Delivery Note: 6 Essential Fields and a Free Example

Four boxes turn up at a customer’s warehouse and the driver wants a signature. Nobody on site has the faintest idea what’s inside, and the one person who placed the order is off today.

So they sign. Two weeks later the customer rings to say an item never arrived, and you’ve nothing to argue back with.

That’s the gap a delivery note closes, and it’s a cheap one to close. Below: what one is, every field that belongs on it, a worked example, how it differs from a packing slip and an invoice, and what to do when the goods and the paperwork refuse to agree.

What a delivery note is

Think of it as the shipment’s passenger list. It travels with the goods, says what’s in the boxes, and whoever receives them checks one against the other before signing.

No prices on it and no request for money, because that’s the invoice’s job, and mixing the two up is where most of the confusion starts. All a delivery note has to tell you is what got handed over and when.

Depending on the trade you’ll hear it called a dispatch note, a delivery docket or a goods received note, and some firms use two of those names without noticing.

Two copies go out with the driver, your customer signs both and keeps one, and the other comes back to you. That returned copy is the whole point, because it’s your evidence the goods turned up and somebody at the far end agreed they had.

What goes on a delivery note

Six fields aren’t optional, and dropping one breaks the document in a way you only discover later.

Your business name and contact details, because whoever opens those boxes needs to know who to ring.
The customer’s name and the delivery address, often not the billing address, and that gap is where parcels quietly disappear.
A unique delivery note number in its own sequence, nothing borrowed from your invoice numbering.
The date you issued it and the date of delivery, which aren’t always the same day.
A description of each item, specific enough that somebody holding the box can tell it’s the right one.
The quantity of each item, which is the line every recipient checks before anything else.

Then the fields nobody insists on, which save you arguments six weeks later.

Put the customer’s purchase order reference on there if they raised one, or your paperwork sits in a tray until somebody works out where it belongs. That awkward space between a purchase order and an invoice is where delivery notes earn their keep.

Write down anything ordered but not sent, rather than leaving a silent gap and hoping nobody counts. A customer who can see in writing that two of five items follow next week shrugs and gets on with their day. The one who counts three boxes and finds nothing explaining the other two picks up the phone.

Leave a signature line with a printed name next to it. An illegible squiggle alone is worth almost nothing when somebody disputes a delivery nine months later. The same squiggle with a readable name beside it is worth quite a lot.

Prices are worth leaving off unless you’ve a reason to include them. Warehouse staff, couriers and anyone else handling that box can read whatever’s on the paperwork, and most firms would rather their pricing didn’t tour the country with the goods.

A delivery note example

Here it is written out, so you can see how little there is to it.

DELIVERY NOTE

Delivery note number: DN-0417
Date issued: 18 March 2026
Date of delivery: 20 March 2026
Your order reference: PO-8842

From: Harlow Supply Co, Unit 7 Meadow Park, Leeds LS11 9TG
Deliver to: Brightwell Interiors, Loading Bay 2, 14 Canal Street, Manchester M1 3HE

Oak shelving board, 1800mm    HSC-421    12
Steel bracket, heavy duty    HSC-108    24
Fixing pack, 50 screws    HSC-203    4

On back order: Oak shelving board, 2400mm, HSC-425, quantity 6. Expected 27 March 2026.

Received in good condition by:

Signature: ________________    Print name: ________________    Date: ________

Look at what isn’t there: no prices, no totals, nothing about payment terms. And look at what is, because that back order got written down before anybody had to ask.

Delivery note, packing slip and invoice

People mix these three up constantly and most guides skip the comparison, which doesn’t help.

A delivery note and a packing slip are the same thing, and only the name changes. British and Irish firms say delivery note, Americans generally say packing slip, and European exporters writing in English usually land on delivery note. Ask for one and you’ll be sent the other, and that’s fine.

An invoice, by contrast, is about money: what’s owed, when it’s due, how to pay it. It turns up after the delivery, carrying prices and tax. So the delivery note proves the goods moved and the invoice asks to be paid for them. If you’re setting that side up, start with how to write an invoice.

A proforma invoice is neither. It’s a quote wearing an invoice’s clothes, sent before anything’s agreed, and nothing goes into anybody’s accounts because of it. Here’s what a proforma invoice is actually for if that one’s muddying things too.

So the sequence runs: delivery note with the goods, invoice behind it, and remittance advice back once the customer pays.

When the delivery doesn’t match the note

Now for the part that really matters, and which hardly anybody writes about.

Whoever’s receiving gets one window to raise a problem, and it’s open only while the driver is standing there. Sign the note clean and the record now says everything arrived in good condition, so unwinding it afterwards becomes a conversation rather than a fact. Conversations are far harder to win.

So if you’re holding the pen: write the problem on the note before you sign it. Not afterwards, not in an email that evening. On the paper, in front of the driver, on both copies.

If something’s missing, cross out the quantity, write what you actually received next to it and initial the change. “Received 10 of 12” scrawled on the note beats any email you’ll send later that week.

If there’s visible damage, put “damaged on arrival” beside the line, describe it in a few words, then photograph the box before anyone opens it and keep that photo with your copy.

And if there’s no time to check, which happens constantly because couriers don’t hang about while you count 40 cartons, sign it “received unexamined” or “subject to checking”. Either phrase keeps your window open another day or two instead of slamming it shut.

From the supplier’s end, file that signed copy the moment it comes back. When a short delivery is confirmed, fix it with a credit note against the invoice, never by editing the invoice itself, since that breaks the record on both sides.

Numbering and how long to keep them

Give delivery notes a sequence of their own, and DN-0001 onwards does the job. Share a sequence with your invoices and you’ll get duplicate references in your accounting system, the sort of mess that eats an afternoon a year from now.

As for keeping them, a delivery note usually isn’t a tax document in its own right, but it’s the evidence behind one. When somebody questions an invoice, that signed note settles whether the goods ever went out. Most businesses file them with the matching invoice and keep the lot as long as they keep their accounts, which in the UK means six years from the end of the financial year. Other countries set their own, so check yours.

If you’re shipping in volume, a statement of account at month end is the quickest way to confirm both sides agree on what went out and what got billed.

Frequently asked questions

Is a delivery note a legal requirement?

For a normal domestic sale, usually not, although it’s close to essential in practice because without a signed one you’ve no proof the goods were handed over. Regulated goods and cross border shipments carry rules of their own, so check what applies to whatever you ship.

Can a delivery note replace an invoice?

No, and it isn’t close. No prices on it, no tax and no payment terms, so you can’t use one to claim payment or back up a tax return. Two documents, two jobs, and you need both.

Does a delivery note need a signature?

Not to be valid, no. But an unsigned one proves very little, and it’s the signature with a printed name beside it that turns the thing into actual evidence.

Can a delivery note be sent by email?

Yes, and plenty of businesses have moved that way. An emailed note carrying an electronic signature is generally treated the same as a paper one, because what matters is that the person receiving the goods confirmed they got them, not the format it arrived in.

The short version

A delivery note travels with the goods and lists what’s in the shipment, with no prices on it anywhere. It needs both parties’ details, its own number, the issue and delivery dates, a description and quantity per item, and a signature line with a printed name. Same document as a packing slip, and the invoice is a separate thing that comes later.

Write the back order on the note. Write any shortage or damage on the paper before you sign, not in an email that evening. File the signed copy with its invoice, and when a shortfall is confirmed, fix it with a credit note instead of editing the invoice.