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Delivery challan — what it is and how to fill it

A delivery challan travels with the goods. It tells the driver, the gatekeeper and the person receiving exactly what is in the vehicle, so the cartons can be counted on arrival and signed for. It is not a bill: it carries quantities, and usually no prices.

When goods need a challan

• A distributor sends stock to a shop and bills it later, or bills many deliveries on one invoice.
• A factory sends goods to its own godown or a branch; nothing is sold, so there is no invoice.
• Goods go out for a job (a contractor's material, a repair workshop's parts) and the bill follows.
• Goods go on approval or for an exhibition and may come back.

What it must show

• Your business name, address and phone; challan number in sequence and the date.
• Deliver to: the receiving party, address and the phone of the person who will sign.
• Vehicle number and the driver's name and phone.
• Each item on its own line: description, packing (carton, bag, drum), number of packs and the total quantity or weight.
• Reference: the order number, or the invoice number if it was already made.
• Received in good condition line with space for the receiver's name, signature, date and time.

A filled sample

Challan no. 2304 of 4 November; against order no. 88 of Madina Kiryana Store, Sialkot; vehicle LES-4471, driver Ramzan. Thirty packs in all: write the total number of packs at the bottom, because that is what the receiver counts first.

Challan and invoice: two papers, two jobs

The challan proves what was delivered; the invoice says what is owed. Many businesses make the challan when the vehicle leaves and the invoice the same evening, quoting the challan number on it. A distributor who delivers three times a week to one shop can send three challans and one invoice at the end of the week. If the invoice is made first, the challan simply quotes its number. How to make an invoice covers the billing side.

Copies

Three is usual: one stays with you when the goods leave, one goes with the goods and comes back signed, one stays with the receiver. The signed copy is what settles "we never got the sugar". Keep it with the invoice.

Shortages and damage

The receiver writes the shortage or the damaged packs on the challan before signing ("8 cartons oil received, 1 leaking"). Both sides keep that note, and the invoice or a credit note is corrected from it. A challan signed clean and a complaint a week later is the dispute you want to avoid.

Prices on a challan?

Usually not, because the driver and the gate do not need them and the receiver may not be the buyer. Where a tax rule requires values on goods in transit, follow it; check with FBR or your adviser for what applies to your goods and your province.

Make one now

Download the free delivery challan format in Word, Excel or PDF and fill it, or make the invoice with the free invoice generator. In the InvoiceMate app a distributor's salesman loads the van, bills each shop from the phone and the office sees what went out and what came back; see the distribution page.