Free UK purchase order template
A purchase order template that matches how UK small businesses actually buy: VAT-number fields, per-line VAT, net/VAT/gross totals that calculate themselves, and a receiving checklist on the second sheet. Built by a packaging-trade operator, not a template farm.
Free · No email required · Works in Google Sheets (File → Import)
What’s in the template
PO header done properly
Sequential PO number, order date, your company and supplier blocks with VAT and company numbers.
Line items that calculate themselves
SKU, description, unit, quantity, unit price, and a per-line VAT dropdown (20%, 5% or 0%). Net, VAT and gross totals update on their own.
Terms suppliers actually read
Delivery address and date, payment terms such as 30 days EOM, carriage, and a notes block.
A receiving checklist on sheet 2
Ordered vs delivered vs accepted per line, damage notes and sign-off. The piece most templates skip, and the reason system stock drifts from the shelf.
Three rules that keep spreadsheet POs honest
-
One PO, one file, one number
Copy-pasting last week’s PO and editing it in place is how the wrong quantities reach a supplier. Duplicate the template, never the last order.
-
Never receive from memory
Book deliveries in against the receiving sheet line by line, partial deliveries especially. “It looked complete” is how stock counts drift.
-
Protect the formulas
Lock the totals row. One shifted row silently corrupts every calculation below it, and nobody notices until the wrong stock turns up.
Purchase order questions, answered
What must a UK purchase order include?
Your company and the supplier (names, addresses and VAT numbers), a unique PO number, order and expected delivery dates, line items with quantities and unit prices, net, VAT and gross totals, and payment terms. The template carries every one of these fields.
Is a purchase order legally binding in the UK?
A purchase order is an offer to buy. Once the supplier accepts it, it generally forms a contract on the terms stated, which is exactly why clear quantities, prices and delivery terms on the PO matter.
What is the difference between a purchase order and an invoice?
The buyer raises the purchase order before goods move; the supplier issues the invoice after. Matching invoices against your own POs is how you catch over-billing and part-delivered orders.
Does the template work in Google Sheets?
Yes. In Google Sheets use File, then Import, then Upload. The totals formulas, the per-line VAT dropdowns and the receiving checklist all carry over.
When the template stops being enough
A spreadsheet PO works while one person raises a handful of orders a month. The breaking point is concurrency: two people editing, reorders based on stale counts, receiving nobody logged. That is the exact gap Straptory closes: POs, receiving and live stock in one tool, priced per person, never per SKU.