Streamline your procurement process with automated PO creation and tracking
✓ Free to download · ✓ Excel 2016+ and Google Sheets · ✓ Custom version in 24h
A purchase order template is a document generator and a tracker at the same time. This one keeps the line data in a table so that outstanding orders can be reported on, not just printed.
The actual columns, with sample rows
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PO | Supplier | Item | Qty | Unit | Line total |
| 2 | PO-2211 | Nordic Textiles | TSH-BLK-M | 120 | 8.40 | 1,008.00 |
| 3 | PO-2211 | Nordic Textiles | TSH-BLK-L | 80 | 8.40 | 672.00 |
| 4 | PO-2212 | Baltic Packaging | BOX-M | 500 | 0.62 | 310.00 |
| 5 | PO-2213 | Nordic Textiles | HDY-GRY-S | 60 | 16.10 | 966.00 |
Why each one is written the way it is
=[@Qty]*[@Unit]
Line total. Trivial, but keeping it as data rather than a printed figure is what makes the PO reportable.
=SUMIFS(Lines[Line total],Lines[PO],[@PO])
Order total for the document header, always agreeing with the lines because it is derived from them.
="PO-"&TEXT(MAX(Lines[Number])+1,"0000")
Next PO number, generated rather than typed. Duplicate PO numbers are a surprisingly common and surprisingly expensive error.
=[@[Order date]]+VLOOKUP([@Supplier],Suppliers[[Name]:[Lead days]],2,FALSE)
Expected delivery date from the supplier's lead time, so the follow-up date is set when the order is raised.
A worked example with real numbers
A small manufacturer produced purchase orders in a word processor and had no way to answer "what is on order?" without opening files one by one. Moving the lines into a table changed nothing about the printed document and made the question a filter: €4,100 outstanding across seven orders, two of them past their expected date.
Tab by tab
| Tab | Contents |
|---|---|
| Lines | Every PO line, the source of both the document and the reports. |
| PO | The printable order document, populated by lookup. |
| Suppliers | Supplier details, terms and lead times. |
| Open orders | Outstanding lines with expected dates and ageing. |
| README | How numbering works and how to add a supplier. |
What is included, and what to look at next
Specific to this workbook, not generic
Yes — the PO sheet is set up as a print area driven by one order-number cell. Generating a file per order in a batch is a short VBA or Apps Script job.
Add a received quantity per line and let the open-order view show the difference. Marking a whole PO as received when half arrived is the error this prevents.
Add an approver column with a threshold lookup on the order total. It is a control, not an enforcement — a spreadsheet cannot stop someone typing their own name.
"The purchase order tracker has transformed our procurement process. We've reduced processing time by 70% and have complete visibility of all orders."