Delivery Notes
Confirm physical dispatch of goods. No pricing on the printed note. Inventory moves on posting. Use it as proof of delivery — convert to invoice when billing time comes.
A delivery note is an operational document that confirms goods have been dispatched to a customer. It is not a financial document — no AR, no revenue, and no journal entry on posting. Its purpose is to record what was physically moved, when, and to whom.
Delivery notes are used in the Standard B2B sales cycle, between the sales order (commitment) and the invoice (billing). They give operations a dispatch document while allowing finance to invoice separately on their own schedule.
Creating a Delivery Note
From a Sales Order (Recommended)
Navigate to: Sales → Sales Orders → open order → More → Convert to → Delivery Note (or Lifecycle → Delivery → Create delivery note)
Navigate to the sales order that covers the goods being dispatched. It should be Open or Partly fulfilled.
Choose Delivery Note under Convert to. The delivery note form opens with the customer and every line of the order pre-filled.
Edit each line's Qty to what is in this shipment. Set a line to 0, or remove it, if it is not being dispatched yet.
Set the dispatch date. Put the courier reference, driver or vehicle in the Note field.
Click Save. The delivery note is Delivered. Inventory decreases immediately for the dispatched quantities.
Standalone Delivery Note
Navigate to: Sales → Delivery notes → New
Select the customer and add line items manually. Use this for deliveries where no sales order was raised in advance.
What Appears on a Delivery Note
The printed note and the document page intentionally omit all pricing. They show:
- Customer name and delivery address, under "Deliver To"
- Delivery note number (DLN-000001 format)
- Dispatch date
- Line items: Item, Qty, and unit of measure, with a Total Qty
- Note field
- A "Delivered By" signature block (printed copies)
No unit prices, no totals, no tax on the page, the PDF, or the Delivery notes list. The customer sees what they received — not what they are being charged. The create form itself uses the shared items table, so Rate and Amount are visible while you edit; they do not print.
Status Lifecycle
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Work in progress. Not confirmed. No inventory impact. Can be edited freely. |
| Delivered | Saved and posted. Goods have been dispatched; inventory reduced. The delivery note is the dispatch record. |
| Voided | Delivery note cancelled. Inventory movement reversed. Use if goods were not dispatched as recorded. |
Inventory Impact
Stock is read from the lines of posted documents. A posted delivery note reduces stock by its quantities; a draft moves nothing. No journal is written — cost of sales is posted only by the invoice.
| Timing | Details |
|---|---|
| Delivery note before invoice | Inventory reduces when the delivery note is saved. An invoice created from that delivery note (Convert to → Invoice) does not reduce stock again — the note already moved it. The invoice still posts revenue, AR and cost of sales. |
| Invoice before delivery note | Inventory reduces at invoice posting. A delivery note raised afterwards records the dispatch and reduces stock too unless it is created from that invoice — raise it from the order instead. |
| Delivery note only (no invoice) | Inventory reduces. No revenue, no AR and no cost of sales are posted until an invoice exists — a reconciliation item to review. |
The skip applies only when the invoice is created from the delivery note, so the link between them exists. An invoice raised independently for goods already on a delivery note will reduce stock a second time. Always convert.
Converting a Delivery Note to an Invoice
When you are ready to bill the customer for the delivered goods:
Navigate to Sales → Delivery notes → select the Delivered note.
More → Convert to → Invoice (or Lifecycle → Invoices → Create invoice). The invoice form pre-populates with the customer, line items, and quantities from the delivery note.
Review the rates and adjust as needed before saving.
Revenue is recognized, AR is created, cost of sales is posted. Inventory is not reduced again.
Fulfilment Tracking on the Sales Order
When a delivery note is saved from a sales order, the order's status is derived from the delivered quantities:
- Open while nothing has been delivered or invoiced
- Partly fulfilled when some quantities are covered
- Fulfilled when every quantity is covered
The order's Lifecycle panel shows the percentage of the ordered quantity delivered and, per item, Ordered, Received and the difference.
Related
- Billing for what you dispatched: Converting between documents.
- The order it usually comes from: Sales orders.
- Why the invoice does not move stock twice: Sales overview.
- Tracking what has and has not shipped: The Lifecycle panel.