Docketa vs an Excel purchase order template

Where an Excel purchase order template wins

Free, offline, endlessly customisable, and it sits in a folder alongside everything else. If your PO volume is a handful a year, a spreadsheet is genuinely fine.

Where Docketa is different

A spreadsheet will not stop you reusing a PO number, and duplicate PO numbers are the single most common reason a supplier's invoice cannot be matched and payment gets held up. Docketa carries the number through from order to delivery note so the paper trail actually reconciles.

Which to pick

A few orders a year: keep the spreadsheet. Enough that someone in accounts has ever asked you which PO an invoice relates to: use this.

Raise a numbered purchase order, and turn it into a delivery note when the goods go out. Free, no signup, and the numbering carries through.