A purchase order is the document you send to a supplier to order goods — before anything is delivered and before any invoice arrives. Below is a free purchase order template in Excel, Word and PDF built for Malaysian businesses, plus a completed example you can copy line for line.
Start where you need to
01. Download the free template and checklist
Five files. All free, all editable, no sign-up. The Excel version is a working spreadsheet with live formulas — not a picture of a form.
Type the quantity and unit price; line totals, subtotal, delivery, SST and the grand total work themselves out.
Excel ↓If you would rather type than use a spreadsheet, or you need to restyle the header for your letterhead.
Word ↓For printing and filling by hand, or emailing a copy nobody can accidentally edit.
PDF ↓The Kedai Runcit Aman order below, filled in, so you can see a finished one before you start.
PDF ↓One page: what to check before you send a PO, and the three documents to compare before you pay. Print it or send it to your staff.
PDF ↓Free · No sign-up · RM-ready · Works on your phone or PC.
Change once, then forget: your business name, address, registration number and logo in the header, and your PO numbering format. Change every time: the PO number, the date, the supplier, the line items and the required-by date.
02. The 60-second purchase order cheat sheet
If you only read one part of this page, read this one.
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Who creates a purchase order? | The buyer — you, when you are the one ordering |
| Who receives it? | The supplier |
| When do I create it? | Before the goods are delivered |
| Is a purchase order an invoice? | No |
| Do I pay based on the PO? | No. You normally pay against the supplier’s invoice |
| What should it include? | Item, quantity, price, delivery date and payment terms |
| What is PO in Malay? | Pesanan belian |
| What comes after the PO? | Delivery → Invoice → Payment |
| Should I keep a copy? | Yes — it is your evidence of the price you agreed |
| What do I check before paying? | The PO, the delivery order and the supplier invoice, side by side |
The one-line version: a purchase order is you telling a supplier “I want to buy this, at this price” — in writing, before anything moves.
03. A completed purchase order you can copy
Here is a finished PO for a small Malaysian retail business ordering stock from a local supplier. The numbers in circles match the field explanations in the next section.
| From (buyer) | Kedai Runcit Aman Enterprise, 12 Jalan Melur 3, 43000 Kajang, Selangor |
| ② To (supplier) | Syarikat Bekalan Ria Sdn Bhd, Lot 8 Jalan Perusahaan 2, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor |
| ③ Deliver to | Same as buyer address |
| ⑦ Required by | 19 August 2026 |
| ⑧ Payment terms | 30 days from invoice date |
| # | ④ Description | ⑤ Qty | Unit | ⑥ Unit price (RM) | Amount (RM) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beras Super Tempatan 10kg | 40 | bag | 28.50 | 1,140.00 |
| 2 | Minyak Masak 5kg | 25 | bottle | 22.00 | 550.00 |
| 3 | Gula Halus 1kg | 100 | packet | 2.90 | 290.00 |
| Subtotal | 1,980.00 | ||||
| Delivery charge | 60.00 | ||||
| SST | Not applicable | ||||
| Total | RM 2,040.00 | ||||
⑨ Authorised by: Aman bin Yusof, Owner
Check the arithmetic, because this is the habit worth building: 40 × 28.50 = 1,140.00, 25 × 22.00 = 550.00, 100 × 2.90 = 290.00. Those come to 1,980.00, plus 60.00 delivery = RM 2,040.00.
On the SST line: in this example the supplier is not SST-registered, so there is nothing to charge and the line says so. Keep the line on your template even when it is nil — a PO that shows “not applicable” is clearer than one that stays silent, and it tells whoever checks the invoice later what was expected. Whether a supplier must charge SST, and at what rate, depends on their registration and the goods involved; the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) is the authority on that, not your template.
04. Every field on a purchase order, explained
The circled numbers match the completed example above.
