Packing Slip Template, With Lots and Best-By Dates

A packing slip is the list that travels with a shipment and says what's in it: who it's from and to, the order and purchase order numbers, and each item with the quantity shipped. It doesn't show prices; the invoice does that. The customer's receiving clerk checks the boxes against the slip, signs it, and the signed copy is your proof of what was delivered. For food and other dated goods, the slip is also the place for the lot number and best-by date of every line, so the store's receiving log and your recall records both start from the same paper. In the example below, a hot sauce maker ships 18 cases to a grocer from three lots, with two cases backordered. Below is what goes on a slip, a filled-in example, slips versus invoices, backorders, and a free template.

The short version

• From and ship-to, slip number, your order number, the customer's PO number, ship date, carrier.
• One line for each item and lot: item, code, lot, best-by date, ordered, shipped, backordered.
• No prices: the slip shows contents, the invoice bills them.
• Note what's backordered and when it ships.
• The customer checks and signs; keep the signed copy.
• Match the invoice to the signed slip, line by line.
• TaroStack prints the picking list and delivery note from the order, lots included. More below.

What goes on a packing slip

A slip without lots works for goods that don't date. For anything that does, a lot and date on each line saves the store a step: it can copy them straight into its receiving log, and pick the older stock first. How a store logs a delivery is in food receiving log template.

A filled-in example

Blue Ridge Hot Sauce, a made-up hot sauce maker in Roanoke, Virginia, I use in these examples, ships an order to a grocer in Harrisonburg:

That's 216 bottles. If one item ships from two lots, it takes two lines, one for each lot, so the record shows which store got which batch. How to choose and print a lot number is in lot number on food packaging.

Packing slip or invoice

The packing slip goes in the box or with the driver and lists what's there; the invoice goes to whoever pays and lists what's owed. They share the same order number and the same lines, so the invoice is written from the signed slip, not from the order: if two cases were backordered, the invoice bills 18, not 20. A store's accounts department will match the invoice against the receiving copy before paying. How to write the invoice is in wholesale invoice template.

Backorders and shorts

When an order can't ship complete, the slip says so on the line, with the quantity backordered, and the note says when the rest will come. The customer then knows not to expect it today, and the invoice bills only what shipped. If the store's clerk finds a case missing or damaged, it's written on the slip before signing, which settles the question while the driver is still there.

Get the template

Download the packing slip template. One printable sheet: who it's from and to, the slip, order and PO numbers, ship date and carrier, and up to 20 lines with item, code, lot, best-by date, cases ordered and shipped and units a case. It works out what's backordered, the total cases and the units shipped, with a notes box and a signature block. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Thirty wholesale customers, three sauces in two sizes, lots changing every week, and slips typed by hand from the order with the lot copied off a case. A sheet can't pick the oldest lot for you, fill the slip from the order, or show later which stores got lot L2609-14 if a supplier recalls a pepper.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack prints the picking list and delivery note from the order, lots included.

From the order. Wholesale orders are sales orders that show whether the cases are on the shelf while you're still typing. One picking list gathers the day's orders, and picking takes the oldest lots first by default.

Delivery notes with lots. The delivery note comes from what was picked, with each line's lot, and the invoice follows from the same order, so the slip, the invoice and the stock all agree. Lot labels can carry GS1-128 barcodes.

And the trail back. One report walks any lot to every customer who got it, which is the question a recall asks.

Lots, sales orders, picking lists, delivery notes and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

What is a packing slip?

A list that travels with a shipment showing what's in it: who it's from and to, the order and PO numbers, and each item with the quantity shipped. It has no prices; the invoice bills the order.

What's the difference between a packing slip and an invoice?

The packing slip shows what was shipped and goes with the goods; the invoice shows what's owed and goes to whoever pays. The invoice should bill what the signed slip says was delivered.

Should a packing slip include lot numbers?

For food and other dated goods, yes: a lot and best-by date on each line lets the store log and rotate stock, and lets you trace a lot to every store that got it.

What goes on a packing slip?

From and ship-to, the slip, order and PO numbers, ship date and carrier, and for each line the item, code, lot, best-by date and quantities ordered, shipped and backordered, with notes and a signature.