Purchase order form

What this form asks, and why

• Requested byrequired Who to ask about the order and who receives it.
• Work emailrequired For the PO number and any questions.
• Departmentrequired A fixed list, so spend can be grouped without cleanup.
• Cost centre or budget coderequired Finance can't code a purchase without it, so it's required.
• Supplierrequired Shows straight away whether the supplier is already set up.
• Items, quantities and unit pricesrequired The detail the supplier needs, in the requester's words.
• Estimated total before taxrequired A separate number, because line items in a text box can't be added up. SUMIF this column by cost centre on another tab.
• Needed by Written as YYYY-MM-DD; sort to see what has to be ordered first.
• What is it for?required The question an approver asks first.
• Approving manager Who finance asks to approve it.

Fields people often add

• Supplier quote reference
• Delivery address
• Currency
• Recurring purchase (yes/no)

Common mistakes

• Expecting PO numbers from the form: each row has a unique _submission_id, not a running number. Finance adds a 'PO number' column in the sheet when the order is issued, and the column is kept.
• Expecting the form to approve or total the request: it doesn't. Add an 'Approved' column, and add up spend per cost centre on a separate tab.
• No cost centre: requests sit in a queue while someone works out who pays.
• Not saying whether amounts include tax, or which currency: totals from different requests stop being comparable.

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