Free purchase order template for UK businesses
Fill in the supplier, the delivery address and the lines you are ordering, and a numbered purchase order builds itself on the right. Print it, save it as a PDF or paste it into an email.
Fill in your purchase order
The order on the right updates as you type. Nothing leaves your browser.
Purchase order
Your company name
Supplier
Supplier company name
Deliver to
Delivery address
| Description | Qty | Unit cost | VAT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Softshell jacket, navy, mixed sizes - supplier code SJ-200 | 100 | £16.40 | 20% | £1,640.00 |
| Embroidery, left chest, 2 colours | 100 | £1.85 | 20% | £185.00 |
| Digitising, one-off | 1 | £22.00 | 20% | £22.00 |
| Delivery charge | 1 | £18.00 | 20% | £18.00 |
- Subtotal excluding VAT
- £1,865.00
- VAT at 20%
- £373.00
- Order total
- £2,238.00
Terms
Please acknowledge this order by return and confirm the despatch date. Quote our purchase order number on the delivery note and the invoice. Payment terms: 30 days from date of invoice. Goods remain rejectable if they do not match the specification above.
Built with the free purchase order template at zigaflow.com/resources/purchase-order-template
Printing gives you only the order, not the rest of the page.
Send me the editable template and the supplier checklist
One email with a link back to this builder and the checklist we use before a purchase order goes out to a supplier.
What a UK purchase order usually includes
There is no statutory list of contents for a purchase order in the UK. A PO is a commercial document: once the supplier accepts it, it is the offer you are both working to, so what matters is that it is specific enough to hold them to and to check the delivery and the invoice against. In practice UK trade orders carry:
- A unique purchase order number. This is the thread that ties the order to the delivery note and the supplier invoice, and it is why "quote our PO number on your invoice" is on almost every order.
- Your company name, address and VAT number, and the supplier you are ordering from, with your account number if you have one.
- The date of the order and the date you need the goods by.
- One line per item, with the supplier code where there is one, the quantity, the agreed unit cost and the VAT rate.
- The delivery address, which is often not your registered address, plus anything the driver needs to know: booking-in, tail lift, delivery window.
- Payment terms, and a request to acknowledge the order and confirm a despatch date.
The invoice that comes back is the one with rules
HMRC sets what a VAT invoice must contain, and the supplier’s invoice has to carry it: a unique invoice number, the supplier’s name, address and VAT registration number, your name and address, the date and the tax point, a description of what was supplied, the quantity, the VAT rate and the amount payable excluding VAT at each rate, and the total VAT charged. An invoice arriving without those is worth querying before you pay it.
A purchase order that already carries the description, the quantity, the unit cost and the VAT rate makes that check a two-minute job.
Purchase order, delivery note, invoice
The three-way match is the point of raising a PO. The order says what you asked for and at what price, the delivery note says what turned up, the invoice says what you are being charged. When all three agree you pay; when they do not, the PO number says which order to look at. Ordering by email without a numbered document is what makes that reconciliation guesswork.
Raise the order from the job it belongs to
In Zigaflow a purchase order is raised from the job, so the supplier cost lands against that job instead of in an inbox.
- Suppliers acknowledge the order on their own tracking page, with no login to hand out
- Expected dates tracked line by line, then received against as the goods arrive
- Spend limits by role, so orders over a value go for approval before they are sent
Questions people ask
What UK buyers ask before they send their first purchase order.
Every order against the job that pays for it
See how a purchase order is raised, acknowledged and received in Zigaflow, and where the cost lands.