Creating a purchase order is a minute of clerical work that determines how much effort an invoice consumes weeks later. Most fields are bookkeeping. Three of them are where future exceptions are decided, and all three are easy to get right at creation and awkward to correct once invoices are arriving against a wrong assumption.
The supplier's legal entity
Groups invoice from entities whose names differ from the trading name. An order raised against the wrong one produces invoices that cannot match, and the usual improvised fix, a second supplier record, splits payment history and disables duplicate detection. Confirming the entity once at supplier setup removes the problem for good.
Units of measure
Ordering by case and being invoiced by unit produces a quantity mismatch every time, which is nobody's error and always needs a person. Agreeing units with the supplier and putting them on the order is a single conversation that removes a permanent exception source, and it is the most common avoidable mismatch in payables queues.
What the price includes
Whether delivery, packaging and tax sit inside the unit price. An order silent on freight mismatches every invoice that adds it, which looks like a tolerance problem and is an unstated assumption. Being explicit is what lets tolerance stay tight enough to catch real price movement.
Questions people ask about create purchase order
What is the minimum an order must contain?
Unique number, date, supplier legal entity, lines with description, quantity, unit and price, delivery address and date, and your payment terms.
Should we send terms with every order?
Yes. Terms on the order are what you rely on when a supplier's invoice states different ones, which happens more often than people expect.
How do we handle unknown prices?
An estimate marked as such, or a not-to-exceed value. An order with no price gives the match nothing to compare.