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Write a purchase order for any brand you buy from, with sizes, colorways, a ship window, a cancel date and totals. Download it as a PDF to send or a spreadsheet to keep. No signup, and nothing is uploaded.
Brands on ModaFlow receive orders with the PO number, ship window and cancel date already filled in, because buyers order straight from the brand's line sheet. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial.
A purchase order (PO) is the document a store sends a brand to order goods: which styles, colorways and sizes, how many units at what wholesale price, when they should ship and on what payment terms. Once the brand accepts it, it is the order both sides work from.
In wholesale fashion a purchase order is often called a wholesale order form. It differs from a generic purchase order template because every style and colorway carries a size breakdown, and the order carries a ship window and a cancel date, since seasonal stock that arrives after its selling window is hard to sell at full price.
Buyers usually write the order from the brand's line sheet, during a showroom appointment or after a trade show, and email the PO to the brand's wholesale contact.
A wholesale purchase order needs a PO number, the store and brand details, a ship-to address, the ship window and cancel date, payment terms, and one line per style and colorway with units per size, the wholesale price and a line total.
Purchase order
Example boutique
To Example label · PO-2026-0142
| Style | Colorway | XS | S | M | L | XL | Units | Unit price | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wrap shirt dressRS27-014 | Indigo | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | – | 12 | $86.00 | $1,032.00 |
| Wrap shirt dressRS27-014 | Sage | – | 2 | 2 | 2 | – | 6 | $86.00 | $516.00 |
| Pleated midi skirtRS27-021 | Ecru | – | 3 | 3 | – | – | 6 | $72.00 | $432.00 |
A PO number is the unique reference a store gives each purchase order. Accounts payable uses it to match the brand's invoice and the delivery to the order that was approved, so an invoice without the store's PO number is often held or sent back.
That check is usually called a three-way match: the purchase order, the receiving record and the invoice must agree on styles, units and prices before the invoice is paid.
For the brand, putting the store's PO number on the packing slip, the cartons and the invoice is the simplest way to get paid on time. Department stores usually spell this out in their vendor or routing guide.
The ship window is the range of dates in which the brand may ship the order, and the cancel date is the day after which the store can cancel anything that hasn't shipped. The cancel date falls on or after the end of the ship window, never before it.
For example, a resort order might carry a ship window of 15 January to 28 February and a cancel date of 7 March. Goods shipped on 20 January are on time, and anything still unshipped after 7 March can be cancelled by the store.
Shipping early can be a problem too, because the store may not have the floor space or the budget for the goods yet, so a brand should ask before shipping ahead of the window.
The maker on this page checks your dates and won't build the PO if the cancel date is before the end of the ship window.
The store sends the purchase order to say what it wants to buy, the brand sends an order confirmation to say what it will ship and at what price, and the brand sends the invoice to ask for payment for what actually shipped.
The three documents follow each other in that order and should all carry the store's PO number. Differences between them are normal: a style can be dropped from production or a size can sell out, so the confirmation and the invoice may show fewer units than the PO.
Some brands also send a pro forma invoice before shipping when the terms are prepaid or the order is paid by card, so the store can pay before the goods leave the warehouse.
Give every purchase order a number that is unique, never reused and easy to read out on the phone. A prefix, the year and a running number, such as PO-2026-0142, does all three and sorts in order.
Keep a log of the numbers you issue, even a simple spreadsheet with the PO number, brand, date, total and status, so you can find the order when an invoice arrives months later.
If you buy for more than one store, add a short store code, such as PO-PDX-2026-0142, so each location's orders stay apart. Leave prices and style numbers out of the PO number, because they change and make the number long.
The Suggest a number button in this maker uses the PO, year and running number format. It remembers the last PO number you downloaded in this browser and counts up from it, and the standard format starts again at 0001 in a new year.
With the maker on this page you make a purchase order in three steps: fill in the order details, add the lines, and download the PDF to send to the brand.
Add a PO number, your store, the brand, the ship window, the cancel date and your payment terms. They print at the top of the PO.
Pick the size run, then add one line per style and colorway with the units for each size, or paste the rows from your spreadsheet.
Download the PDF and email it to the brand, and download the spreadsheet (CSV) if you keep your orders in Excel or Google Sheets.
Yes. The purchase order maker is free to use with no account, and you can download as many PDFs and spreadsheets as you need. The PDF carries a small Made with ModaFlow.ai line in its footer.
No. The purchase order is built in your browser, and the page doesn't send your order, prices or addresses to ModaFlow or anyone else.
Your order is saved in this browser as you type, so it's still there when you come back on the same device. Use Start over to clear it before you write the next PO.
Yes. Copy the rows in your spreadsheet and paste them into the maker. With a header row such as Style number, Colorway, Wholesale and one column per size, the columns can be in any order, and sizes that aren't in your size run yet are added to it.
It prints on Letter paper for US dollar orders and A4 for other currencies, in portrait, or in landscape when the size run is too wide for portrait. The PO number and page numbers print on every page, and long orders run onto as many pages as they need.
Yes. Download as spreadsheet (CSV) saves the order details, one row per line with a column for each size, and the totals, and Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers all open it.
Each purchase order has one size run of up to 16 sizes and up to 200 lines. For an order that mixes scales, such as tops in XS to XL and denim in 24 to 32, type both into a custom size run, or send a separate PO for each category.
Buyers order straight from the brand's line sheets and buyer portal, and each order arrives with the buyer's PO number, ship window and cancel date already filled in. The PO number also prints on the brand's invoice, and every plan starts with a 14-day free trial.
Brands writing line sheets for their buyers can use the free line sheet maker, and ModaFlow's order management keeps every wholesale order, PO number and ship date in one place.