The document in the box
The packing slip is the shipment's manifest — prices omitted deliberately, quantities front and centre, because its reader is checking a box's contents.
What it must contain
- Order/invoice reference
- Ship-to address
- Items and quantities (no prices)
- Number of packages
- Checked-by line
- Returns instructions
Printed from the sale in SeroBooks alongside the invoice — same document, different job.
The mistakes that cost money
Prices on a packing slip. The slip travels with the goods and is frequently seen by people who should not know your pricing — the customer's warehouse staff, a courier, sometimes the end customer on a drop-ship. Quantities and descriptions, no money.
The second is not listing what is missing. A slip that silently omits a short-shipped line makes the shortfall look like a delivery error rather than a known backorder, and the dispute starts at the wrong end.
When a template stops being enough
A packing slip has to agree with what physically went in the box, which means it has to be produced from the same record the picker worked from. Typed separately, it becomes a second version of the truth — and when it disagrees with the invoice, the customer is right by default.
For serialized goods this matters more: the slip should carry the exact units shipped, because that is what a warranty claim will be looked up by later.
Templates are training wheels. The software is the bicycle.
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