Purchase Order Template: What Every Business Should Track

This post is for anyone who sends purchase orders from a Word document, an email or a spreadsheet tab, and wants to know whether the template is missing something.

The short answer: a purchase order has three jobs. It tells the supplier exactly what you want, it records what you agreed (so you can check the bill against it), and it gives your own team something to receive against. A field belongs on the PO if it serves one of those three jobs. Below is the full template, then an example, then the five fields small businesses most often leave out.

The Template

Header

Field	Why it is there
PO number	Unique, sequential. The supplier puts it on the delivery note and the bill, which is how you match them later
PO date	Starts the lead-time clock
Your company name, address, tax ID	Legally needed on many bills; tells the supplier who is buying
Supplier name, address, tax ID	So there is no doubt which entity you are buying from
Supplier contact	Who you are dealing with
Your contact (buyer)	Who the supplier calls with questions
Delivery address	Which warehouse or site, if you have more than one
Requested delivery date	When you need it
Payment terms	For example, 30 days from invoice. Agreed now, not argued later
Delivery terms	Who pays freight, who owns the goods in transit (for example, delivered to your door, or ex works)
Currency	Essential if you buy from abroad
Reference	The customer order or project this is for, if any

Lines

Field	Why it is there
Line number	So "line 3 was short" means one thing
Your item code	How your team identifies it
Supplier's item code	How the supplier identifies it. Prevents the wrong variant
Description	Size, grade, colour, specification. Enough that a stranger would pick the right item
Quantity	The number ordered
Unit of measure	Units, boxes of 50, metres, kilograms. Never leave it implied
Unit price	Agreed price per unit of measure
Discount	If any, per line
Tax rate	Per line, since rates can differ
Line total	Quantity x unit price, after discount, before tax
Requested date per line	If lines are needed at different times

Footer

Field	Why it is there
Subtotal, tax, total	The amount you are committing
Approved by, date	Proves the spend was authorised
Special instructions	Packing, labelling, certificates required, delivery hours
Terms reference	Link to your standard purchase terms, if you have them

A Filled-In Example

PO-2026-0187, dated 6 October 2026

Supplier: a regional steel stockist. Delivery to: Warehouse 2. Requested: 17 October. Payment: 30 days from invoice. Delivery: delivered, supplier pays freight. Currency: KRW. Reference: customer order SO-0912.

Line	Our code	Supplier code	Description	Qty	Unit	Unit price	Line total
1	ST-FB-50x6	FB506-6M	Flat bar, mild steel, 50 x 6 mm, 6 m lengths	40	length	21,500	860,000
2	ST-RB-20	RB20-6M	Round bar, mild steel, 20 mm, 6 m lengths	25	length	18,200	455,000
3	ST-PL-3	PL3-1225	Plate, mild steel, 3 mm, 1250 x 2500	6	sheet	96,000	576,000

Subtotal: 860,000 + 455,000 + 576,000 = 1,891,000
VAT 10%: 189,100
Total: 2,080,100

Approved by: operations manager, 6 October. Special instructions: mill certificates required for line 3. Deliveries 8:00 to 16:00 only.

Notice what makes this PO checkable later: the unit is a length or a sheet, not "pcs"; the supplier code removes doubt about the variant; and the reference to SO-0912 tells your team which customer is waiting.

The Five Fields Small Businesses Leave Out

1. Unit of measure. "40" of what? Forty 6-metre lengths, or forty metres? This one field causes more receiving errors and billing disputes than any other.

2. Supplier's item code. Your description says "M8 bolt." The supplier stocks twelve kinds. Their code removes the guess.

3. Delivery terms. If the PO does not say who pays freight, the freight shows up on the bill and you either pay it or argue about it.

4. The customer order reference. Without it, when the PO is late, nobody can say which customer to call.

5. Approval. A PO with no recorded approval is a spend nobody can trace back to a decision.

What the Template Cannot Do

A template records what you asked for. It cannot record what happened next, and that is where the money is:

whether the supplier confirmed it, and the date they promised,
what was received, per line, and when,
what was billed, and whether it matched.

Those are tracked after the PO is sent. The process is in how to track purchase orders from creation to delivery, and the controls in procure-to-pay explained.

How Purchase Orders Work in Loopency

Every field above is on a Loopency purchase order, and the record carries on after the PO is sent:

Numbering, supplier, delivery address, terms, currency and lines come from records you already keep: the supplier's details, your items, the supplier's price for that item. Supplier prices apply to new orders, and an order already placed keeps the price it was placed at.
A PO can be raised from an approved requisition, carrying its lines, or from "Buy what's short" on a customer order, linked to that order.
The supplier receives it as a secure link they can read without an account and ask questions on.
Receipts, bills and the three-way match attach to the same PO, line by line.
On the Business plan, you can configure approval policies for who must approve before a purchase goes ahead.
Need a field that is not on the standard PO? You can extend the purchase order with your own fields, and they get the same permissions, history and reports as the built-in ones.

Where to Start

Compare your current PO template with the tables above and add the five fields if they are missing. That alone will cut receiving errors. If you want the PO to carry on after it is sent, start a free Loopency workspace, bring in your suppliers and items, and raise your next real PO there.

Raise your next PO in Loopency