Canada Purchase Order Generator

What is a purchase order, and how is it different from a quote or an invoice?

A purchase order is issued by the buyer to authorise a purchase before delivery. It locks in the items, quantities, agreed price and terms, giving the supplier written approval to proceed with the order.

A quote is different — it comes from the supplier before any order exists, simply proposing a price. Nothing is committed until the buyer accepts it, often by issuing a PO.

An invoice comes after the fact: once the supplier delivers the goods or completes the work, they issue an invoice to request payment, usually citing the original PO number so both sides can reconcile the two documents.

How to create a Canadian purchase order with this generator

1. Enter your buyer details — company name, address and Business Number (BN) if applicable.
2. Add the supplier’s details, including their Business Number.
3. Set the ship-to address, or tick “same as buyer address” for direct delivery.
4. Fill in the PO number, PO date, requested delivery date and payment terms (e.g. Net 30).
5. Add line items with description, quantity and unit price — totals calculate automatically.
6. Apply the correct tax — GST, HST, or GST plus PST/QST depending on your province — plus any discount or shipping charge.
7. Add an approver name and title if your internal process requires sign-off before sending the PO.
8. Review the totals and download the purchase order as a PDF ready to send to your supplier.

What should a Canadian purchase order include?

There’s no single mandated PO format across Canada, but a solid one should give both sides everything needed to fulfil the order and reconcile it against the eventual invoice:

• A unique, sequential PO number for tracking and invoice matching
• Full buyer and supplier names and addresses
• Business Numbers (BN) for both parties, where either is a GST/HST registrant
• A clear description of each item or service, with quantity and unit price
• The applicable tax — GST alone, HST, or GST plus provincial PST/QST — shown against the relevant lines
• Delivery address and requested delivery date
• Agreed payment terms, such as Net 30 or payment on delivery
• Authorization details if your organization requires internal approval before issuing the PO

From purchase order to invoice: the Canadian procurement workflow

The PO is the start of the paper trail, not the end of it. Once your supplier delivers the goods or finishes the work, they should issue an invoice referencing your PO number, so your accounts team can quickly confirm the invoice matches what was originally authorized at the agreed price.

If you’re the supplier fulfilling someone else’s PO, you can use our invoice generator to bill for the completed order, carrying the same PO number and line items across for a clean audit trail.

Getting provincial sales tax right — without needing an account

Sales tax in Canada varies significantly by province: some provinces charge only the 5% federal GST, others charge a combined 13-15% Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), and others charge GST plus a separate provincial tax like PST or Quebec’s QST. A purchase order should reflect whichever combination applies to where the goods or services are being supplied.

Docusign’s Canadian purchase order template requires you to create a free account before you can even open or fill it in. This generator skips that step entirely — you can build, calculate and download a fully-taxed PO immediately, with Business Number fields for both buyer and supplier already built in.