How To Create a Simple Purchase Order Template
A purchase order (PO) is a buyer’s written commitment to purchase a specific volume of goods at an agreed price within a set timeframe. You need a purchase order if you frequently buy goods or raw materials from vendors or subcontract services.
However, creating a PO from scratch whenever you need to purchase goods or services is resource and time-intensive and a significant productivity drain. Creating and using a simple purchase order template is much more efficient, productive, and time-saving.
jSign enables you to easily create digital purchase order form templates when creating POs for your vendors. You can then reuse these templates at any time. With jSign, you can create a primary purchase order template, which you can customize for different occasions and sign electronically.
jSign also does more than purchase order templates. You can create and customize many reusable templates for essential business documents, including sales contracts, W-9 forms, and employment offer letters.
Here’s how to quickly create a simple purchase order template with jSign.
Steps To Create a Standard Purchase Order Template
Create a purchase order form by following these four easy steps:
Determine the Required Information
The contents of a PO vary depending on the nature of your purchase order. Overall, there are four types of purchase orders most businesses deal with. They include:
- Standard purchase orders (PO): This is used for single orders you don’t expect to repeat in the future. It details the order’s terms and conditions, delivery details, list of items requested, and the vendor’s details.
- Planned purchase orders (PPO): This is used for recurrent orders you need to replace or restock within a given timeline. It contains similar details as a PO, but the delivery location and date are unassigned.
- Blanket purchase orders (BPO), a.k.a standing orders: This is used for future orders without mentioning a specific quantity or delivery date.
- Contract purchase order (CPO): This is used to state the agreed-upon terms and conditions per your negotiations with vendors for any future purchase you’ll make.
Even though the contents of POs may vary from order to order, they feature the following primary information:
Vendor Details and Contact Information
Your purchase order form should include vendor information to facilitate communication between your company and vendors. Depending on your company’s purchase order process, different departmental managers may need to communicate with the vendors during and after the PO’s approval. Likewise, vendors may need to communicate or negotiate with your company before committing to the PO.
That’s why your order form template should include:
- The vendor’s name, phone number, email, and physical address
- Your company’s contact information (physical address, email, and phone number)
- Your company’s shipping address
Purchase Order Number and Date
You and your vendors most likely use a PO tracking system to track the status of all your purchase orders in progress. To streamline the tracking and identification of all your POs, include these details:
- A unique purchase order number
- The PO’s date
- Preferred shipping method and shipping details
- Promise date
Your staff and vendors can quickly track the order status through the PO tracking system and plan operations accordingly using the unique purchase order number.
Item Description, Quantity, and Price
This section forms the bulk of your PO content. The item description displays the identifying characteristics of each item on your purchase order list, such as the model number, color, and size. It also includes the following order details:
- Manufacturer’s product specifications
- Stock keeping units (SKU)
- Quantity of each item
- Unit price of each item
- Payment terms and due date
- Taxes paid, subtotals, and the sum total
Design and Layout of the Purchase Order Template
Purchasing order templates may take different designs and layouts depending on how you arrange the PO content. However, the main idea is to keep your purchase order format simple and easy to navigate. Broadly, most businesses design their POs with these five main sections:
- Header: This details the buyer’s information, shipping address, PO number, and date.
- Vendor information: This includes the vendor’s address, phone number, email, and other pertinent information.
- Shipping information: This contains the shipping details, such as the shipping terms and methods.
- Order details: This contains the product details of each item, including the description, unit price, and SKU numbers.
- Summary: This details the order subtotal, tax charged, shipping costs, payment method, buyer’s notes, and a placeholder section for vendors and buyers to sign.
Add Terms and Conditions
Typically, most companies add the PO’s terms and conditions (T&C) under the order details. Your PO’s T&C should explain crucial shipping terms and the applicable consequences if either party breaches the agreed-upon details. Some of the elements your T&C should stipulate include:
- Cancellation policy
- Indemnification clauses
- Confidentiality agreements
- General liability
- Detailed payment terms
- Applicable trade laws and regulations
The terms and conditions are essential to certify your PO as a legally enforceable document, so it shouldn’t be an afterthought in your PO template creation process.
Save and Share the Purchase Order Template
After creating your PO and including the terms and conditions, save it to your computer or cloud storage. This is the official document copy you’ll upload to jSign so you can reuse it as often as possible.
Fortunately, creating, saving, and sharing a simple purchase order template with jSign is easy by following these steps:
- Sign into your account, access the jSign header, and select documents.
- Click on the Create Template button and select Add New Template.
- Click the + button to upload your purchase order template from jSign.
- Edit the category, description, and document name.
- Add signers and observers.
- Attach signature placeholders with fields for dates, initials, and names.
- Review if the information of your order form template is in order and select save template.
After you’ve saved your purchase order template, you can access it from the My Templates page whenever you want to create a PO. This makes creating a PO easy and fast — you’ll only need to edit the pre-designed template and enter the vendor and shipping information required for that particular order. Then, you can share it with all the vendors you need to and have them sign the PO electronically using jSign.
Streamline Purchase Order Approval With JSign’s Electronic Signature Solution
A purchase order is significant to your company’s operations. Having a way to streamline and expedite the purchase order approval makes sending this document a breeze.
A powerful alternative like jSign enables you to accomplish many extra functions — without a steep price tag.
jSign allows you to:
- Send, track, and sign POs electronically
- Share POs with multiple vendors at once from a single dashboard
- Set due dates and reminders for vendors to sign POs on time
- Send POs in various file formats, including pdf files, .doc, and .xls
- Edit, save, and send POs in the cloud to facilitate remote access
And the icing on the cake? You enjoy these and more practical features at pocket-friendly prices. Check out jSign’s pricing plans and choose one that suits your company’s needs and bottom line.
