it as a PDF to email the vendor, and log the PO in a tracker tab so you can see every open order in one place.
What should a purchase order number look like?
A purchase order number should be unique and consistent. You can use a simple sequential number, which is easiest to track, or an intelligent number that encodes the business unit, such as BU1-100001, which helps when you have multiple entities. Pick one scheme and hold to it. Inconsistent numbering is the first thing that breaks PO tracking as volume grows.
What is the difference between the purchase order tab and the tracker tab?
The purchase order tab is where you build and print an individual PO to send to a vendor. The tracker tab is a running log of every PO you have issued, with the number, vendor, amount, and expected delivery date. The PO tab handles one order. The tracker tab gives you a single view of all your open commitments.
When should you stop using an Excel purchase order template?
Stop relying on the Excel template once approvals start happening over email and Slack and your tracker tab is regularly out of date. In our onboarding work with mid-market finance teams, the pattern is consistent: past 20 to 30 purchase orders a month, the spreadsheet costs more time than it saves and loses the audit trail. That is the point to move to a purchasing system.
Can Excel track multiple purchase orders at once?
Yes, the tracker tab logs multiple purchase orders in one sheet so you can see every open commitment. The limit is control, not capacity. A spreadsheet records spend after a commitment is made and cannot stop an unapproved purchase before it happens. It also breaks down when several people edit the same file, which leads to overwrites and version confusion.
Is a purchase order template enough for a mid-market finance team?
A template is enough while purchase order volume is low and one person manages it. For finance teams at companies with 100 to 1,000 employees, it usually is not enough for long. ProcureDesk replaces the spreadsheet with approval routing, automated 3-way matching, and 200-plus punchout catalogs, and it syncs with QuickBooks, NetSuite, and Sage Intacct. Implementation runs 2 to 3 weeks.
