Delivery Notes

A delivery note travels with the goods from your warehouse to a client. It records what left, how much left and which warehouse it left from. Use this page to ship an order, to bill what shipped and to undo a shipment.

A delivery note is the outgoing side of a goods receipt in Procurement. A goods receipt tracks goods that arrive from a supplier. A delivery note tracks goods that leave your warehouse for a client.

Each delivery note belongs to one sales order and records one shipment. One order can have several delivery notes. This is common when goods leave on different days or from different warehouses.

What a note does to your stock. Nothing leaves stock until the note reaches Shipped.

What a note leaves for the invoice. Shipping bills nothing. The note waits in Deliveries to invoice on the Sales home until you bill it.

Key Concepts

• A delivery note lists the goods, the quantities and the warehouse for one shipment to a client. You may also know it as a dispatch note or a packing slip.
• Picking means collecting the goods from their shelves in the warehouse.
• Packing means putting the collected goods into packages for the journey. The goods can come from several shelves.
• Dispatch means handing the packed goods to a carrier, or to the client who collects them.
• A split shipment is one order that goes out on several delivery notes. This usually happens because not everything is available at once, or because the goods leave from different warehouses.

Creating a Delivery Note

To ship everything that an order still has to ship, start from the order. Open the sales order, open More actions and choose Create delivery note. That choice appears while the order is Confirmed, Processing or Partial. Beelocity asks for the number, then writes a draft note with one line for each order line that still has something left to ship. Each line opens on what the warehouse can ship now: what is reserved for it, plus what is free in the warehouse. A line the stock does not cover opens on less. The order keeps the rest for a later note (Creating a delivery note from an order).

To write a delivery note yourself:

1. Open Sales > Delivery Notes in the sidebar.
2. Click New. A new delivery note page opens.
3. Fill in the details:
   • Delivery number opens on the next number in your series, such as DN-2026-000112. You can type another one before you save.
   • Sales order names the order that you fulfil. The list offers every order, whatever its status, so pick a confirmed one.
   • Client comes from the sales order, and you cannot change it.
   • Shipping address says where the goods are going. It opens on the client’s usual shipping address.
   • Warehouse is where the goods leave from. It opens on the order’s warehouse after you pick the order. Pick another one if the goods leave from elsewhere.
   • Delivery date is the day that the goods are meant to leave. It opens on today.
   • Carrier is the freight company or the courier (optional).
   • Tracking number is the carrier’s own reference for this shipment (optional). Give it to the client, so that they can follow the goods.
   • Shipping method says how the goods travel, such as standard, express or collected by the client (optional). It prints on the delivery note.
   • Notes holds anything worth saying about this delivery. It prints on the delivery note.
4. Press Add above the Lines, beside the form. Beelocity saves the note as a Draft with its number, and its first line opens (Adding lines before you save). To add the lines later, click Save instead. You then land on the saved draft.

Managing Delivery Lines

Add the goods to ship:

1. The note’s details sit on the left of the page, and its Lines sit beside them on the right. They are there from the moment you click New. A saved note opens the same way when you click its number in the list.
2. Click Add for each item, and pick the Order line first. It fills in the product and the unit, and the line keeps them:
   • Order line is the line of the sales order that you ship. The list shows how much is left on each line, such as 10 of 10 left. Quantity shipped opens on what is left.
   • Product comes from the order line.
   • Description is the wording that the client reads for this line on the printed note. Beelocity copies it from the order line. You can change it if this shipment needs other words (“half pallet, remainder to follow”). See What the description records below.
   • Quantity shipped is how much this line takes out of stock when the note ships. Beelocity refuses more than the order line still has left.
   • Unit comes from the order line.
   • Location is the shelf that the goods are taken from (optional). If you leave it empty, Beelocity draws from the whole warehouse.
   • Notes holds remarks for this line, such as batch numbers, serial numbers or packing instructions. It prints under the line, so the person who receives the goods reads it.
3. You can ship part of a line. An order line of 200 units can ship 150 on this note and 50 on a later note.

You can change a note and its lines only while the note is a Draft. If something is wrong after that, cancel the note and create a new one.

What the description records

Beelocity writes the description down when it creates the line. A later change to the product does not touch it. If you rename the product a month later, the delivery notes that you already sent keep their words. So your copy and the client’s signed copy still match.

That is why the Product column can show a different name from the Description on an old note. The Product column reads the product’s record, which has really been renamed. The Description holds the note’s own words from the day it shipped. Both are right, and the difference is what you should expect.

Delivery Note Workflow

A delivery note moves through a series of statuses, from its creation to the delivery. The road at the top of its page runs Draft → Picking → Packed → Shipped → Delivered. To move the note, click the next step on the road and confirm. Beelocity moves a note only when somebody does this. The road a document travels says how to read the road.

A Sales clerk can write a note and its lines, but cannot move the note. A Sales manager or the owner of your organization can.

1. Draft

You have written the note, and the goods are still on the shelves. You can still add, change or remove lines.

2. Picking

Click Picking and confirm. This status tells your warehouse team to collect the goods. Beelocity does not send them a message. The note needs at least one line before picking can start.

3. Packed

Click Packed after your team has collected and packed all the goods. The shipment is ready to leave.

