Without any order, online retail cannot survive. But orders are also the order of the day in manufacturing companies or for service providers. Orders are documents that companies either place or receive. But what is meant by “purchase order”? What must be included in a purchase order?  What types are there?

A purchase order refers to an order to a supplier to deliver a specific good

It is likewise a binding declaration of intent by the buyer to purchase goods on the specified terms. Purchase orders are legally binding, meaning that the supplier is obligated to deliver the goods on the agreed terms and the buyer/customer has an obligation to accept and pay in return.

Although a purchase order is not bound to any particular form, it should be clearly written to eliminate errors/misunderstandings.

The following items should be included in a purchase order regardless of the transmission method (letter, fax, mail, electronic): 

• General data (address of the purchaser and the supplier,..)
• Reference to the offer
• order explanation / order number
• exact information about the ordered goods (price quantity)
• terms of delivery and payment.
• if necessary reference to the AGBs

Legally seen (BGB §§ 145 ff) an order is either an application or an acceptance. For example, if you receive an offer from a supplier and then place an order, this is called an acceptance. In this case, the purchase contract is concluded under the conditions stated in the offer.

On the other hand, if an order is placed without a prior offer, it is called a request. In this case, the supplier usually confirms the order by means of an order confirmation, and a purchase contract is then concluded as a result.

In a company, compiling or placing a purchase order is often a routine purchasing task. But purchase orders, just like invoices, are documents that need to be processed. With DOC², we want to support you in exactly this. DOC² is our software solution for intelligent and simple document processing. It is based on KI swarm intelligence, is constantly learning and gives you real added value in the area of document processing. You gain time that you can invest elsewhere. And time, as we all know, is money. 🤑

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