Sales Order Template
Confirms what a customer ordered, at what price, for when.
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| Order no. | [order no.] |
| Customer | [customer] — [customer address] |
| Order date | October 14, 2026 |
| Required by | [date] |
| Description | Qty | Unit price | Line total |
|---|---|---|---|
| [add one line per item] | |||
| Subtotal | $ 0.00 | ||
| Order total | $ 0.00 | ||
This sales order confirms the goods and prices agreed. It is not an invoice and no payment is due against it. Please check the details and tell us within two working days if anything is wrong.
What is a Sales Order?
A sales order is your written confirmation of what a customer ordered — the items, the agreed price, the quantities, the delivery address and the date you have committed to. It is the document your warehouse picks from and your invoice is built on. Without one, an order lives in a phone call and an email thread, and the first time anyone checks what was agreed is when the wrong goods arrive.
Wholesalers, manufacturers, distributors, printers, equipment suppliers and trade counters raise sales orders every day. The sequence is usually quotation, then customer purchase order, then your sales order acknowledging it, then despatch note, then invoice. Internally, the sales order is the pivot: sales raises it, the warehouse picks against it, finance invoices from it, and credit control refers to it when a customer queries the bill. Firms selling through a portal or EDI generate it automatically, but the same fields have to be present for it to be useful.
How the order forms a contract varies. In many jurisdictions the customer's purchase order is the offer and your acknowledgement is the acceptance, which means whichever set of terms is attached to the last document sent may govern the deal — the so-called battle of the forms. Tax presentation differs too: a UK or EU order references VAT, an Indian order references GST and the place of supply, a US order deals with sales tax and exemption certificates by state. Retention of title, delivery risk and incoterms follow the sale of goods law and the trade terms that apply to the route. Check the rules for your jurisdiction and route.
A sales order is not a tax invoice and should never be used as one. It records what you have agreed to supply; the invoice records what you have supplied and what is due, and only the invoice carries the tax details a buyer needs to reclaim input tax. It is also not a delivery note — that goes with the goods and is signed on receipt. And it is not a payment demand: if you want money before despatch, raise a proforma invoice, which is a different document with a different purpose.
What to put in a Sales Order
These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Business name | For example: Barton Supply Co. |
| Your address | For example: Unit 7, Barton Road, Columbus, OH 43212 |
| Customer name | For example: Halliwell Interiors Inc. |
| Customer address | For example: 44 High Street, Columbus, OH 43215 |
| Sales order no. | For example: SO-2026-0455 |
| Required by | Free text |
| Tax rate % optional | For example: 20 |
| Items ordered | One per line: Description | Qty | Unit price |
How to write a Sales Order
Give the order a unique number and date
Use a sequential reference with no gaps — SO-2026-04178 — and record the order date and the customer's own purchase order number alongside it. The customer's PO number is what their accounts payable team will match your invoice against; omit it and the invoice goes into a query pile. A gapless sequence also lets you prove to an auditor that no orders have been deleted.
Identify the customer and both addresses
Record the full legal entity name and account number, then the invoice address and the delivery address separately, because they are frequently different. Add the delivery site contact name and phone, and any access constraint the driver needs: delivery hours, no tail lift, forklift on site, gate code. Most failed deliveries trace back to a missing phone number or an unrecorded site restriction.
List each line with code, quantity and price
One line per product, with your item code, a description a picker can match to a shelf, the quantity and unit of measure, unit price, line discount and line total. Specify the unit precisely — twelve boxes and twelve units are not the same order. Show any customer-specific part number too, so their goods-in team can book it in without ringing you.
State the delivery date and terms
Give a specific date or a dated week, and say whether it is a committed date or an estimate. Note the delivery method, carriage charge and, for cross-border sales, the incoterm and who handles customs. If the order will ship in parts, list the split on the order rather than surprising the customer later, and say whether part-delivery is acceptable to them.
Show totals, tax and payment terms, then confirm
Set out the net total, the tax applied at the correct rate with your registration number, and the gross total. State the payment terms and any credit limit condition. Add a line confirming the order is accepted subject to your conditions of sale, attach or reference them, and send the acknowledgement to the customer — an order the customer never received cannot fix a misunderstanding.
Common mistakes
- Omitting the customer's purchase order number, so their accounts payable team cannot match your invoice and payment stalls for weeks.
- Leaving the unit of measure off a line, which turns an order for twelve pallets into a delivery of twelve boxes.
- Using the invoice address as the delivery address by default, sending goods to a registered office with no loading bay.
- Treating the sales order as a tax invoice, leaving the customer without a valid document to reclaim VAT or GST.
- Never sending the acknowledgement back to the customer, so nobody discovers the price or date was misheard until the goods are on the lorry.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a purchase order and a sales order?
They describe the same transaction from opposite sides. The buyer raises a purchase order asking you to supply; you raise a sales order confirming what you will supply, at what price and when. Your sales order should carry both references — your own number and theirs — so the paperwork reconciles. In many jurisdictions the PO is the offer and your acknowledgement the acceptance, which is why the acknowledgement matters.
Is a sales order a legally binding contract?
It can form part of one. Whether a binding contract exists, and on whose terms, depends on the sequence of documents and the contract law where you trade — a purchase order accepted by your acknowledgement usually creates a contract, but if each side attached its own conditions there may be a dispute about which set applies. Attach your conditions of sale to the acknowledgement and say the order is accepted subject to them.
Does a sales order need to show VAT or GST?
It should show the expected tax so the customer knows the total commitment, but the sales order is not the document that supports a tax reclaim. That is the tax invoice, which has prescribed content under your local rules — VAT invoice requirements in the UK and EU, GST invoice rules in India, state sales tax and exemption handling in the US. Show the tax for clarity and issue a proper invoice on supply.
Can I change a sales order after the customer has confirmed it?
Only by agreement. Issue an amended order with a revision number and a short note of what changed — quantity, price, date — and get the customer to acknowledge it, rather than editing the original in place. Keeping the superseded version matters: if a dispute arises about what was agreed on which date, an overwritten order tells you nothing about the history.
How long should sales orders be kept?
Keep them for at least as long as your tax and company law record-keeping period, which differs by jurisdiction and is commonly several years, and long enough to cover the limitation period for a contract claim. Because they support your invoices, tax authorities may ask for them during an audit. Set one retention period covering orders, despatch notes and invoices together so the trail stays complete.
This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.