A delivery note travels with the goods and gets signed at the other end. Knowing how to write a delivery note properly is mostly about restraint: it lists what is in the consignment and nothing else.
Why there are no prices on it
The person signing on the loading bay has no business seeing your margins, and neither does anyone else who handles the box.
On the sheet here the Amount column and the totals are switched off for this document, which is why. If you need to send a priced document with a shipment, that is a proforma invoice, and it goes to the buyer rather than in the crate.
What it should carry
- Your business details and the customer’s.
- A delivery note number, from its own sequence.
- The order or purchase order number it fulfils.
- The delivery address, which is often not the billing address.
- The date sent.
- Each line: description and quantity.
- A space for the receiver to sign and date.
A worked example
DELIVERY NOTE No. DN-0231
Date: 20 August 2026
Deliver to
Riverside Clinic, Stores entrance
14 Riverside Drive, Nairobi
Contact: A. Wanjiru, 0700 000 000
Against order: PO-4471
Description Item code Qty
Examination couch, vinyl, blue EX-220 2
Couch roll, 50m, box of 9 CR-509 4
Assembly kit AK-001 2
Received by ____________________ Signature __________
Date ____________ Any shortfall or damage noted here:
________________________________________________That last line matters. A note with nowhere to record a problem produces deliveries where problems go unrecorded.
How many copies
Two is the usual minimum. One stays with the customer, one comes back to you signed. Some businesses run three so the driver keeps one.
If you deliver by courier, the courier’s own tracking is not a substitute. It proves a box moved, not that the right contents arrived.
What a signature actually proves
Less than people assume. A signature usually confirms that a consignment was handed over, not that the contents were checked.
That is why the shortfall line exists, and why the customer’s own goods received note is the document that records what actually arrived. Both sides having their own record is the point.
Partial shipments
If you are sending part of an order, say so explicitly and list what is outstanding:
This delivery completes 2 of 3 lines on PO-4471.
Outstanding: Assembly kit AK-001, qty 2, to follow 27 August.A customer who can see what is still coming does not phone to ask.
Numbering
Its own sequence, separate from invoices. DN-0001 upward. Reference it on the invoice that follows so the customer can match the paperwork to the shipment.
The general rules are in numbering your documents.
Handing it over
Print two copies. If the driver is yours, brief them: get it signed, get any problem written on it, bring it back.
Signed notes are worth keeping. When a customer says three months later that an item never arrived, the signed note is the answer.
Next
For a reusable layout, see a delivery note template. For how it differs from a packing list, see delivery note or packing list. Or open the delivery note generator.