If you trade in goods, invoices are only half of the paperwork. The other half travels in the box: a delivery note.
It is popularly the same document as a packing note or packing slip — the terms are used interchangeably, and in Invoice Office it is one document type. Whichever name your trade uses, it is a description of the contents of a shipment: what was sent, in what quantity, and by whom.
That makes it more than an order list. It carries the sender’s details, the delivery address, and the reference back to the order — which is what lets whoever opens the box confirm that what turned up is what was agreed.
Why it is a separate document
The obvious question is why the invoice cannot do this job, given it lists the same products.
The answer is that the two documents are read by different people. The delivery note is read by whoever unpacks the goods — a warehouse, a site, a receptionist. The invoice is read by whoever pays for them, which is usually somebody in an office who never sees the shipment.
So the delivery note carries quantities, and the invoice carries money. In Invoice Office that is a design setting rather than a rule: the columns on a packing note are yours to choose, so you can include unit prices where the customer expects them or leave them off entirely. What a packing note never carries is a totals block — that is what the invoice is for.
What belongs on one
- The delivery address, which is often not the billing address.
- Your details and the customer’s, plus a contact person where the goods land somewhere other than an office.
- A packing note number and the date sent, so a delivery can be referred to without dragging the invoice into the conversation.
- The order or confirmation reference — the line that lets the delivery be matched to what was ordered.
- The items and the quantity in this shipment, which is not always the quantity on the order.
- Anything still to follow, if the order is going out in parts. A back-order line prevents a customer reporting a shortage that is not one.
You can add an introduction and closing text as well, which is where handling instructions or a site contact number belong.
Creating and sending one
The fastest route is not to create it at all, but to convert it. Build the delivery note from the order confirmation and the customer, addresses, references and lines all come with it — so what you ship matches what you confirmed.
From there:
- Adjust the quantities to what is actually going out.
- Print it or email it, with any manuals or certificates attached.
- Move it through your workflow statuses as it leaves the warehouse, so you can see what is still to be picked without walking over to ask.
- Turn it into an invoice — one note, or several at once. Ship to the same customer three times this month and bill it once.
The full walkthrough is on create a packing slip, and the help center covers the same job screen by screen.
Keep it
One last thing worth saying, because it is routinely got wrong: the delivery note is part of your administration, not packaging. It belongs with the invoice as part of the record of the sale — see the retention obligation and packing notes.
Related reading: what is a packing note and packing note software.