Purchase orders are being requested as sales evidence
An unfulfilled customer purchase order can document what the customer requested and the terms recorded on that document. Separate evidence is needed to show whether your business accepted it, supplied any goods or received payment. Present each of those states independently and ask whether the provider wants commitments, fulfilled orders or collected payments. Do not turn a purchase-order amount into processing history or make a revenue-recognition decision from this worksheet.
For: A research-only merchant asked to provide customer purchase orders during an application or account review.
Start with the customer's purchase order addressed to your business. A purchase order you sent to a supplier belongs to purchasing records and answers a different question. Preserve the issuer, intended seller, document date, version and product references in your private index, then check whether a later amendment or cancellation superseded any part of it.
Record acceptance from an actual acknowledgment, agreement or order record. If you have only the buyer's document, say acceptance is unconfirmed. If the order is accepted but not fulfilled, retain both facts. Whether its terms create an enforceable obligation is a separate legal question; the evidence label should not decide it.
The date on the purchase order is not automatically the date of acceptance, shipment, collection or accounting recognition. Keep these dates separate so a request covering one period does not quietly include a later event.
Build a chain without filling its missing links
Connect the purchase order to your corresponding order, any invoice issued, fulfillment records and actual payment entries using the references those records contain. Keep the original documents unchanged. Where references do not match, record the unresolved relationship instead of treating a similar amount as proof that they describe the same order.
Stripe describes an invoice as a way to collect from a specific customer. Issuing that request does not itself supply evidence that money was collected. Likewise, a shipment record speaks to fulfillment rather than proving payment, and payment before shipment does not prove the goods have been supplied.
Record partial events at their actual scope. A shipment for part of an order does not establish complete fulfillment; a payment for part of the amount does not establish full collection. Show each supported portion and the remainder separately. Do not add the purchase order, invoice and payment together as if they were three independent sales.
Use payment records for the payment question
For an actual Stripe account, the balance summary report records activity for a selected period in the settlement currency and can provide itemized transactions. Use the relevant entries and their references to support the account activity you describe. The report does not associate payouts with individual payment transactions, so a matching-looking bank deposit is not an order-to-payout reconciliation supplied by that report.
For another payment rail or provider, name the records that provider actually supplies. Do not reclassify non-card payments as card-processing history. If no payment record is available, distinguish a payment known not to have occurred from a payment whose evidence has not been retrieved.
Stripe's prohibited and restricted businesses policy bars misleading information about the nature of the business and processing for undisclosed products. Accurate labels support an honest response, but they do not make a document sufficient or establish eligibility. Stripe's policy is not the acceptance standard of another provider.
Answer the evidence category the reviewer requested
Read the request for its period, entity and meaning of sales evidence. If that category is unstated, identify what you have as customer purchase orders with separately documented acceptance, fulfillment and collection states. Ask which category and supporting records the reviewer needs before describing the packet as completed sales history.
Provide a short cover index that separates supported commitments, documented fulfillment and actual collections. Disclose missing links and later amendments. A reviewer can then see what each document establishes without having to infer that every order is fulfilled or paid. Keep any accounting revenue figure separate and have its treatment determined through the business's accounting process.
A Prism processing consultation can help organize the business description and the provider question within an agreed scope. Bring a nonsensitive summary of the request and the evidence gaps. Confirm scope, responsibilities, fees and terms before work, and use the requesting provider's verified secure channel for documents rather than the public consultation form.
Commitment-to-payment evidence chain
Work through these checkpoints for each real customer purchase order in your private records. Enter only evidence availability and match or gap notes here. The chain can be incomplete without being invalid: identify the last supported state and ask whether that state answers the reviewer's request.
Worksheet entries are not submitted by Prism’s worksheet and are not saved by the site. Use record types, availability, anonymized observations, or match/mismatch results. Do not enter government identifiers, customer names or addresses, customer messages, receipt-access links, card or bank details, passwords, or keys. Send sensitive documents only through the provider’s verified secure channel.
Commitment-to-payment evidence chain. The last column is for temporary notes.
Checkpoint
Record to inspect
Permitted conclusion
Your evidence status
Purchase-order date and version
Record to inspectCustomer-issued document, seller identity and any later amendment or cancellation.
Permitted conclusionShows what that version records; does not establish a payment or shipment date.
Acceptance status
Record to inspectActual seller acknowledgment, agreement or linked order record.
Permitted conclusionAccepted only to the extent the record supports; otherwise acceptance remains unconfirmed.
Invoice issued
Record to inspectInvoice reference tied to the purchase order and the relevant customer.
Permitted conclusionDocuments the collection request, without treating issue as proof of payment.
Fulfillment record
Record to inspectActual shipment or other fulfillment record matched to the ordered items and quantities.
Permitted conclusionIdentify supplied and outstanding quantities separately.
Actual payment record
Record to inspectProvider entry or other genuine collection record with its date, currency and matching reference.
Permitted conclusionSupport only the collected portion the record establishes; distinguish missing evidence from confirmed nonpayment.
Amendments and remaining commitment
Record to inspectLatest order changes compared with the original commitment and subsequent events.
Permitted conclusionPreserve reductions, cancellations or open balances rather than counting the original face amount unqualified.
Requested evidence category
Record to inspectReviewer's wording, period and entity; written clarification if received.
Permitted conclusionClassify the packet as commitments, fulfillment or collections as appropriate; acceptance by the provider remains its decision.
These are temporary notes. Leaving or reloading this page may clear them. Worksheet entries are not sent automatically. If you copy notes into the consultation message and submit the form, Prism receives them as part of your request.
Limits
This worksheet classifies evidence. It does not determine contract enforceability, tax treatment or when revenue should be recognized.
Purchase orders, invoices and fulfillment documents are not presented as substitutes every provider must accept for processing statements.
Do not enter customer names, private purchase orders, payment-access links, card data or bank details in the worksheet or public form.
Stripe Invoicing — checked 2026-09-21. Stripe describes an invoice as a way to collect from a specific customer. The existence of that collection request alone does not establish that the customer's purchase order has been paid.
Stripe balance summary report — checked 2026-09-21. The report covers selected-period account activity in the settlement currency and can export itemized transactions. It does not associate payouts with payment transactions or establish fulfillment.
Stripe prohibited and restricted businesses — checked 2026-09-28. Stripe prohibits false or misleading information about the nature of the business and processing for undisclosed products. This does not establish acceptance of a purchase order as sales evidence or approval of the merchant.
Discuss my processing options
Want to talk through your own processing situation?