Free Purchase Order Generator

Create your purchase order above

Enter your company name, the supplier you are buying from, a PO number, the delivery date and each line item with its quantity and price. The tool totals the order, adds VAT if you need it, and produces a tidy PDF you can download or send. Everything happens in your browser, so your figures are not stored on a server.

What a purchase order actually is

A purchase order is a document you (the buyer) send to a supplier to confirm exactly what you want to buy, how much of it, at what price, and when you need it. Once the supplier accepts it, the PO becomes a commercial agreement that sits behind the eventual invoice. It is the mirror image of an invoice: the invoice is the seller asking for money, the PO is the buyer authorising the spend in the first place.

Plenty of small UK businesses skip POs and just send an email saying "yes, go ahead". That works until there is a dispute about quantity, price or delivery date, and then you have nothing structured to point to. A numbered purchase order gives you a reference both sides can quote, which matters when you are chasing a late delivery or querying a charge that does not match what you agreed.

What goes on a purchase order

• Your details - business name, address and contact, so the supplier knows who is ordering.
• Supplier details - who you are buying from.
• A unique PO number - the reference that ties the order, delivery note and invoice together.
• Order date and required delivery date.
• Line items - description, quantity, unit price and line total for each thing you are buying.
• Subtotal, VAT and grand total.
• Payment and delivery terms - for example 30 days from invoice, delivery to a named address.

How the totals are worked out

The maths on a purchase order is straightforward, and the generator handles it for you. For each line, the calculation is:

Line total = quantity x unit price

Then the order is summed:

Subtotal = sum of all line totals
VAT = subtotal x VAT rate
Grand total = subtotal + VAT

The standard UK VAT rate is 20%, with a reduced rate of 5% on things like domestic energy and a 0% rate on most food and children's clothing, according to gov.uk's VAT rates guidance. You only add VAT if the supplier is VAT-registered and the goods are standard or reduced-rated. If you are unsure whether a supplier is genuinely registered, you can confirm it with our VAT number validator before you commit to the order.

Worked example: a freelancer ordering equipment

Say you run a small video production business and you are buying kit from a VAT-registered supplier. Your order is:

• 2 x LED light panels at £180 each = £360
• 1 x tripod at £95 = £95
• 3 x SD memory cards at £40 each = £120

Work it through:

• Subtotal = £360 + £95 + £120 = £575
• VAT at 20% = £575 x 0.20 = £115
• Grand total = £575 + £115 = £690

Your purchase order shows £690 to pay. When the supplier later invoices you, the invoice total should match this PO exactly. If it comes in at a different figure, you have a documented order to query it against rather than relying on memory.

Worked example: a builder ordering materials

Now imagine you are a sole trader builder ordering materials for a job, and the merchant quotes prices excluding VAT:

• 40 x bags of cement at £6.50 = £260
• 120 x concrete blocks at £1.80 = £216
• 1 x delivery charge = £45

Subtotal = £260 + £216 + £45 = £521. VAT at 20% = £104.20. Grand total = £625.20. Because you are passing these materials on to a customer, keeping the PO and the matching supplier invoice makes your costs easy to evidence at tax time. Logging the purchase in an expense tracker as soon as the order goes out means nothing gets lost before your Self Assessment, and it feeds straight into a profit and loss calculator when you want to see how the job actually performed.

PO numbering: keep it simple and sequential

Your PO number is the thread that runs through the whole transaction. The only rules that matter are that each number is unique and that you can find it again. A format like PO-2026-001, then PO-2026-002, works well because it sorts cleanly and tells you the year at a glance. Avoid reusing numbers or jumping around randomly - when you are matching a supplier invoice back to its order six months later, a sensible sequence saves real time.

If you also raise sales documents, keep your purchase order series separate from your invoice and quote series so the two never get confused. The same supplier might send you a quote first; you can mirror that flow on your own sales side with our quote generator and then turn accepted quotes into bills with the invoice generator.

Purchase orders and your tax records

A purchase order on its own is not a tax document - it is the supplier's invoice that you claim against and that HMRC expects you to keep. But a PO is part of a healthy audit trail. HMRC requires self-employed people to keep business records, and limited companies to keep accounting records, for at least the periods set out in gov.uk's guidance on business records if you're self-employed. Matching every PO to its delivery note and invoice is exactly the kind of three-way check that keeps your bookkeeping defensible if you are ever asked to back up a figure.

For VAT-registered businesses, remember the PO is not your evidence to reclaim input VAT - a valid VAT invoice from the supplier is. If a supplier invoice looks thin on detail, run it past our VAT invoice checker before you file it.

Things to watch

• Agree the price in writing first. A PO confirms a price you have already agreed - it is not a negotiating tool. Sending one with the wrong figure and assuming the supplier will honour it rarely ends well.
• Match three ways. Purchase order, delivery note, invoice. If all three agree on quantity and price, pay. If they do not, hold payment and query it.
• Do not treat a PO as proof of payment or as a VAT invoice. It authorises a purchase; it does not record that money changed hands.
• Watch the VAT toggle. Adding 20% VAT to a price that was already VAT-inclusive double-counts the tax. Check whether the supplier's quote is shown ex-VAT or inc-VAT first - our VAT calculator makes that quick.
• Set clear payment terms. State the terms on the PO (for example payment 30 days after a valid invoice). If a supplier later pays you late on your own sales, the late payment interest calculator shows what you are entitled to charge.

Common mistakes

• Reusing PO numbers, which makes reconciliation a nightmare and looks unprofessional.
• Leaving off the delivery date, so there is no agreed deadline to hold the supplier to.
• Forgetting to record the order until the invoice arrives, by which point you have lost the early paper trail.
• Confusing buyer and seller details - on a PO, you are the buyer at the top.
• Rounding VAT oddly. Calculate VAT on the subtotal, not line by line with separate roundings, to avoid a few pence of mismatch against the supplier's invoice.

These figures and rules are estimates for guidance only and not personal tax or financial advice. Always check current VAT rates and record-keeping rules on gov.uk for your own situation.

Related tools

Once your order is out, keep the rest of your paperwork tidy: raise sales bills with the invoice generator, send priced proposals with the quote generator, and keep an eye on money in and out using the cash flow forecast.