| Field | What it is for | What goes wrong without it |
|---|---|---|
| ① PO number | The unique reference both sides quote | Nobody can match the invoice to the order |
| PO date | When the offer was made | Price disputes have no anchor date |
| Buyer details | Who is ordering and is liable to pay | Invoice gets addressed to the wrong entity |
| ② Supplier details | Who is being ordered from | The order goes to the wrong branch |
| ③ Deliver-to address | Where the goods physically go | Stock arrives at the office instead of the shop |
| ④ Line description | Exactly which item, size and grade | Supplier substitutes a cheaper variant |
| ⑤ Quantity and unit | How many, measured how | 10 “boxes” vs 10 “pieces” — a real and expensive confusion |
| ⑥ Unit price | The agreed price per unit | The invoice arrives at a higher price |
| Line amount | Quantity × unit price | Arithmetic errors go unnoticed |
| Subtotal | Goods before extras | You cannot see what the extras added |
| Delivery charge | Freight, if the supplier bills it | A surprise charge appears on the invoice |
| SST | Tax line, where applicable | The total is understated and the invoice looks wrong |
| Total | What you expect to be billed | Nothing to check the invoice against |
| ⑦ Required-by date | Your deadline, in writing | “Soon” is not enforceable |
| ⑧ Payment terms | When payment is due | The supplier chases you on day 3 |
| ⑨ Authorised signature | Who approved the purchase | Anyone can commit your money |
Two of these carry more weight than the rest.
The PO number is the thread that ties the whole transaction together. Every later document — the delivery order, the invoice, the payment — should quote it. Without it, matching becomes guesswork.
The authorised signature shows who approved the purchase. In a small business that is usually just the owner. As you grow, you decide who is allowed to approve an order and up to what amount — so that spending is something a named person agreed to, rather than something that simply happened.
05. Why bother? The RM150 argument you avoid
Most guides explain what a purchase order is. Fewer explain why a busy shop owner should stop and write one. Here is the reason, in ringgit.
Your shop orders 50 cartons of drinks. On the phone, the supplier agrees RM42 a carton.
Three weeks later the invoice arrives:
50 cartons × RM45 = RM2,250
“Wasn’t it RM42?”
“No boss, RM45.”
Your word against theirs. Usually you pay, because the stock is already on your shelf.
You have this on paper, dated, before delivery:
PO-2026-0182
Agreed price: RM42 a carton
50 cartons × RM42 = RM2,100
The difference is caught: RM2,250 − RM2,100 = RM150. One short document, one phone call, settled.
RM150 on one order does not sound like much. Ten orders a month is RM1,500, and the cost is not only the money — it is the argument, the goodwill, and the hour you spend trying to remember what was actually said on the phone.
That is the whole job of a purchase order: it turns “what we agreed” from a memory into a document.
- The order is big enough that a price dispute would hurt
- You are buying on credit and want the price locked before delivery
- More than one person can place orders, and you need a record of who approved what
- Your supplier asks for a PO number before they will ship
- You want the invoice you eventually receive to be checkable against something
- You are buying a box of pens over the counter
- You pay on the spot and take the goods with you — the receipt is the whole paper trail
- The supplier will not accept one and the amount is small
06. Quotation vs purchase order vs invoice
Three documents, three different jobs, and they arrive in a fixed order. This is where most of the confusion lives.
A quotation is the supplier telling you what something would cost. It is not an order, and it commits neither side. Your purchase order is the reply that turns that price into an actual order — which is why the unit price on your PO should match the quotation you were given.
Purchase order vs purchase invoice, side by side
| Purchase order | Purchase invoice | |
|---|---|---|
| Created by | Buyer | Supplier |
| Sent to | Supplier | Buyer |
| When | Before the purchase or delivery | Usually after the goods or services are supplied |
| Purpose | Confirm what you want to buy | Request payment |
| Shows an amount | Yes | Yes |
| Means payment is due? | No | Yes, according to the payment terms |
| Used to check | What was agreed | What the supplier charged |
| In Malay | Pesanan belian | Invois belian |
Easy way to remember
PO = “I want to buy this.”
Invoice = “You need to pay this.”
So if you are the one buying, you send the purchase order and you receive the invoice. You never send an invoice to your own supplier.
07. PO, LPO, blanket PO and sales order
Four names, and people use them as if they were interchangeable. They are not.
The standard one. A single order for specific items at specific prices.
The same document, with “local” signalling a domestic rather than an overseas supplier. Common in government and larger-company procurement. Functionally a purchase order — the difference is naming, not substance.
One PO covering repeated deliveries over a period at agreed prices, instead of raising a fresh PO every time. Useful when you order the same stock weekly.
The mirror image. When your supplier receives your PO they may raise a sales order in their system to fulfil it. A sales order is the seller’s document. If you are buying, it is not yours.
Another name for a purchase order? In everyday Malaysian business use: “PO”, “LPO”, or pesanan belian. All three point at the same document.
