“Delivery notes aren’t required by law, but they can simplify the business process between you and your customers. If you are using them for legal conformity, you can even use delivery notes in court as prima facie evidence,” writes Ionos, a hosting and cloud partner for SMEs.
While not compulsory in the UK, they are practical and have become standard when shipping goods. It is strongly advised that you do include a delivery note with your deliveries because they are considered an added service that can put your customer’s mind at ease.
Since it is important to ensure the correct sending and receiving of products, the purpose of a delivery note helps customers to check whether anything is missing and reassures suppliers that the delivery went well.
The benefits of a delivery note include:
Note: It is considered good business practice to have two copies of each delivery note – one for your records and one for the customer.
Delivery notes are an inventory tool that assure a smooth packing and shipping process. It provides the logistics department with improved stock management of the input and output of goods, as well improving communication between the accounting and warehouse departments.
Since every item contained in a delivery note must be in the accompanying shipment, the document gives customers an overview of the products they have ordered and the ability to easily cross check those received.
If an item is missing, then your customer can contact you as soon as possible.
The delivery note will list whether any goods in the original order are not enclosed due to lack of stock or unavailability, for example.
Likewise, if any of the delivered goods are damaged, the courier or delivery personnel can make a note on the delivery note and you can then send a replacement or issue a credit note.
While a delivery note is similar to an invoice in many ways, it cannot replace it entirely because a delivery note only gives details of the quantity supplied and does not list the prices of products.
Invoices are prepared by accounting and don’t require any acknowledgement from the buyer, while delivery notes are prepared by logistics and must usually be acknowledged, explains a blog for the Indian city of Kalyan.
Note: Delivery notes cannot be used for making accounting entries.
Remember that you must always produce an invoice and it is normally sent after the goods have been dispatched. Check out our free invoice template, free invoice generator or our free invoicing software.
While a delivery note can display the prices of products and the total amount paid, it is inadvisable to do so.
You do not know if the order was a gift or if something has been ordered from one business and is being sold on by somebody else for a profit. The logic is that the person who is delivering or even receiving the goods should not see the cost.
However, depending on the industry and the products being shipped, some suppliers do choose to include the unique product numbers.
Since there is no legal obligation to issue delivery notes, there are no strict rules dictating what to include when creating one. However, they should still adhere to a certain structure to ensure that all important details are included and maintain clear communication with your customer.
While there are no compulsory fields to include, you should consider including:
According to Informi, a UK-based firm providing support to SMEs, sole-traders and start-ups, “it may also be useful to show which items are not included, for example the customer may have ordered something which is out of stock.”
They add that if you use a third party to deliver your goods, a courier company for example, you may wish to include delivery instructions as well.
As mentioned earlier, a delivery note usually has an empty field for the receiver’s signature (or stamp) that confirms the delivery was received.
Your delivery notes should be consistent in appearance and always contain the same basic information, so think about creating a standard template.
The layout and content of a delivery note can be edited with an ordinary word-processing program, like Microsoft Word, or spreadsheet program, such as Excel.
We invite you to download our free delivery note template at the end of this article, which contains all the relevant information, and adapt it to your needs. It’s simple and totally free of charge.
Finally, don’t forget to add your company branding and make it consistent with all of your communication materials. As Debitoor reminds us, “This makes a shipment more easily identifiable to your customer, as well as extends your company branding and your professional image.”
The most common method of sending delivery notes to customers is to include a version in paper format and include it along with the shipment.
However, an increasing number of delivery notes are now being emailed when the goods are dispatched. Not only does this remind the customer that a package is on the way, but also provides an overview of what they ordered, which can be helpful for larger deliveries, suggests Holded, a Spanish cloud-based ERP software firm.
Both customers and suppliers are advised to attach the delivery note, or a copy, to the invoice and then archive them for a period of six years.
Physical delivery notes that have been signed or have a date stamp can be digitized easily, advises Ionos. “As long as it’s legible, you can simply scan the document and place it in your computer files. [This] will save you a lot of money and you can quickly access all of your dispatched delivery notes on your computer whenever you need them.”
Zervant is free to use for up to 5 customers. Create an account and send your first invoice in under a minute (we’ve timed it). We even have an app for iOS and Android so that you can invoice on the go.
