PO Numbers and Manual Invoices: Selling to Enterprise Without Losing the Deal

Your sales rep nails the demo. Champion is bought in. Then procurement says: "We need a PO number and a vendor onboarding form."

If you do not have a manual invoicing process, the deal stalls for weeks — sometimes dies.

Why enterprise buyers cannot use Stripe Checkout

• AP rules require POs above $5K
• Vendor onboarding mandates W-9, COI, MSA
• Payments must come from a corporate AP system, not a rep card
• Annual contracts paid by ACH or wire, not monthly card

If your only checkout is "click here, enter card," you are locked out of every deal >$10K.

The minimum manual-invoice flow

1. Request form — buyer submits company name, billing email, PO number, address
2. Internal review — you confirm tier, billing period, and tax setup
3. Generate invoice — Stripe (with Stripe Tax) creates a hosted invoice
4. Send by email — buyer pays via card, ACH, or bank transfer
5. Auto-activate — subscription goes live on payment

What buyers expect on the invoice

• Their PO number prominently displayed
• Itemized line items (not just a lump sum)
• Tax calculated correctly for their jurisdiction
• Net-30 (or longer) payment terms if requested
• Your tax ID / EIN visible
• A way to download as PDF

Tax handling

Stripe Tax handles VAT/GST/sales tax automatically based on the buyer billing address. For tax-exempt entities (non-profits, government), capture their exemption certificate at request time.

Common mistakes

• No PO field on the request form — guarantees back-and-forth
• Sending invoices manually — every typo costs a day
• Charging tax incorrectly — opens you to liability
• No status tracking — buyer does not know if you received their request

In Next Day Sales

Settings → Billing → Manual Invoice lets buyers self-serve a PO-based request. We auto-generate a Stripe-hosted invoice with Stripe Tax applied, send it by email, and activate the subscription on payment. Status tracking is included.