Free Packing Slip Template (PDF, Word & Excel)

What is a packing slip?

A packing slip is a document included inside a shipment that lists exactly what the package contains — the items and their quantities — so the receiver can check the contents against their order. It shows the order number, the buyer's purchase order reference, and each product with the quantity ordered, the quantity in the box, and anything backordered. It does not show prices, and that is by design: the slip travels with the goods, so gift recipients, warehouse staff, and anyone else who opens the box sees what arrived, never what it cost.

Think of it as the box's table of contents. When a shipment is split across several boxes, each box gets its own slip ("box 2 of 3") listing only that box's contents, and the receiver can reconcile the whole order without opening everything at once. When something is missing, the slip is where the conversation starts: the backordered column either explains the gap or exposes it.

Packing slip vs invoice vs delivery note

Three documents ride along with a sale, and they answer three different questions:

The line between the slip and the delivery note is the one people blur most: the packing slip ships inside the box for the receiver to check contents; a delivery note is the document used to record the handover at the door. Some packing-slip layouts also leave room for a receiver name, condition note or optional acknowledgement, but if your process needs a signed handover record, use the delivery note template instead.

Against the invoice, the split is even cleaner. The invoice goes to whoever pays, carries every price and the payment terms, and often travels by email days before or after the box does. The slip carries none of that. A common small-business shortcut is to print the invoice and drop it in the box as both documents at once — it works until the first gift order, the first drop shipment, or the first time a warehouse worker learns your margins. Keeping the two documents separate costs one extra sheet of paper.

Keep prices off the packing slip

A packing slip is for contents and quantities, not a declared value or a bill. The downloads on this page do not include price, tax, subtotal or payment fields. That keeps the sheet safe to place inside a box for a receiver, warehouse team or gift recipient to inspect.

For an international shipment, the document that carries declared values is a commercial invoice, subject to the carrier and destination requirements. Keep the packing slip inside for the receiver and use the commercial invoice wherever the shipment needs values; the two documents can travel with the same order without replacing each other.

Sample packing slip

Here is a filled sample packing slip for a split order — the kind where the backordered column earns its place:

Order #4172 · PO #TX-889 · Ship date: July 28 · Box 1 of 1

Read what the sample is doing. The receiver counts 134 units, matches them line by line, and the slip has already explained the shortfall: twelve navy mugs are backordered, not lost. Without that column, the same box triggers a where-is-the-rest email; with it, the slip answers before the question is asked. Notice also what is absent — no prices, no totals in dollars, no payment terms. The invoice for order #4172 carries all of that, and it went to accounts payable, not into the box.

The slip earns its keep a second time when something comes back. A return that arrives with the original packing slip — or a copy of it, with the returned lines circled — reconciles itself: the order number ties it to the sale, the SKUs tie each item to a line, and nobody has to guess which of last month's orders the box belongs to. That is worth mentioning on the slip itself; a single footer line like "Please include this slip with any return" costs nothing and saves the most annoying kind of detective work a small business does.