Purchase order
A purchase order, usually shortened to PO, is the document a buyer issues to a supplier to order goods or services at an agreed price, before anything is supplied or invoiced. Once the supplier accepts it, it sets what was ordered and what it costs.
In practice for trades
A PO turns a phone order into something you can check an invoice against. Without one, the merchant's price at the counter, the price on the account and the price on the statement can all differ, and nobody can prove which was agreed.
Its real value is as the first link in a three-part chain: purchase order, delivery note, invoice. When all three agree, the invoice gets paid without thinking about it. When they do not, you know which stage went wrong and have the paperwork to say so. Merchant overcharging is rarely deliberate and usually survives unchallenged because nobody has the first document.
Two fields earn their place on trade jobs. A separate delivery address, because materials go to site more often than to the office, and a required-by date, because a delivery that lands two days after first fix has cost more than the goods are worth.
Give every PO a number and put it on the job. That number is what lands the cost against the right job.
Worked example
You raise a PO for £1,240 of materials to a site address. The delivery note matches. The supplier invoices £1,310. The PO number turns a vague suspicion into a specific query, and the £70 is credited rather than quietly absorbed into the job.
Related terms
- Delivery note: proof of what actually arrived against the order
- Work order: the same idea pointed at labour rather than goods
- Proforma invoice: a supplier's request for payment before supply
Do it in FieldHive
Raise a numbered purchase order with supplier, line items, delivery address and required-by date using the Purchase Order Generator.
Purchase Order Generator→
