The packing list template. The sheet that says what is inside which package.
Whoever is looking for a packing list template is preparing a shipment, not a suitcase. They need the sheet, and the four details that make it a document.
Here is the blank sheet, in four files: Italian and English, Excel and PDF. The Excel file adds up packages and weights on its own, the PDF is printed and attached. They are direct links, with no form in front and no email to leave.
Four details make it a document. The Turin Chamber of Commerce, which calls it a «distinta di carico», writes that it must state the number of the commercial invoice it refers to, the number and type of packages, the description of the goods contained in each package and the details of any container. The rest are useful fields, not mandatory ones.
The packing list and the DDT aren't the same sheet. The Italian transport document comes from a tax rule, Presidential Decree 472/1996, and serves deferred invoicing. The packing list serves whoever loads, checks and unloads, and has no form prescribed anywhere.
This piece is part of the guide to export operations for the small food producer and provides the object. Who prepares which document and in what order is on the twin page: the folder of shipping documents, and who does what.
The template, to download
Four files, the same fields in all four. The Excel file is the working copy, because whoever fills in a packing list wants the number of packages and the two weights to add up on their own instead of recounting them. The PDF is the copy that is printed and attached to the package.
| File | When you need it | Link |
|---|---|---|
| ItalianExcel, with totals | The internal copy. Fourteen package rows, and at the bottom packages, net weight and gross weight that add up on their own. |
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| EnglishExcel, with totals | Same fields, same order. It is the version that travels, because whoever clears customs on the other side reads it. |
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| ItalianPDF, to print | To fill in by hand in the warehouse while counting, or to circulate it without risking changes. |
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| EnglishPDF, to attach | The copy attached to the shipment when the numbers are closed and must not change again. |
The files are free. There is no form in front of them, we don't ask for an address and we receive no notification when someone downloads them. If you need them with your logo, open the file and add it: it is an ordinary document, and it doesn't copy any courier's form.
The four details that make it a document
The Turin Chamber of Commerce lists the packing list among the documents commonly used in commercial transactions abroad, and sets out its content in a single line. It is the only authoritative list in circulation, and it comes to four things:
«Issued by the seller, it must state: the number of the commercial invoice the packing list refers to; the number and type of packages; the description of the goods contained in each package; the details of any container in which the goods are loaded.»
The first of the four is the one most often missing. A packing list without the invoice number isn't linked to anything: whoever receives it has a list of packages that could belong to any shipment, and the first thing they do is write an email to ask which one.
The third is the one that costs most when it is approximate. It isn't enough to write how much goods leave in total: you need to know what is inside each package, because a customs check opens a package, not the whole pallet.
The fields, one by one
Four are the mandatory details above. The others serve whoever loads, insures and unloads, and are filled in only once because they almost never change for a given product.
| Field | What goes in | Why it is needed |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice numbermandatory | The exact number of the commercial invoice the packing list refers to. |
It is the only detail that links the two documents. Without it, the sheet can't be verified. |
| Number and type of packagesmandatory | How many packages, and what kind: cartons, crates, drums. |
It is the first count made at unloading, before anything is opened. |
| Description per packagemandatory | What each package contains, with the same description used on the invoice. |
A check opens a package, not the load. If that package doesn't match, everything stops. |
| Container detailsmandatory if there is one | Container prefix and number, and the seal number if there is one. |
It links the document to the physical means the goods are travelling in. |
| Customs code (HS)useful | At least the first six digits, identical to those written on the invoice. |
A different code between the two documents changes the duty and opens an inspection. |
| Net and gross weightuseful | Separate, per line and in total, with the unit of measure written. |
Weight is scanned along the way, and a discrepancy is paid for in transport. |
| Batchuseful, and for food almost always | The batch number of the goods contained in each package. |
It is the field that makes a shipment traceable downstream without reopening the warehouse. |
Packing list and DDT: the difference
They are two different sheets born from two different needs, and confusing them leads to sending one instead of the other. The Italian transport document is provided for by Presidential Decree 472/1996, and the Turin Chamber of Commerce gives two precise purposes for it: allowing deferred invoicing and allowing the presumptions of sale and purchase to be rebutted. It must be issued before transport begins, by the seller, and must contain the date of the transaction, the details of seller, buyer and carrier, and the description of the nature, quality and quantity of the goods.
The packing list has none of this. No rule requires it, no rule sets its form, and it serves no tax purpose: it describes how the load is made up, package by package, for whoever has to check or unload it. A well-made DDT says how much goods left; a packing list says which box they are in.
| DDT | Packing list | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it comes from | Presidential Decree 472/1996. It has written rules. |
Commercial practice. No rule requires it. |
| What it is for | Deferred invoicing and proof against the presumptions of sale and purchase. |
Letting whoever checks and unloads know what is in each package. |
| The detail | Nature, quality and quantity of the goods sold, in figures. |
One line per package, with weights, dimensions and batch. |
| Who reads it | Whoever keeps the accounts, on both sides. |
The carrier, customs, the receiving warehouse. |
The same source writes that any other document (delivery note, consignment note, bill of lading) is treated as equivalent to the DDT, provided it contains the essential details. A packing list on its own doesn't contain all of them: keeping them separate costs ten minutes and removes a doubt.
The DDT has tax effects, and on those this page stops: it describes what the source says and gives no guidance. Deferred invoicing, presumptions of sale and proof of exit are matters to review with whoever keeps your accounts, before the first shipment and not after.
