Interior design purchase order template: what to include, and how to confirm it

A purchase order is the least glamorous document in a project and one of the most useful. It is where most ordering mistakes either get caught or get baked in. A sofa in the wrong leg finish, a pair of lamps delivered to the studio instead of site, an invoice in euros that nobody budgeted for in sterling: almost all of these trace back to a PO that left something out.

This guide sets out what an interior design purchase order should contain, why each field earns its place, and a simple routine for sending, confirming and chasing. The field list below works as a template in its own right: copy it into a spreadsheet or your accounting software’s PO layout and you have everything a supplier needs.

What a purchase order is for

A PO is your written instruction to a supplier: these items, in these finishes, at this price, delivered here by this date, on these terms. It removes ambiguity before money moves, gives you something to check the acknowledgement and invoice against, and ties the order back to the project, the room and the line on your FF&E schedule, so you can see what has been ordered and what has not.

A PO is not an invoice. The PO goes from you to the supplier before anything is made or dispatched; the invoice comes back from the supplier asking for payment. When the PO, the supplier’s acknowledgement and the invoice agree on item, finish, quantity and price, the job is in good order. When they do not, the PO is usually the document that settles which one is wrong.

The fields every interior design PO needs

The table below is the full field list. The fields most often left out are currency, Incoterms and a lead time confirmed in writing.

Finishes: write them as the supplier writes them

Copy the supplier’s codes exactly. “Oak, dark” is an invitation to a conversation you do not want to have after delivery. “Fumed oak, finish code FO-02, matt lacquer” is not. For upholstery, give the fabric house, the design, the colourway and its code, and say whether it is the supplier’s fabric or customer’s own material. If it is COM, add the quantity being sent, where it is coming from and its expected arrival, because the supplier’s lead time will not start until it arrives. Include handing for corner units and dimensions for anything made to size.

Where the client approved a specific sample, reference that approval on the PO line.

Currency and VAT on a PO

Raise the PO in the supplier’s currency, at the price they quoted. If a Milan workshop quotes in euros, the PO is in euros. Converting it to sterling on the PO itself creates a number that neither party agreed and that will not match their invoice. Do your conversion in your own costing, add a sensible buffer for movement between order and payment, and quote the client in sterling from that. Our guide to buying furniture from overseas suppliers covers the exchange-rate side in more detail.

On VAT, keep it simple and explicit. For a UK supplier who is VAT registered, show the rate on each line. The standard rate is 20%, but the supplier’s invoice is what actually determines the VAT charged. For an overseas supplier, UK VAT normally is not on their invoice; import VAT and any duty arise when the goods come into the country, so say on the PO that VAT is not charged by the supplier and note who is handling the import. If you are VAT registered, HMRC’s import VAT guidance explains postponed VAT accounting, which lets you declare and reclaim import VAT on the same VAT return rather than paying it at the border. HMRC’s guidance also says that for VAT purposes amounts must always be expressed in sterling (VAT Notice 700, section 7.6), so your bookkeeping will need a sterling figure even when the PO is in euros. This is not tax advice; our VAT guide for interior designers has the wider picture, and your accountant should confirm anything unusual.

Delivery terms and Incoterms for overseas orders

For anything crossing a border, put the Incoterm on the PO. Incoterms are a set of eleven three-letter trade terms published by the International Chamber of Commerce that allocate costs, risk and responsibilities between buyer and seller. The two you will meet most are:

• DAP (Delivered at Place). The seller delivers to the named place, and the buyer handles import clearance and duties.
• DDP (Delivered Duty Paid). The seller also takes on import clearance and duties.

Both need a named place, and stating the edition removes any doubt about which rules apply, so write something like “DAP, [site address], Incoterms 2020” rather than just “DAP”. The ICC’s Incoterms 2020 page is the source to check. Under DAP you, or your freight agent, deal with customs, and that needs planning time.

The required date and the lead time are different things

Your required delivery date comes from the install, worked backwards: the install date, less time to receive and inspect, less delivery. The supplier’s lead time is their estimate of how long manufacture and dispatch will take. A PO should carry both, because the gap between them is your margin for error. If the quoted lead time already lands after your required date, you have a problem before you have even ordered. Our article on calculating order-by dates walks through the arithmetic with a worked example.

The quoted lead time on a website or a price list is not a commitment. Mark it on the PO as “to be confirmed”, and do not treat the line as on track until the supplier has confirmed a lead time or dispatch date in writing.

Sending, confirming and chasing

A PO that has been sent but not acknowledged is a hope, not an order. This is the routine we would suggest:

1. Send it to a named person, as a PDF, with the PO number in the email subject. Ask for a written order acknowledgement with a confirmed lead time or dispatch date.
2. Pay the deposit promptly if one is required, and record the date. Ask whether the lead time runs from the order or from receipt of the deposit.
3. Chase at two working days if no acknowledgement has arrived. A short, polite email quoting the PO number is enough.
4. Check the acknowledgement line by line against the PO (see below) and reply in writing to anything that does not match.
5. Record the confirmed date on your schedule and compare it with the required date. If it is later, deal with it now, not in week ten.
6. Diarise a status check part-way through the lead time, and again shortly before dispatch. Lead times move; you want to hear early. Our guide to managing supplier delays covers what to do when they do.

Checking the acknowledgement against the PO

Suppliers re-key orders into their own systems, which is where errors creep in. Check:

• Item, model and every finish code, character by character
• Quantity and unit
• Unit price, discount, currency and delivery charges
• Delivery address and access notes
• The confirmed lead time or dispatch date, against your required date
• Deposit and balance terms
• Whether the acknowledgement attaches the supplier’s own terms

That last point matters more than it looks. When each side sends its own standard terms, English courts work out which applied by looking at offer and acceptance. In a 2025 Technology and Construction Court case discussed by Cooley’s UK litigation team, the buyer’s terms on its original purchase order were held to govern, because the contract was formed earlier than the seller argued. The article’s point is that assuming whoever sent terms last will win is unreliable. So read the acknowledgement, query anything that changes cancellation, returns or damage terms, and take legal advice on your terms for large bespoke orders.

When the spreadsheet stops coping

A spreadsheet PO works well for a handful of orders. It strains when you have thirty open orders across several projects and the only link between the PO, the schedule and the install date is someone’s memory: finishes retyped with small differences, and late lead times found at the weekly meeting rather than the day they were confirmed.

That is the problem we built Techstyles procurement around: FF&E schedules by room and purchase orders in one place, with every line scored against its install date as blocked, at risk, watching or OK, and an order-by date counted back from the supplier lead time. POs stay in the supplier’s currency and go to Xero in that currency, with drafts arriving as drafts; more on that on our integrations page.

Download the template: purchase order template (Excel, 13 KB). It is a printable A4 order with twelve lines, VAT and totals that calculate in the supplier’s currency, a box for the supplier to confirm the lead time and dispatch date, and placeholder terms to replace with your own. What is inside is on the template page.

Copy the field list above into your own PO layout, use it on your next order, and adjust it to suit your studio. If you would rather keep POs alongside your schedule, Techstyles has a 30-day free trial with no card needed.