Free Wholesale Order Delivery Note Template & Generator
A wholesale PO rarely lands as one clean number: part of a line ships, the balance sits on backorder, and the count taken at the buyer's back door is in cases while their system thinks in eaches. This delivery note keeps case pack, ordered, shipped, and backordered quantities on the buyer's own PO line numbers, so every partial truck produces a signed count you can invoice against.
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| Description | Qty |
|---|---|
| Product cases | 24 |
| Display packs | 6 |
| Promotional cartons | 3 |
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Use-case checklist
What to include in a wholesale order delivery note
Wholesale shortages are rarely arguments about whether goods moved; they are arguments about units. You pick, ship, and invoice in cases, the buyer's PO is written in cases, and the person counting at the back door often scans eaches, so 16 cases of a 12-pack lands in the buyer's system as 192 and nothing reconciles. A delivery note that prints case pack beside every SKU and keeps ordered, shipped, and backordered quantities on the buyer's own PO line numbers lets accounts payable clear the lines that arrived instead of parking the whole invoice because one line reads short. On accounts that run a routing guide, the same mismatch costs you twice: a physical receipt that disagrees with the advance ship notice you transmitted comes back as a compliance chargeback and pulls down the on-time-in-full score the buyer grades you on.
- seller, buyer, PO, and order numbers
- SKU, description, case pack, and lot
- ordered and delivered quantities
- backorders, carrier, and tracking
- condition, receiver, date, and signature
Example starting lines
| Description | Qty |
|---|---|
| Product cases | 24 |
| Display packs | 6 |
| Promotional cartons | 3 |
Complete it cleanly
Number the note against both the buyer's PO and your own sales order, then reuse the PO's line numbers exactly, so line 1 is still line 1 on the second and third truck. Give each SKU its case pack and three quantities, ordered, shipped on this note, and backordered, plus a ship date for the balance. Then record what the carrier actually signs for: handling units (how many wrapped pallets or loose cartons), the pallet label numbers, gross weight, and the PRO number off the bill of lading. Do not put seal numbers on an LTL note; the trailer is not sealed to you and the freight is restacked at the hub, so handling units, not seals, are your evidence. Leave two fields blank for the receiving desk, cases counted and exceptions, and email the PDF ahead of the truck so the receiver counts against your document instead of the driver's.
Worked example
PO 2261: 18 cases loaded, 16 signed for
Harbor Line Provisions is filling PO 2261 for Craft & Cellar Market, a two-store independent grocer building a summer iced-coffee endcap: three SKUs, 60 cases, one wrapped pallet moving LTL. The cold brew line is short at the warehouse before loading, and the receiver finds a further gap when the pallet comes off the truck.
- PO 2261 line 1 - HB-CBC-12 cold brew concentrate, case pack 12 x 32 oz, $38.50 per case
- 24 cases ordered / $924.00
- Shipped on this delivery note (54 cases across 3 SKUs, 1 wrapped pallet, PRO 621-4478-3)
- 18 cases / $693.00
- Backordered on PO line 1, ship date printed on the note
- 6 cases / $231.00
- Counted onto the dock by Craft & Cellar's receiver, pallet wrap intact
- 16 cases / $616.00
- Short against the 18 shipped, written on both copies before signing
- 2 cases / $77.00
- Crushed case visible through the wrap, logged as an exception on the LTL delivery receipt
- 1 case / $38.50
- Invoiced for this shipment: 16 signed cases less the credit memo for the crushed case
- $577.50
- Still open on PO line 1 after invoicing (6 backordered + 2 short-picked)
- 8 cases / $308.00
This note records what the receiver could count and see at the dock, the 16 cases and the one visibly crushed carton, not the condition of bottles inside cases that looked fine and only turn up broken when the store opens them; that is concealed damage and runs on whatever reporting deadline your carrier's tariff sets, so check the tariff behind the PRO before you promise the buyer anything. The classic trap is signing the carrier's delivery receipt clean and writing the exception only on your own copy: the freight paperwork then reads as a clean delivery, and the crush claim is dead before it is filed.
When this document is the right choice
Use this delivery note to record which goods were delivered and accepted. A delivery note tracks items and quantities, normally without prices. The invoice handles payment; the signed delivery note supports quantity and condition checks.
Frequently asked questions
How do I show a backorder on a wholesale delivery note?
Keep the buyer's line numbering and give every SKU three quantity fields on the same line, ordered, shipped on this truck, and backordered, instead of burying the balance in a footnote. On PO 2261 that puts 24 / 18 / 6 on line 1, so the receiver can see at the dock that six cases were never loaded and does not open a shortage claim for them. Add the expected ship date for the balance; that single field stops most "where is the rest of my order" calls to your sales desk.
The receiver counted two cases short, but the pallet wrap was intact. Is that a freight claim?
Probably not. An LTL carrier signs for handling units, not for the cases inside a shrink-wrapped pallet, so if it delivers one pallet against one pallet on the bill of lading with the wrap unbroken and the pallet label matching, that intact pallet is precisely the argument the carrier will use to push a case-level shortage back to your pick and load count. What actually opens a freight file is a broken or re-taped wrap, a missing or mismatched pallet label, a piece count below the bill of lading, or visible damage noted as an exception before the receiver signs. Here the wrap was intact, so Harbor Line treats the two cases as a short pick and settles them by credit or reship, and files only on the crushed case.
The PO is written in cases but the buyer receives in eaches. How should the note read?
Print both, and label them. Show the case pack on the line, 12 x 32 oz, then the case quantity you shipped and the eaches it converts to, so 18 cases reads as 216 bottles for whoever is scanning at the back door. Bill in the unit the PO uses, which is almost always cases, and never let the invoice quantity switch units between shipments on the same PO. If the buyer's system can only receive in eaches, agree the conversion in writing before the first truck, because a note that says 18 and a receipt that says 216 is one of the most common reasons a wholesale invoice sits unmatched.
PO 2261 will ship on three trucks. Do I need a separate delivery note for each, and what does that cost?
Yes. Each truck carries a different date, PRO number, pallet count, and signature, and reusing one note for the backordered six cases would leave that shipment with no signed count of its own. On Invoity you can build and preview all three for free, and each PDF download is $2.29, so a three-truck PO comes to $6.87. If you are cutting notes for split shipments and backorder balances every week, Unlimited at $9/month or $69/year covers every download.
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