Purchase order number

Updated September 4, 2026

Purchase order total

$827.21

Line total before discount

$740

Discount agreed

$37

Nothing in these worksheets is a figure we found somewhere. Every number comes from the inputs you enter and the method stated on the page: the discount comes off the line total before tax, tax is charged on the goods and not on shipping, and the budget check is your own remaining balance less your own estimate. The defaults are a worked example, not a recommendation and not a benchmark.

The purchase order number is the smallest part of the whole process and the one that makes the rest of it work. It is the reference a supplier quotes on the delivery note and the invoice, and without it there is no reliable way to tie a bill back to something you agreed. Businesses that introduce purchase orders and skip the numbering get the paperwork and none of the benefit, because the matching step at the end has nothing to match on.

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Sequential, unique, never reused

There is no advantage to a clever scheme. On the worked example the next number is 1042 and the next order takes 1043. Reusing a number, even for a corrected order, is what makes two different commitments indistinguishable on a statement a year later.

Put it where the supplier will see it

Top of the document, in the subject line of the email, and on any attachment. The number only does its job if it comes back to you on the invoice, and suppliers quote what is easy to find.

Make an unquoted number a query, not a payment

The habit that makes purchase order numbers stick is refusing to pay an invoice that does not carry one until it has been checked. Suppliers learn quickly, and internal ordering without a requisition becomes visible immediately rather than at the year end.

Will it do what you need for Purchase order number?

Tell us how your business orders things today and what keeps going wrong with it, and we will tell you plainly whether Requly fixes it.

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Purchase order number: common questions

What is a purchase order number for?

It is the reference that ties a delivery note and an invoice back to the order you agreed, which is what makes matching possible at all.

Should the number encode anything?

It does not need to. Sequential and unique is enough for a small business. Year or department prefixes are cosmetic and add a way to get it wrong.

What if a supplier ignores the number?

Query the invoice rather than paying it. One query is usually enough, and it is far cheaper than reconciling a statement at the end of the year with no references on it.

Requly Pro

Keeping the orders

The worksheet prices one order on one day. Pro remembers it: the requisition it came from, the number it was issued under, who approved it, what has been received against it and which invoice it was matched to.

• Download the order as a file you can send to a supplier
• Send the order out without the Requly watermark on it
• Come back to this order with the figures still in it
• Put your own logo on the orders your suppliers receive
• Take every requisition and order out at once, as a file
• Send the purchase order to the supplier without leaving the record
• Not used by Requly: nothing here takes a payment from your suppliers
• Match orders against the bills your books already carry

$49per month, whole team

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Requly Pro is $49 a month and renews on the same date each month at the same $49 until you cancel. There is no introductory rate, no minimum term and no automatic step up in price. If the price ever changes you keep the price you signed at.