Wholesale Order Form Template (Free Excel Download)

A wholesale order form is the sheet a store uses to order from you by the case: your products by item code, units per case, unit and case prices, the quantity, the delivery date, their purchase order number, and your terms. It does two jobs. It makes ordering easy for a buyer who has fifty suppliers, and it writes down what both sides agreed: the prices come from one price list, the minimum is stated, and payment, delivery and damage terms are on the page before anyone argues about them. In the example below, a grocer orders four products in nine cases for $429.72, over the $150 minimum and the $250 free-delivery level. Below is what to include, the terms worth writing down, the example filled in, what happens after the order, and a free template that looks prices up from your price list.

The short version

• List products by item code, with units per case, unit price and case price.
• Take every price from one dated price list, so the form can't drift from it.
• Ask for the store's purchase order number, the delivery date and the delivery details.
• State the order minimum, the delivery charge and when delivery is free.
• Write the terms: payment, order cut-off, shelf life on delivery, damage claims, price changes.
• After the order, pick by lot, send a delivery note with lots and dates, then invoice.
• TaroStack turns orders into one picking list and delivery notes with lots, and checks stock before you promise it. More below.

What to include

The terms worth writing down

• Payment. How many days after delivery, and how they pay.
• Cut-off and lead time. "Orders by Monday noon deliver Thursday" settles most questions.
• Minimum order and delivery. The smallest order you'll deliver, and when delivery is free.
• Shelf life on delivery. How much life a delivery will have left; stores often ask, and some write it into their own rules. How those rules work is in minimum remaining shelf life.
• Damage and shortages. How many days they have to report it, and with what, such as the lot code.
• Price changes. How much notice you give; how to write that notice is in price increase letter.

A filled-in example

Windward Roots, the made-up taro business I use in these examples, sells to grocers and gift shops. The price list:

Mānoa Grocer's order, PO MG-4471, placed October 19 for delivery October 22:

The order is over the $150 minimum and the $250 free-delivery level, so there's no delivery charge. How the $3.89 bag price was set, working back from the shelf price, is in distributor margin.

What happens after the order

1. Confirm it. Reply with what you'll deliver and when, especially if anything is short.
2. Pick it. Take the oldest lot that still meets the store's shelf-life rule, and note each case's lot.
3. Deliver it with a delivery note listing every case, its lot and its best-by date. The store signs for it.
4. Invoice it against their PO number, for what was delivered, not what was ordered.
5. Keep the record of which lots went to which store. If a supplier ever recalls an ingredient, that record is the list of stores to call; how that works is in one up one back traceability.

What a purchase order should hold, from the other side of the counter, is in what should a purchase order include.

Get the template

Download the wholesale order form template. Type your products on the price list with their item codes, case sizes and unit prices, and your minimum and delivery charge. On the order form, type an item code and the number of cases on each line: the product and prices come from the price list, the form totals the order, adds delivery below the free level and says whether the order meets the minimum. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The form works for one order. Twelve stores order by email, text, phone and form, for delivery on three different days. Someone types each one into the invoicing, adds up the week's cases by hand to see what to pack, finds on Wednesday night that there isn't enough kūlolo for everyone, and writes lot codes on the delivery notes from memory. When a store calls about a case from three weeks ago, the lot isn't on anything but the box.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps every store's orders, picks them by lot and records what went where.

Every order, in one place. Each store is a customer, with its sales orders and delivery dates. Customers and your price list import from CSV, with a preview of every row before anything is saved. One picking list covers every order going out, so the week's packing is a list, not a sum.

Stock checked before it's promised. Shipping can't take stock below zero: the app says what's there and asks you to count it first, so a short order is found at the picking list, not the loading dock. A customer's days-of-shelf-life rule is kept with the customer, and the pick takes the oldest lot that still meets it.

And every case, traced. Delivery notes carry each case's lot and best-by date. If a supplier recalls an ingredient, one report walks the lot to every batch and every store that got it, with contact details. Margins are reported by product and by customer, so the store that orders small and often shows up beside the one that orders big.

Customers, sales orders, picking lists, delivery notes and lots are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

What should a wholesale order form include?

Your details, the customer and delivery address, their PO number, order and delivery dates, each product's item code, units per case, unit and case prices, cases and line totals, the order total with minimum and delivery charge, and your terms.

How do I take wholesale orders?

Give each store the same form or a price list, ask for orders by a set cut-off, confirm each order in writing, and pick, deliver and invoice against the store's PO number.

Should I have a wholesale order minimum?

Usually, yes: a delivery costs the same whether it carries one case or ten. Set the minimum where a delivery pays for itself, and make delivery free above a higher level to encourage bigger orders.

What's the difference between a purchase order and an order form?

The purchase order is the store's own document, with its number, that it pays against. Your order form is how the store chooses what to order from you; put its PO number on your form and on your invoice.