“­ Beware of small expenses. A small leak can sink a great ship” (Benjamin Franklin)

   If we delve into this quote of Benjamin and try to absorb the idea between the lines, the lesson is simple, “Financial Accountability”. When things are visible, they can be looked into. Business is all about trade… selling and buying all the time. To succeed, Businesses need to standardize this core process in a manner that contributes to the recordkeeping process as well as gets beneficial in getting out business analytics.

Purchase Order Forms can help you in this regard. Here is how:

Let’s first clear the basics.

What is a Purchase Order form?

      As the name suggests, it’s a form used in Businesses that are sent from buyer to seller. It contains vast information regarding the purchase request such as

• Complete detail of Buyers such as Name, Contact, and Address.
• High-Level Description of order.
• The price that was decided earlier.
• Quantity of goods to be purchased.
• Delivery Details ( such as The Address, Receiver Data )
• Terms and Conditions (such as Urgent Delivery in 5 days or Advance Payment)

    One special thing about it is its Unique Identifier. Every Purchase Order (PO) form has a number that helps it to identify the purchase request being made.

As an example, you can look into some of the Electronic Purchase Order

Templates here:

—-Some examples here to clear the concept—

Types of Purchase Order:

Mainly, there are two types of Purchase Order types in the market:

1.     Paper Purchase Order Forms:

                Paper Forms are just physical in nature and transmitted to sellers by hand. They are getting outdated and less convenient in today’s digital environment.

2.      Electronic Purchase Order Forms:

               Other common names for Electronic PO forms are Electronic Acquisition Forms, Electronic Procurement forms. They are easily shareable and customizable digitally according to one’s needs.

Purchase Order Template 01

Purchase Order Template 02

Why are Purchase Order Forms Important:

              Now, after you know what a Purchase Order Form is, let’s discuss why it’s important for your Business.

You may encounter a thought in your mind.

 Your Business already uses Invoices. Why do you need to switch to Purchase Order Forms? 

     Why you should ever bother to include Purchase Order forms in your Business process? Well, after looking at some of the salient points below, I am sure you will be compelled to change your mind.

         Of all its benefits, on the top lies the benefit of “Better Understanding of Data”. Businesses operate on Data. Nobody can deny that.Purchase Order Templates contain all information in one place. You can easily look into one form and get all the required data out of it. There is no need to see separate Record books for every single piece of data. Moreover, all that data is in proper format and written at a proper standard. You will always know the location of data in the form. To verify this thing, have a look at our Free Electronic Purchase Order templates below. You can also download them for free:

–Purchase Order Templates in MS Word –

Keep Reading there is more for you.

          Another important reason to consider getting a Purchase Order template is that you will not have to worry about creating them. Yes, Purchase Order templates are created by buyers, not sellers. You just need to approve them. That will take a great amount of load off your shoulders. To add, PO’s streamlines your core business process and reduce the friction of all sorts.

What is Friction in a Business Process?

     Friction can be any impediment that is stopping you to achieve ideal results in your business. It can be difficulty in keeping several ledgers for separate Data, it could be difficulty in knowing the Cash Flow of your business, it could be having trouble in making business decisions, etc. For sure, Purchase order forms will lubricate your business flow.

PO Forms in regards to Decision Making Process:

Can Purchase Order forms help in making more informed Data-Driven decisions for your business?

       The answer to this question is very simple. It’s a YES. We have discussed this point earlier that Purchase Order templates are very rich in information, one that is critical for your business.  

PO Form in regard to Profitability:

   “ Profit is like oxygen, food, water, and       blood for a business; they are not the point of life, but without them, there is no life.”

        Ultimately, you want more profits that is why you are doing business, right? Purchase Order Templates will help you in this regard because the Purchase Order form will contain all data regarding the sales, the pricing, the quantity demanded, which kind of products are in demand. By comparing this data to your internal data such as manufacturing cost, manufacturing quantity, you could easily get your estimates regarding profit right. The volume of purchase requests will give you useful insights into how much human resource do you actually need, what kind of manufacturing facility is optimal etc. Once this gets sorted, you could easily make your business more profitable and be more effective and efficient in your business process.

PO Form in regard to Budgeting:

     Furthermore, Purchase Order templates will help you in budgeting. Requests in every category are known such as those which are pending, those in progress. It helps in the effective approval of a new budget for the company.

 PO Form in regard to Contract Management:   

     To add, there is no need for additional contract management because a Purchase Order Form is itself a contract. Once a seller approves a Purchase Order form, it becomes a legally abiding contract, and the seller becomes liable to fulfill the order of items whichever is required. Not abiding by it could be challenged in a court of law.   

       Now that you have learned about Purchase Orders Forms, kindly have a look at our Free Purchase Order templates available on our site. These templates are well crafted and are made by experts in Business Purchase Domain. These templates are customizable with a large Variety available so that you can choose the one you deem is perfect for you. Trust me, it’s a great decision.

–Templates here—

As an additive effort here is a Short Story for how Purchase Orders will work for you:

Let’s Assume, Kevin is the Director of a Law firm. The workload on existing staff has increased and Kevin knows he has to act somehow. So, Kevin decides to make some new recruitment for the firm. Kevin first decides that he will need new furniture and new Computers for the staff. So, he orders his Operations Manager to prepare a Purchase Order Form for the acquisition to be made. The PO form is then sent to the Selling Company. The Selling Company first checks its stocks and verifies that it can provide the required items. They will then prepare an invoice and send the shipment with it. Kevin receives the shipment and sends the invoice to Operations Manager. The Op. Manager validates the delivery and then directs the Accounts Department to send the Money. The Business ends and the invoice is marked as Closed.

       Did you see how smoothly things went here? You are one step away from achieving it for your business. Have a look at some of our well-crafted Electronic Purchase Order templates available for free in Excel, Word, and PDF formats on our site.

– Free Purchase Order Templates in word, pdf, excel here—

Significance of Electronic-PO Forms:

         In addition, an important factor to note here is that Electronic Templates could be more useful here rather than old-school paperwork.

         Electronic Purchase Orders Templates will give you additional advantages you will certainly like. Have a Look at them:

Easy to Integrate into your Digital Workspace:

    Electronic templates could be very handy and could save you a lot of time because if you adopt for paperwork, it will take time and resources to add that data into your digital database. You will be saving a whole person’s salary i.e. a data entry operator. This will save your precious money so you could use it more effectively else where you need them more.

Fast Business Process:

   Electronic Purchase Orders will offer your ability to get rid of transferring files from one department to another. They will make you able to share them online with whatever person you like. Time is money so these electronic templates will save your time which will lead to saving your precious money.

Lesser chances of Fraud and Error:

   Electronic purchase orders will make you empowered to control who has access to your financial data. Every view could be logged into the database for the record. Moreover, if uploaded on a Cloud Service, every responsible member of your organization could easily view the Data at the same time. It will help is reducing the bottlenecks in your business process. Moreover, it will help curb fraud on every kind as data is accessible and every action is tracked digitally. Any unauthorized change in data can be quickly flagged and it can be further investigated to find the culprit.

    After all that discussion, I am sure you will be interested in our electronic purchase order templates that will be available in Excel, Word as well as in PDF format. You could easily download them from here