A packing slip template is not just a form with a logo on it. It is the layout that decides whether the person closing the box can confirm the contents at a glance, and whether the recipient can match the parcel to their order without hunting for an invoice. Getting the field order right takes ten minutes and saves that time on every single parcel afterwards.
Every field a packing slip template needs
Three groups of information do the work. Order identity tells the recipient which purchase this is. Ship-to identity tells the carrier and the customer where it went. Line items tell everyone what should be in the box. Everything else is a convenience.
| Field | Required? | Why it earns its place |
|---|---|---|
| Order number | Yes | The single reference that ties the parcel to a purchase record and to any support conversation. |
| Order date | Recommended | Disambiguates repeat customers who order the same SKU every month. |
| Ship-to name and address | Yes | Lets anyone confirm the parcel was addressed correctly before it is sealed. |
| SKU | Yes | The unambiguous product code. Names change; SKUs should not. |
| Product name | Recommended | Non-technical readers — and customs officers — do not want to decode SKUs. |
| Quantity | Yes | The line the packer actually ticks off, and the fastest route to spotting a short shipment. |
| Unit of measure or variant | Optional | Worth adding when you sell sizes, colours, or multi-packs of the same SKU. |
| Bin or location | Optional | Speeds up picking when the same slip doubles as a work document. |
| Package count | Optional | Essential when one order ships in three boxes — otherwise slip 2 of 3 looks like a shortage. |
| Order note | Optional | Gift messages and handling instructions, printed only when present. |
| Return instructions | Optional | Cheaper than a support ticket, and it keeps the slip useful after delivery. |
| Price, discount, tax | No | Deliberately omitted. That is the invoice’s job. |
Download the free packing slip template
The download is a plain UTF-8 CSV with every required and recommended field already named, plus three example rows so you can see how one order with several products is represented. Open it in Excel, Numbers, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice, then replace the sample rows.
15 columns · order, ship-to, line item, bin, and note fields · no real customer data
How to fill the template without creating duplicate work
- Keep one row per line item, never one row per order. An order with three products occupies three rows that share the same order number.
- Repeat the order number, customer name, and address on every row of that order. Blank continuation cells are the single most common reason a mail-merge produces half-empty slips.
- Write addresses as separate columns rather than one merged blob, so the ship-to block can be repositioned later without re-parsing a comma-separated string.
- Store the country as a two-letter code. It keeps the file predictable for carriers and for any tool that reads it later.
- Export as UTF-8 so accented names and em dashes survive the round trip through your spreadsheet.
Where a packing slip template stops working
A spreadsheet is the right tool for reading field definitions and printing five slips. It becomes the wrong tool the moment the batch matters. Grouping rows by order, repeating address blocks, keeping a running item count, and preventing a stale row from printing on last week’s slip are all manual operations in Excel — and each one is a place where a parcel goes out with the wrong documents.
The practical break-even is around twenty orders in a single packing session. Below that, a template is perfectly fine. Above it, the work shifts from designing the slip to managing the spreadsheet, which is what the bulk packing slip generator exists to remove: upload the same CSV structure, confirm three column mappings, and get one slip per order plus a consolidated pick list for the walk around the shelves.
Print settings that avoid a wasted test run
- Set the browser scale to 100% and disable “fit to page” — automatic scaling is what clips the last line item.
- Turn off headers and footers so the browser does not add a URL and a page number to the slip.
- For 4 × 6 labels, choose the label size in the print dialog before printing, and keep a 4 mm safe margin.
- Print one slip, fold it, and put it in the actual box before printing the batch.
Mistakes that make a template look unprofessional
Printing prices by accident, letting the address block drift between pages, mixing up the order number and the carrier tracking number, and leaving sample data in the header are the four that show up most often. The cheapest insurance is a single rule: the packer ticks the quantity column on the printed slip and nothing else.
If the wording on the slip itself is uncertain, the companion guide on what a packing slip is covers the definition, the audience, and how it differs from an invoice or a picking list. Platform-specific exports have their own quirks, covered in the Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, and Whatnot CSV guides.