08. Purchase order terms in Malay
If your supplier’s paperwork is in Malay and yours is not, these are the labels you will meet.
| English | Malay |
|---|---|
| Purchase order | Pesanan belian |
| Purchase invoice | Invois belian |
| Supplier / vendor | Pembekal |
| Buyer | Pembeli |
| Quantity | Kuantiti |
| Unit price | Harga seunit |
| Description | Keterangan |
| Subtotal | Jumlah kecil |
| Total | Jumlah besar |
| Delivery order | Pesanan penghantaran |
| Payment terms | Terma pembayaran |
| Authorised signature | Tandatangan yang diberi kuasa |
In practice most Malaysian businesses say “PO” in conversation whichever language the rest of the sentence is in. Pesanan belian is what you will see printed on formal Malay-language forms.
Would you rather read the whole explanation in Malay? There is a full Malay-language guide to the perbezaan purchase order dengan purchase invoice on the Malay side of the site.
09. How to write a purchase order, step by step
Using the Excel template above, or building your own.
- Number it. Pick a format and never break it.
PO-2026-0001works: prefix, year, running number. Sequential numbering makes gaps visible, and a gap usually means a PO went missing. - Date it with the date you are actually sending it, not the date you started typing.
- Fill both addresses — yours and the supplier’s — and add a separate deliver-to address if the goods go somewhere else.
- Write the line items precisely. Brand, size, grade, packing. “Rice, 40” invites a substitution. “Beras Super Tempatan 10kg, 40 bags” does not.
- Enter quantity and unit price. Check the price against the quotation. In the Excel template the line amount calculates itself.
- Add delivery charges and the SST line if they apply, so the total you expect matches the total you will be billed.
- Set the required-by date and payment terms. Both in writing, both on the face of the document.
- Sign it — or have whoever holds spending authority sign it.
- Send it and keep your copy. Email is fine; the sent email is your evidence of when the offer was made.
Making a PO in Excel from scratch: a header block for your business, a two-column block for supplier and delivery details, then a table with columns for description, quantity, unit, unit price and amount. Set the amount column to =quantity × unit price, sum it into a subtotal, add rows for delivery and SST, and total the three. That is the entire spreadsheet — the template above is exactly this, already built.
10. Before you send, before you pay
Two short checklists. The one-page PDF has both, if you would rather print it or send it to your staff.
- PO number is unique — never reused
- Supplier name and address are correct
- Delivery address is correct
- Item description is specific: brand, size, grade, packing
- Quantity and unit are correct
- Unit price matches the quotation
- Delivery charges are stated, or stated as none
- SST line is filled in, or marked not applicable
- Required-by date is stated
- Payment terms are clear
- Approved by the right person
- A copy is saved before you send it
Put three documents side by side and ask one question of each.
- Purchase order — what did we agree to order, and at what price?
- Delivery order — what actually arrived, and did we sign for it?
- Supplier invoice — what are we being charged?
All three agree → pay it. If they do not, query it before paying.
11. Four mistakes that cost real money
Two orders sharing a number means two invoices you cannot tell apart. When the supplier chases payment on one, you have no way to prove which one you already paid.
✅ One number, used once, ever.
This happens when someone orders by phone and the paperwork catches up later. By then the PO records the price you were charged rather than the price you agreed — which is exactly the RM150 problem above.
✅ PO first, delivery second. If it was ordered by phone, raise the PO the same day and send it to the supplier.
If anyone on your staff can send a PO on the business’s letterhead, anyone on your staff can commit your money.
✅ Decide who can approve, and up to what value.
The most expensive one, because it is invisible. Prices drift, quantities get short-shipped, delivery charges appear that were never agreed — and all of it gets paid because nobody compared the two documents.
✅ Use the three-document check below.
12. The whole flow, and the three-way check
Every purchase runs through the same five steps. This is the part worth saving or sending to whoever does your ordering.
That second-to-last step is called a three-way match. It is the reason the whole chain exists: the purchase order is not paperwork for its own sake, it is the reference document that makes the invoice checkable.
When the three do not agree, the mismatch tells you exactly where the problem is.
| Mismatch | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice price > PO price | Supplier billed above the agreed price | Query before paying — the PO is your evidence |
| Invoice quantity > delivery order quantity | Billed for more than was delivered | Ask for a credit note |
| Delivery order quantity < PO quantity | Short delivery | Chase the balance or adjust the invoice |
| Charges on the invoice not on the PO | Unagreed extras | Query — you never approved them |
What happens in your accounts
Creating a PO does not mean you have recorded an expense yet. The purchase order only records what you plan and agree to buy. The amount you actually owe is normally recorded when the supplier’s invoice arrives. (In accounting language, the PO is a purchase commitment rather than the recorded expense itself.)