4. Shipped

When the client collects the goods, you do not need Picking and Packed. On a draft note, click the status and pick Shipped in the list of moves. The confirmation says that the goods leave the warehouse’s stock. The note passes through Picking and Packed at the same moment, so its history still shows every step.

Click Shipped after the goods have gone to the carrier, or after the client has collected them. This is the step that changes your stock:

• Beelocity takes the goods out of the warehouse. It dates this stock movement on the note’s Delivery date, whichever day you click Shipped.
• Beelocity adds the quantities to what each order line has shipped.
• The order moves to Partial, or to Completed if nothing is left to ship.

This step asks you for nothing. So fill in Carrier and Tracking number while the note is a draft, because you cannot change them later.

If the warehouse cannot cover a line, Beelocity ships nothing. It counts only the goods that no other order has reserved. The note stays at its step, and a message gives the quantity available and the quantity that the line needs. Wait for the goods to arrive, or cancel the note and create a new one with a lower quantity. A line with no product has no stock, so it always stops the note here. Cancel the note, and remove that line from the new draft.

Beelocity also refuses to ship a note if its order is Cancelled or Closed.

5. Delivered

Click Delivered after you learn that the goods have reached the client. This step changes neither the stock nor the note’s date.

Two people can have the same delivery note open. A colleague may have shipped or cancelled the note since your page showed it. If so, Beelocity refuses the step that you pick. A message asks you to refresh the page, and the note stays where your colleague left it. So a note never ships twice, and a cancelled note never becomes Delivered.

Billing a Shipment (Create Invoice)

After a note reaches Shipped or Delivered, More actions offers Create invoice. It writes a draft sales invoice for what this note still has to bill. This is the usual order for physical goods: ship first, then bill.

1. Open More actions and choose Create invoice. The next invoice number is already filled in. Keep it or change it, then press Create.
2. Beelocity bills what this note shipped, less what came back, less what invoices have already billed. A draft invoice has billed nothing yet.
3. The invoice never bills more than the order has left to bill. If this note has nothing left to bill, Beelocity refuses.
4. Each invoice line points back at its order line and at its delivery line.
5. You land on the new draft invoice. It is dated today.
6. It falls due on the order’s payment terms, or else on the client’s own terms, or else 30 days later.
7. Check the invoice, and move it to Sent after you give it to the client. Beelocity does not send it for you.

To bill the whole of what remains on an order without looking at its deliveries, use Create invoice on the sales order page instead. That button does not look at returns either. So if goods have come back, bill from the delivery note.

Cancellation

To cancel a note, click the step that it is on and choose Cancelled. You can do this from any status, unless a return stops you (see below):

• Before shipment (Draft, Picking or Packed), cancelling only closes the note. Nothing has moved, so there is nothing to undo.
• After shipment (Shipped or Delivered), cancelling reverses the shipment. The goods go back into the warehouse’s stock, and Beelocity records an incoming stock movement dated on the day that you cancel. The order’s shipped quantities and its status go back too, so you can ship the goods on a new delivery note. But an order that you already closed stays closed. The same goes for a line that you closed short. The shipped quantity comes off that line, but nothing is owed again, and the order that the line finished stays Completed.

While an invoice bills the note, you cannot cancel it. Otherwise the client would still owe for goods that are back on your shelf. The message names the invoice. Cancel the invoice while it is a draft, or void it while nothing is paid. Then cancel the note. If the client has already paid, take the goods back with a sales return instead. Its credit note corrects what the client owes.

After goods have come back on a sales return, you can no longer cancel the note. The returned goods are already back in stock and off the order’s shipped quantities, so a cancel would put them back a second time. A message names the return. Anything else that the client sends back goes on another return.

While a return against the note is still a Draft, Beelocity refuses the cancellation too. First cancel that return, because a draft has moved nothing. Then cancel the delivery note.

A cancelled note no longer offers Create return. Beelocity also refuses to receive any return against it, because its goods are already back.

Use a cancellation after shipment to correct a mistake, such as a wrong quantity or a wrong shipment. If a client really sends goods back, do not cancel. Record a sales return instead. A return can take back part of the goods, it records their condition (Good or Damaged), and it leaves the delivery intact. If you already billed the goods, the return then builds a credit note that corrects what the client owes.

Receiving Goods Back (Create Return)

After a note reaches Shipped or Delivered, More actions also offers Create return. It writes a draft sales return that holds each delivery line’s remaining returnable quantity. You then lower it to what the client really sent back. The note’s Returns tab lists every return against it.

Tracking Fulfillment

The delivery notes list shows the status of each shipment, with its sales order, client, warehouse and carrier. The search box finds a note by its number, its carrier or its tracking number. It does not find a client’s name. To narrow the list, use the filter button beside the box. It filters by Status, Client, Warehouse, Sales order or a Delivery date range (Working with lists).

To see all the details of a note, click its number to open its page. Its lines sit beside the details.

Important Notes

• Each delivery note belongs to a sales order, and its client is always the order’s client. Its warehouse can differ from the order’s.
• Check the lines before you ship, because shipping moves stock at once and you cannot change the lines after Draft. To undo a shipment, cancel the note.
• You can create several delivery notes for one sales order, for a partial or a split shipment.
• The order’s status updates by itself from the quantities shipped across all its delivery notes.