To convert a purchase order to Excel, you can use Lido. Upload the PO, enter the columns you need, such as PO Number, Vendor, and Quantity, and Lido extracts every line item into a spreadsheet you can export to Excel.
In this tutorial, we will walk you through how to convert a purchase order to Excel using Lido. Simply follow the steps below.
Lido is the best way to convert purchase orders to Excel because it reads POs from any customer or supplier, in any layout, and puts each line item in its own row without templates.
Before you start, make sure you have your purchase order saved as a PDF, image, or scanned copy.
If you don't have a Lido account yet, you can create one for free here.
Once you're logged in, create a New File.
Select the Extract Data button at the top of the sheet.
Upload your purchase order by dragging and dropping it into Lido, or click to browse. You can upload up to 100 POs at a time, even if each one comes from a different customer.
For the purpose of this tutorial, we will be using a sample purchase order. Enter the columns you want to pull from the PO, such as PO Number, PO Date, Vendor, Part Number, Description, Quantity, Unit Price, and Amount.
You can also add extra instructions if you'd like (this is optional). For example: "Extract each line item as a separate row. Repeat the PO Number, PO Date, and Vendor on every row. Format dates as MM/DD/YYYY and amounts as plain numbers."
Once done, click Process All Files.
Review the extracted data to make sure everything looks correct. Each line item from the purchase order now has its own row, with the PO number, date, and vendor repeated on every row.
From here, you can edit and format the data however you want. Adjust column widths, fix formatting, or reorganize the data to suit your workflow.
Once you're done, click Export to Excel to download your purchase order data as a spreadsheet file. Keeping the PO file next to your invoices also helps with sorting and filing AP invoices later.
If you receive purchase orders every day, connect a Google Drive folder, OneDrive folder, or email inbox in the Extract Data window. Lido extracts new POs automatically with the same columns, so the data is ready when you open the sheet.
A few small choices make purchase order data much easier to use once it's in Excel.
Use your ERP's column names. If your ERP's sales order import expects CustomerPO, SKU, and QtyOrdered, enter those exact names as your columns. The Excel file is then ready to import into your ERP without renaming anything.
Keep one row per line item. Repeat header fields like PO Number and Vendor on every row. This makes the data easy to filter, sort, and match against invoices later. Line-level PO data is also what three-way reconciliation tools compare against invoices and receiving records.
Don't worry about long POs. Lido treats a multi-page PO as one document. Repeated table headers and page breaks don't create duplicate rows, and subtotal lines stay out of the line items.
Scanned and handwritten POs work too. Lido reads faxed, scanned, and photographed purchase orders the same way as digital PDFs. It can also handle handwritten order forms with block lettering.
Process POs in batches. Upload a full day's purchase orders at once instead of one by one. Our guide to batch processing documents covers larger volumes.
Teams that receive purchase orders in many formats use Lido to replace manual data entry.
ACS Industries, a manufacturer, processes 400 purchase orders per week with Lido, including PDFs, scans, images, and plain-text emails. They avoided hiring an additional employee for data entry and saved roughly 30 hours per week.
YMI Jeans, an apparel company, receives retailer POs with size breakdowns, color codes, and sometimes handwriting. Lido extracts the data from every retail partner's format and outputs it ready for NetSuite import.
You can also convert purchase orders to Excel without an extraction tool, but each method has limits:
Manual data entry: Typing each PO into Excel works for a handful of orders a week. At higher volumes, it takes hours and leads to typos in quantities and prices.
Copy and paste: Copying a table from a PDF often pastes everything into one column or splits rows across page breaks. Scanned POs have no text to copy at all.
Template-based OCR: Traditional OCR data extraction tools use a fixed template for each PO layout. Every new customer needs a new template, and templates break when a customer changes their format.
EDI: Large retailers often send POs through EDI, which is already machine-readable. Smaller customers, distributors, and one-off buyers still send PDFs and emails.
Lido works in every scenario: digital PDFs, scanned documents, multi-page POs, and layouts from any customer. It's also SOC 2 Type II compliant, so your order data stays secure. For a wider comparison of tools, see our list of the best purchase order OCR software.
Now that you know how to convert purchase orders to Excel, you can stop retyping POs and spend that time on fulfillment instead.
Upload the purchase order to Lido and enter the columns you need, such as PO Number, Vendor, Quantity, and Unit Price. Lido extracts each line item into its own row, which you can export to Excel.
Yes. Lido reads each PO by context instead of fixed positions, so one set of columns works for every customer's format without templates.
Yes. Lido reads scanned, faxed, and photographed purchase orders the same way as digital PDFs, including handwritten order forms.
Yes. Use your ERP's import column names as your Lido columns and add formatting rules for dates and amounts. The exported file is ready to import into systems like NetSuite, QuickBooks, or SAP.
Yes. Connect a Google Drive folder, OneDrive folder, or email inbox to Lido, and it extracts new purchase orders automatically with the same columns.
%20(1).svg)
.png){kind=small}
