What a delivery note is for
A delivery note does three things, none of which involve asking for money.
It's a checking list at handover. The receiver counts what's on the pallet and finds out on the spot whether anything is missing or damaged. That's the only moment the driver is still there — once the van has gone, a shortage becomes an argument.
It's proof of delivery. A signed delivery note is the seller's evidence that a named person accepted the goods at that address on that date — the answer if the customer later says the order never arrived.
It's the link between the order and the invoice. The delivery note quotes the customer's order number; the invoice quotes the delivery note number. When an invoice is queried weeks later, that chain is how anyone works out which delivery it covered.
What the signature does not do is accept quality. It means the packages were handed over and the count looked right, not that the contents were inspected. That's why experienced receivers write `received unexamined` or `2 cartons damaged` next to their name rather than signing clean.
What goes on a delivery note
A delivery note is short. Every field exists to settle a specific argument later.
Copies. Three parts is the convention: the customer keeps one, the driver takes a signed one back to the seller, the seller files the third. Two-part books are common for smaller sellers.
Only the signed copy is worth anything. An unsigned delivery note proves you printed a document; a signed one proves someone received the goods. File it with the invoice that references it.
- Delivery note number — unique and sequential. The invoice will quote it back.
- Date of despatch and date of delivery — often the same day, often not, and the gap matters when payment terms start on delivery.
- Seller details — trading name, address, and someone to phone about a shortage.
- Deliver To address — kept separate from the billing address: head office pays, the site takes delivery.
- Customer order or PO number — their reference. Without it their accounts team can't match the delivery to anything.
- Line items — description, product or SKU code, and quantity ordered, quantity delivered and quantity outstanding as three separate columns. Two columns is where partial deliveries go wrong.
- Package count and weight — the signer counts packages, not items.
- Carrier or driver — courier or driver name, sometimes the vehicle registration.
- Delivery instructions — gate codes, lift access, tail lift; the reason most failed deliveries fail.
- Signature block — printed name, signature, date and time, plus a line to note damage or shortages.
Why a delivery note usually has no prices on it
A delivery note is a receipt for goods, not a bill. Leaving the money off isn't an oversight, and putting it on causes four specific problems.
The person signing it shouldn't be reading your prices. A delivery note is signed by whoever is at the loading bay — a warehouse hand, a site foreman, a receptionist. Commercial terms are not their business, and they're the last people in the customer's organisation who should be handed unit prices.
Negotiated discounts travel badly. Pricing is agreed centrally, often confidentially, and often differs between the customer's own sites. A priced delivery note carries it to every one of them.
It invites a duplicate payment. A document with line items, a total and the customer's name looks enough like an invoice that it eventually gets treated as one — paid once against the delivery note and again against the real invoice, and the person who unpicks it is you.
In drop-shipping it exposes your margin. Ship direct to your customer's customer, and a priced delivery note in the box tells the end recipient exactly what your customer paid.
So the standard is quantities yes, money no: count what's in the box and leave the totals off entirely — not zeroed, not blanked, simply not present.
The honest exception: suppliers who invoice on delivery sometimes send one priced document acting as both. That's fine, but it has to say so on its face — anything meant to be paid should be titled as an invoice and carry payment terms. So if a delivery note arrives with prices on it, the useful question isn't "why", it's "is this also the invoice, or is a second one coming?"
When you don't need a delivery note
Most small businesses never issue one, and there's nothing missing from their paperwork.
If you deliver labour, not goods, there's nothing to note. A plumber, an electrician or a cleaner finishes the job at the customer's address — no pallet to count, no loading bay to sign at. Their equivalent is a worksheet signed off at the end of the visit: what was done, how many hours, which parts were fitted, signed by the person who was there. That signature answers a later dispute exactly as a delivery note's would.
If the customer pays and takes the goods there and then, the receipt is the delivery note. Counter sales, market stalls, supplying materials and fitting them the same afternoon: money and goods change hands at once, so one document covers both.
If a courier is carrying it, their proof of delivery already exists. Carriers capture a signature or photo at the door and timestamp it, so your own note on top proves nothing theirs doesn't — though a packing slip in the box still earns its place.
If nobody is going to sign it, it isn't doing anything. The whole value is the countersignature, so if deliveries are left at a gate with nobody present, you need a photo and a timestamp.
Delivery notes earn their place in the opposite case: goods go out ahead of payment, someone else receives them, and payment follows later against an invoice. If your work has no such gap, skip it.