Delivery note, packing slip, invoice: what is the difference?
These three documents are often confused but serve different purposes. The delivery note travels with the goods and tells the recipient which items and quantities were shipped—with no prices. The packing slip is the internal warehouse version: it helps with picking and packing and often carries extra info like bin location or barcode instead of the recipient address.
The invoice, by contrast, is the tax document with all mandatory details. It belongs in a different category. If you need invoices, see create Shopify invoices automatically. Delivery notes and packing slips are pure shipping documents and are not subject to VAT rules.
- Delivery note: items + quantities, no prices, included with the shipment.
- Packing slip: internal pick list for the warehouse, often with bin/barcode.
- Invoice: mandatory tax document with prices, tax and legal line items.
What Shopify can do out of the box, and where it ends
Shopify has a built-in packing slip print: from the order detail you can print a packing slip via "More actions", and the template can be adjusted within limits in the theme editor. For small shops this is often enough: you print a simple A4 document per order and include it with the shipment.
The built-in print hits its limits when it comes to scale and detail: no true delivery-note templates in your own layout, no automatic handling of partial shipments, no PDF archive, and bulk printing across many orders is cumbersome. Anyone packing many parcels daily or wanting a consistent brand image quickly runs into these limits.
Auto-generate a Shopify delivery note with belegio
With belegio the delivery note is created automatically the moment an order comes in or is marked as shipped—with your own logo, fonts, and colors. You no longer trigger anything manually: the document is generated as a clean PDF, ready for single print or batch print.
This is especially handy for partial shipments: if only part of an order goes out, the app generates a delivery note for exactly that subset instead of the whole order. Belegio runs GDPR-compliant with hosting in Frankfurt, and because the same engine also produces invoices and credit notes, you get every document type from one source. Learn more under services.
Packing slips for the warehouse: speed up picking
While the delivery note is meant for the customer, you optimize the packing slip for your team. A good pick list reduces wrong picks and walking distances: items sorted by bin location, clearly readable quantities, optional SKU or barcode to scan. With several orders per day, batch printing saves significant time over printing each order in the Shopify backend.
As your fulfillment grows, it pays to keep delivery note and packing slip as separate templates: a customer-friendly version for the shipment, an efficient one for the warehouse. That way you avoid internal warehouse info accidentally ending up with the customer.
The delivery note in the bigger picture: from document to accounting
The delivery note is just one building block in a shop's document flow. Ideally, delivery note, invoice, and accounting are connected so you can trace every transaction end to end. If you are automating anyway, you should couple document creation directly to your bookkeeping.
For the tax side, zrapp connects your shop to sevdesk or Lexware Office and transfers orders automatically, including tax logic for OSS, reverse charge, and small-business exemption. Get started with connect Shopify to sevdesk or connect Shopify to Lexware Office. That way document creation and bookkeeping together cover the entire workflow.
