What Is a Delivery Note or Commercial Invoice?

A delivery note is a document that represents the details of all the products the buyers receive during the shipping process. It is also known as a commercial invoice or sales invoice. The buyer receives this document, along with the delivered goods, containing the following information:

• Brief description of item being shipped
• Items quantity
• Shipment weight and size

What Is the Core Purpose of Delivery Note?

After defining what a delivery note is, let’s define its purpose now. A delivery note helps track items shipped from one location to another. Customers can ensure that the right product has been received by cross-checking it with the delivery note details. They can also return the product through delivery notes if they find faults.

In some cases, customers sign a copy of the delivery note and send it back to the seller; this process is known as signed-for delivery or recorded delivery.

Business professionals can update their inventory and records. Thus, they have insight into incoming and outgoing items.

Overall, the delivery note contributes to smoothing the shipping process and lowers the chances of mistakes.

What Information Should Delivery Note Covers?

After defining the meaning of the delivery note, let’s know what details are covered in the delivery note. You can create a delivery note using software or a delivery note template. Make sure you enter the correct data.

A delivery note should include the following data

• Seller’s information (name, address, and contact details)
• Buyer’s information (name, address, and contact details)
• Company logo
• Delivery note number
• Date of issuance of the delivery note
• Description of all the goods and possibly SKU
• Goods quantity
• Date of delivery
• Delivery method

Delivery Note Example

Let’s understand the delivery note format through an example.

Types of Delivery Notes

There are multiple kinds of delivery notes, each for a specific job. Let’s explore the different types of delivery notes:

1. Sale of Goods

Sales of goods named delivery notes are useful when selling and delivering products at the same time. There are two types of sale of goods delivery notes:

1.1 Cash Sale

This type of goods sale is useful when the customer makes an immediate payment. It represents what was purchased and confirms that payment was made on the spot.

1.2 Credit Sale

The credit sale delivery note is useful when the customer purchases something but makes the payment later on.

2. Internal Transfer

This kind of delivery note represents the internal movement of items within the company. This transfer can occur between departments or from one location to another. In this way, it becomes easy for professionals to track the movement of goods.

3. Return of the Purchase

Sometimes, customers return items back to the seller for specific reasons. In such cases, the return of the purchase debit note is useful. It lists out all the items that customers return along with the reason.

4. Delivery of Goods

This kind of delivery note is useful when shipping products to a customer or another business. It covers all the shipped items and acts as a detailed checklist for the receiver.

Print Your Delivery Notes in Moon Invoice

Moon Invoice offers the easiest way to generate and print delivery documents. You can generate a delivery note by performing a few clicks.

Follow these steps to print delivery notes:

1. Sign up for Moon Invoice (if a new user)
2. Sign in to Moon Invoice (if already a user)
3. Navigate to the left side, click on “Sales,” and then click on “Invoices.”
4. Create your invoice while filling out the required fields (Skip this step if you have the invoice ready)
5. Once your invoice is ready, click on the three dots on the right side
6. Choose the “Delivery Note” option from the drop-down menu
7. The delivery note will be in front of you on the screen
8. Take a printout of the delivery note, either in PDF form or thermal print

So, users can easily create and print delivery notes without investing much time. Moon Invoice is superior to the traditional pen & paper-based strategy because it saves time, creating clean and accurate delivery notes.

Last Words

Delivery notes are crucial for shipping businesses as they provide the required information to the buyer. Thus, shipping business owners must handle it wisely and send it along with other shipping documents. You can maintain proper transparency and clear record-keeping with proper delivery note management. Hence, it prevents confusion and disputes.

Frequently Asked Questions