Order Confirmation Letter

What is an Order Confirmation Letter?

An order confirmation letter is the seller's written acknowledgement of what has been ordered: the items, the quantities, the price, the terms and the date it will arrive. It matters because it is the last cheap moment to catch a mistake. A wrong quantity spotted on a confirmation costs an email; the same error spotted on a delivery note costs a return, a credit note and a customer who now checks everything you send.

Manufacturers and wholesalers send one against every purchase order received. Service businesses send one to confirm a booked engagement, its dates and its scope. Printers confirm artwork specification, stock and finish, because those are the three things customers later say they never approved. Online sellers issue them automatically. Freight forwarders and equipment suppliers use them to lock down the details that determine cost: incoterms, delivery point, packaging, and who is responsible for clearing customs. In every case the confirmation is written for the person who will check it against their own paperwork.

Whether a confirmation counts as acceptance of the buyer's order or as a fresh counter-offer is a genuine legal question with different answers in different places. Sales of goods in the United States are affected by the Uniform Commercial Code's rules on additional and differing terms; English common law approaches the same problem through the last-shot doctrine; the CISG governs many cross-border sales unless the parties exclude it; India applies its own contract and sale of goods legislation. Consumer confirmations in the EU and UK also carry mandatory information duties. Take the point to an adviser where the sums justify it.

A confirmation is not an invoice. It does not demand payment, it usually carries no tax number and it is not the document your customer's finance team will pay against, so sending one instead of an invoice delays your own cash. It is not a delivery guarantee either — a stated date is a plan, and any liability for missing it comes from the contract, not from the confirmation. And where your terms and the buyer's terms conflict, the confirmation does not silently resolve that conflict in your favour.

What to put in an Order Confirmation Letter

These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.

How to write an Order Confirmation Letter

1. Repeat the order back line by line

   Do not summarise. Reproduce every line with the buyer's own part number alongside yours, the quantity, the unit of measure and the unit price. Buyers check confirmations by laying them next to their purchase order, so anything you condense they cannot verify. Where a substitution has been made because an item is discontinued, put it on its own line and flag it rather than swapping it in silently.

2. State the total including tax, carriage and currency

   Give the net total, the tax treatment, the carriage charge and the currency in full — ‘USD 4,180.00’, not ‘4,180’. Cross-border orders go wrong on all three: a buyer expecting a delivered price receives an ex-works one, or budgets in the wrong currency. If tax status depends on something the buyer must supply, such as a registration number or an exemption certificate, say so here rather than at invoicing.

3. Give a date you can actually hit

   Distinguish dispatch from delivery, and say which one your date refers to. Build in the lead time you really have, not the one the customer wanted, because a confirmation that repeats an optimistic request converts your problem into a broken promise. If part of the order ships later, split the lines and confirm two dates. A realistic date confirmed now costs far less than an apology in three weeks.

4. Name the terms and where to read them

   Name the terms governing the order and give the buyer a way to read them: a reference number, a URL, or an enclosure. If your terms differ from those printed on the buyer's purchase order, say which you are accepting the order on and do it visibly. Burying a contradiction in small print does not make it go away; it just makes the eventual argument worse.

5. Name a person to contact about changes

   Give a name, a direct line and an internal reference, and state the point after which changes cannot be made without cost — the day the order enters production or picking. Buyers who know the cut-off tend to respect it. Buyers who do not will call on the day of dispatch asking for a change that is now expensive, and treat the refusal as unreasonable.

Common mistakes

• Confirming a price nobody checked against current cost or stock, which either has to be withdrawn or is honoured at a loss on every unit.
• Silently accepting a term from the buyer's purchase order that contradicts your own conditions, leaving you bound to a liability or payment term you never priced for.
• Quoting a delivery date without saying whether it is dispatch or arrival, so the customer plans installation for a day the goods are still on a lorry.
• Leaving currency or tax treatment ambiguous on a cross-border order, which produces an invoice dispute and a delayed payment for an amount neither side disputes in substance.
• Not sending a confirmation at all, so the customer chases for reassurance, and your first written record of the order is the invoice.

Frequently asked questions

This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.

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