Once that invoice arrives, the job moves from ordering to accounting — and that is where keeping the purchase order, the supplier invoice and the payment connected starts to matter, because the question stops being “what did we order?” and becomes “what do we still owe, and to whom?”
If you keep your books in Niagawan Plus, that supplier bill is recorded as an expense and shows up in your AP aging report, so you can see what you owe and how overdue it is without going through a pile of paper. Your own outgoing invoices are handled in the same place, and the system is e-invoice ready. Niagawan Plus is RM497 a year and includes three Niagawan Accounting User IDs. Prices exclude SST.
The next step in the chain
A purchase order is one document in a sequence. Here is where to go next:
- The goods turn up → the document that comes with them and gets signed: delivery order template
- The supplier’s invoice arrives → what a Malaysian invoice must show: invoice format and free templates
- Sending a price before an order → proforma invoice explained, and proforma invoice vs invoice
- The stock has landed → keeping track of what came in: inventory management and opening stock
Bryant Gan is the Founder of Niagawan — the cloud accounting and POS system used by more than 40,000 businesses in Malaysia since 2016. He has spent over 10 years building software that helps Malaysian SMEs keep their books, stock, and tax records in order.
13. Frequently asked questions
Can I get a free purchase order template?
Yes — the Excel, Word and PDF templates on this page are free, with no sign-up. The Excel version is a working spreadsheet with live formulas, so line totals, the subtotal and the grand total calculate themselves.
What do you mean by purchase order?
A purchase order is the document the buyer sends the supplier to order goods. It lists the items, quantities, agreed prices and the delivery date, and it is issued before anything is delivered or invoiced. In Malay it is a pesanan belian.
What is a PO vs an invoice?
The PO is written by the buyer before delivery and says “please supply these items at this price”. The invoice is written by the supplier after delivery and says “you now owe us this amount”. Only the invoice creates something to pay.
Do I need a supplier invoice after issuing a purchase order?
Normally yes, if the purchase results in an amount you need to pay. The purchase order records what you agreed to order; the supplier invoice records what the supplier is charging you. Keep both, so you can check that the price and quantity match before paying.
Can a purchase order be used as an invoice?
No. They are written by different parties for different purposes — the buyer writes the PO, the supplier writes the invoice — and a purchase order does not create a payment obligation on the supplier’s side.
Does a purchase order replace an invoice?
No. Both exist in the same transaction, at different points. The PO comes first and records what was agreed; the invoice comes after delivery and records what is owed.
Can you invoice without a purchase order?
Yes, in most commercial situations — a PO is good practice rather than a legal requirement between private businesses. But many larger buyers and government bodies will refuse an invoice that has no PO number on it, so check the buyer’s own requirement first.
What is the difference between a PO and an LPO?
Very little in substance. An LPO (local purchase order) is a purchase order for a domestic supplier; the term is a naming convention common in government and larger-company procurement. The document does the same job.
What is another name for a purchase order?
“PO” in everyday use, “LPO” in procurement settings, and pesanan belian in Malay.
Is there a purchase order template in Excel?
Yes — the .xlsx file on this page. It is a working spreadsheet, not a picture of a form: you type the quantity and unit price, and the line amount, subtotal, delivery, SST and grand total calculate themselves.
How do I make a PO in Excel?
Build a header block for your business, a two-column block for supplier and delivery details, then a table with columns for description, quantity, unit, unit price and amount. Set the amount column to quantity multiplied by unit price, sum it into a subtotal, add rows for delivery and SST, and total the three. Section 08 walks through it, and the template on this page is exactly this, already built.
How do I write a purchase order?
Number it uniquely, date it, fill in both addresses and the deliver-to address, write each line item precisely (brand, size, packing), enter quantity and unit price, add delivery and SST if they apply, set the required-by date and payment terms, sign it, and keep your copy of the email you sent it with.
What is purchase order in Malay?
A purchase order in Malay is a pesanan belian. A purchase invoice is an invois belian, and a delivery order is a pesanan penghantaran. Section 06 has the full terminology table.
What is a blanket purchase order?
One purchase order covering repeated deliveries over a period at agreed prices, instead of raising a fresh PO every time. It is useful when you order the same stock weekly — you agree the price once and draw down against it.
What should a purchase order include?
A unique PO number and date, buyer and supplier details, a deliver-to address, the required-by date, one line per item with description, quantity, unit and unit price, a subtotal, delivery and SST lines, the total, payment terms, and an authorised signature.