Business Documents
Create a delivery note listing what was ordered against what is in the consignment, with a signature block for proof of delivery — and no prices, because it travels inside the box.
Overview
A delivery note lists what is in a consignment so the person receiving it can check the contents before signing. Enter the customer's order reference, list each item with what was ordered and what is actually in the box, and download it to travel with the goods.
There is no price column, and there is no field to add one. That is the defining property of the document rather than an omission: a delivery note is opened by whoever receives the goods, which might be a warehouse team, a site foreman, a third-party fulfilment centre, or — on a drop-shipped order — your customer's own customer. Printing what you charge on a document with that audience tells the wrong people your prices, and on a drop-ship it hands your margin to the business you sell through.
Each line shows what was ordered next to what was sent. A note that lists only the contents leaves the receiver unable to tell a short delivery from a complete one, and the moment of receipt is the cheapest possible time to catch a discrepancy — before the goods are put away, before the invoice arrives, and before anyone has to reconstruct what was in the carton.
When the consignment has gone out, the delivered quantities carry straight into the invoice generator with the prices left blank. You bill for what shipped, not for what was ordered.
Step by step
Add your business details and the delivery address. Add a billing address separately if the invoice goes somewhere else — for most business customers it does.
Put their order or purchase order number on it. That is the field their goods-in team matches the delivery against.
Each line takes both quantities, so anything short shows as to follow. There is no price column, deliberately.
Download the PDF and put a copy in with the goods. When you are ready to bill, the delivered quantities carry straight into the invoice generator.
Background
Three documents cover a straightforward sale, and each has a different reader. The order — usually the customer's purchase order — says what was agreed. The delivery note says what turned up. The invoice says what to pay. Confusing any two of them creates work: an invoice in the box gets lost with the packaging, and a delivery note sent to accounts cannot be paid against.
The reader is what settles the design. A delivery note is handled by goods-in, which is a different function from accounts payable and often a different company entirely. They want to know which order this is, what should be in the consignment, and what actually is, in a form they can check against the pallet in front of them. They have no use for a price and, in a good many arrangements, no business seeing one.
Drop-shipping makes that concrete. If you sell through a reseller and ship direct to their customer, a delivery note carrying your prices arrives on the reseller's customer's desk showing exactly what the reseller paid. The reseller finds out when the customer asks why the margin is what it is. It is one of the few document errors that can end a trading relationship, and it is entirely avoidable by not having the field.
Showing the ordered quantity alongside the delivered one is the other decision worth defending. A partial delivery is normal — stock runs out, a supplier is late, a line ships separately — and it only becomes a problem when nobody says so. A note that shows four of ten with six to follow is a complete statement. A note listing four with no context is indistinguishable from a mistake, and the receiver either accepts it and discovers the shortfall later or rejects the whole consignment.
The signature block is the reason a paper copy travels at all. A signed note is evidence the goods arrived and that the quantities were accepted at the point of handover. Without it, a later dispute about a missing item comes down to two recollections; with it, there is a document with a name on it. That is also why the space belongs on the page rather than being left to a courier's handheld device, which records that a box arrived and nothing about what was in it.
None of this makes a delivery note a contract or an accounting record. It is a checking document. Where it matters legally is as evidence — of what was despatched, when, and that somebody at the other end agreed it had arrived.
Reference
Less than an invoice, and the omissions are the point. Everything on it is there so a person holding a pallet can check it against a screen, which is a different job from getting paid.
Your details and the delivery address
Where the goods came from and where they were sent. The delivery address is frequently not the billing address — a customer's registered office and their warehouse are rarely the same building.
Required
The customer's order reference
The field goods-in matches against. Without it, a consignment has to be identified by guesswork, and the person doing the guessing is the one deciding whether to accept it.
Required
A delivery note number
Its own sequence, not borrowed from the invoice series. Borrowing one leaves a gap where an invoice should be, which is exactly the shape an audit looks for.
Required
What was ordered
Per line, so a shortfall is visible. It is the column that turns a list of contents into a statement about whether the order has been fulfilled.
Required
What is in this consignment
The quantities actually being sent. Anything short of the ordered figure shows as to follow, which is a complete statement rather than an apparent mistake.
Required
Carrier and tracking
Who is moving it and under what reference. The first thing anyone asks when a consignment does not arrive, and the last thing anybody can find afterwards.
Optional
A signature block
Space for a name and a signature on receipt. This is the reason a copy travels with the goods, and what a later dispute about a missing item turns on.
Required
What is deliberately absent
Prices, tax, totals and payment terms. All of them belong on the invoice, and none of them belongs on a document opened by whoever happens to be on the loading bay.
Optional
Who it helps
A consignment without a note is a box someone has to open and inventory before they can accept it. The note is what turns receiving into a check rather than an investigation.
Corporate receiving departments will not accept a delivery they cannot match to an order. The reference on the note is what makes that match possible.
The one case where a price on a delivery note does real commercial damage, because the document arrives on the desk of somebody who is not your customer.
Partial delivery is normal and only becomes a problem when it is not stated. Showing ordered against delivered turns a shortfall into information rather than an error.
Where the person packing the box and the person invoicing are the same, and the note is the record that connects the two a fortnight later.
A signed note naming the quantities accepted is the difference between a conversation about evidence and a conversation about who remembers what.
Do it properly
The document is opened by whoever receives the goods, which on a drop-shipped order is not your customer. Prices belong on the invoice, which goes to accounts instead.
It is the field their system matches against. A consignment that cannot be tied to an order sits in receiving until somebody makes a phone call.
A shortfall stated is information; a shortfall implied is a mistake. Listing only what is in the box makes a partial delivery indistinguishable from an error.
A note showing items to follow without a date generates the phone call it was meant to prevent. One line in the notes field usually settles it.
A signed note is proof the goods arrived and the quantities were accepted. A courier's scan proves a box moved, which is a different and much weaker claim.
Delivery notes and invoices are separate series. Taking a number out of the invoice sequence leaves a gap in it, and gaps in an invoice series are what an audit looks for.
Bill the delivered column, not the ordered one. Invoicing for goods still on back-order is the most common cause of a query that delays payment on the whole invoice.
Avoid these
Putting prices on the delivery note
Leave them off entirely. The document is read by warehouse staff and, on a drop-shipped order, by your customer's customer — neither of whom should be seeing what you charge.
Sending a delivery note instead of an invoice
Send both, to different places. A delivery note has no prices, no tax and no payment terms, so most accounts payable systems cannot pay against it at all.
Listing only what is in the box
Show the ordered quantity alongside. Without it, the receiver cannot tell whether four of ten is a partial delivery or a picking error, and the safe assumption is the second.
Omitting the customer's order reference
Put it in a prominent place. It is the single field a receiving department uses to decide whether a delivery is theirs, and its absence is the most common cause of a consignment being refused.
Numbering delivery notes from the invoice sequence
Give them their own series. An invoice sequence with holes in it is the pattern auditors look for, and the explanation is tedious every time.
Relying on the courier's scan as proof of delivery
Keep a signed note. A scan records that a parcel was handed over; it says nothing about what was inside, which is precisely what a shortfall dispute is about.
Invoicing the full order after a partial delivery
Invoice the delivered quantities and bill the balance when it ships. Charging for goods that have not arrived is the fastest way to have the whole invoice held up in a query.
FAQ
The Delivery Note Generator is at the top of this page — free, no signup, nothing uploaded.
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