The description is the field that holds up loads
Of all the fields, the one that causes hold-ups is the description of the goods, and the reason is that it looks the most harmless. FedEx says so plainly in its guide to filling in shipping documents: «inaccurate or vague descriptions of goods are one of the most common reasons for customs delays».
The recommendation that follows is even more practical, and it is worth exactly what it costs to put into practice: use consistent, detailed descriptions across all the shipping documents. Not a better description on each sheet: the same one, copied.
The practical rule that comes out of it is a single line of work. The description, customs code, origin and weights are written only once, in one place, and copied from there onto invoice, packing list, proof of origin and health certificate. The sheet that compares invoice and packing list is there to check that it really happened.
Who prepares it, and from what data
The seller prepares it, as the Chamber of Commerce writes, and in practice it is filled in by whoever runs the warehouse, because they are the only one who knows packages, weights and batches. The freight forwarder works on the data they receive: if it arrives incomplete they stop and ask, and that round of emails becomes the delay later blamed on customs.
The data doesn't originate in the warehouse, though. Format, units per carton, cartons per pallet, net and gross weight of the carton are already written in the product technical sheet, and that is the source. When the packing list is filled in by reading the sheet instead of recounting, the two documents can't diverge.
When filling it in by hand stops holding up
With two shipments a year and three products, the packing list takes twenty minutes and no system does it better than an attentive person. The point where it breaks is another: when shipments become weekly, products fifteen and every load mixes different batches, copying the same data by hand onto four documents stops being a task and becomes a source of errors.
That is when the data should be taken out of the files and put where the documents are formed from the same base, so that a description corrected once is corrected everywhere. With a constraint that matters more than the technology, written in Ethics: the system prepares and flags, but no document goes out without a person having read and approved it. On a packing list that signature is substance, because whoever signs it declares what is inside the packages.
This page gives you the blank sheet. If you fill it in and send it to us together with the invoice before the shipment leaves, we tell you which fields don't match between the two and which descriptions, as written, would get the load held up.
A person replies, the same one who then builds the systems, within 24 hours, with a reading of the situation and not with a quote. You write from here, and one line is enough.
Questions and answers
Where can I download a packing list template for export?
On this page, in four free files: Italian Excel, English Excel, Italian PDF and English PDF. They are direct links: there is no form to fill in first and no email to leave.
The Excel file adds up packages, net weight and gross weight on its own. The PDF is printed and attached. The files are produced by us and don't copy any courier's form.
What should a packing list contain?
Four details. The Turin Chamber of Commerce, which calls it a distinta di carico, writes that it must state the number of the commercial invoice it refers to, the number and type of packages, the description of the goods contained in each package and the details of any container.
The rest are useful, non-mandatory fields: customs code, origin, net and gross weight, dimensions and batch. For a food shipment the batch always pays, because it is the field that makes it traceable downstream.
What is the difference between a packing list and a DDT?
They come from two different needs. The DDT is provided for by Presidential Decree 472/1996 and serves two tax purposes: allowing deferred invoicing and rebutting the presumptions of sale and purchase. It must be issued before transport begins and carries the date, the details of seller, buyer and carrier, and the nature, quality and quantity of the goods.
The packing list isn't required by any rule, has no prescribed form and has no tax effects: it says what is inside which package. On the tax effects of the DDT, take the point to your accountant.
Is the packing list mandatory for a non-EU shipment?
No rule requires a document by that name, and in fact there is no official template: the Turin Chamber of Commerce lists it among the documents commonly used, not among the prescribed ones.
In practice it is almost always requested. Without it, a check can't verify a single package without opening the whole load, and there is at least one local health authority that wants it among the attachments to the application for a health certificate. The final list is decided by the country of arrival.
Is it better to fill in the packing list in Excel or Word?
In Excel. A packing list is made almost entirely of numbers that have to add up, and the package count and the two weights add up on their own instead of being recounted by hand: that is where mistakes arise when the load is large.
The buyer and the carrier get the PDF, because it arrives exactly as it was closed. The rule that matters most is another: the description of the goods must be identical to the one on the invoice, word for word.
Notes on sources
- Turin Chamber of Commerce, documents in commercial transactions abroad: the entry distinta di carico and the four details it must state. The quotation in the text is our translation from that page.
- Turin Chamber of Commerce, the transport document (DDT): Presidential Decree 472/1996, the two purposes of the document, the details it must contain and the equivalence of any other document that contains them.
- FedEx Italy, how to fill in international shipping documents: inaccurate or vague descriptions among the most common reasons for customs delays, and the recommendation to use consistent descriptions across all documents. It is a partisan source, a courier talking about its own work, and it counts for exactly that: it says what it sees getting held up. The quotation in the text is our translation.
- The four downloadable files are produced by us. They don't reproduce the form of any courier, chamber of commerce or public body, and they don't reuse the text of any private standard: they collect the same data in our own words, in our own form.
- This page doesn't publish a list of fields «mandatory by law» beyond the four cited, because no rule prescribes the content of a packing list. The other fields are presented for what they are: useful to whoever loads, checks and unloads.
- The tax effects of the transport document (deferred invoicing, presumptions of sale and purchase) are described by reporting what the source says. This page gives no tax guidance: take the point to your own accountant.
The warehouse counts the packages. Customs reads the documents.
Between the two steps there is only one thing not to break, and that is that the goods described are the same. With Itria we start from the outside to build custom digital systems for exporters. For you that translates into more requests, fewer losses and less manual work. Write us a line about what weighs on you. We take the first step: what a buyer sees when they look you up, and what we found there. Even if we don't end up working together.