Writing an order con­fir­ma­tion: what is it and how do I draw one up?

Once a customer has placed an order with you, you should prepare a written order con­fir­ma­tion. This lets the customer know that their order has been accepted and is being processed. All busi­ness­es and self-employed persons who generate income from the dis­patch­ing of good and/or services, needs to be very familiar with the prepa­ra­tion of an order con­fir­ma­tion. This article will outline how such a document should look and what details it should contain, as well as other factors that should be con­sid­ered when writing one.

An order con­fir­ma­tion is usually preceded by a purchase order sent from the buyer to the supplier. To put it simply, an order con­fir­ma­tion is a way of com­mu­ni­cat­ing that an order has been accepted. It is used to ensure the customer that you will deliver the product and/or service under the con­di­tions that had already been set out. This is binding – as soon as the order con­fir­ma­tion has been written and sent to the customer, you are then legally bound to complete the order.

In many cases the supplier is not required to provide their customers with an order con­fir­ma­tion. However it is rec­om­mend­ed that you do create one for each order: this makes it clear for all parties involved exactly what con­di­tions have been agreed. If it so happens that a conflict arise, then this document can easily clarify which party has failed to follow through on their side of the deal. This is es­pe­cial­ly important if it is the case that the details of an order have only been agreed verbally. This way the agreed on con­di­tions are guar­an­teed in writing.

While it is rec­om­mend­ed that you always send an order con­fir­ma­tion, there are certain cases when you un­doubt­ed­ly should. These include:

• If the customer has placed an order without having received a cor­re­spond­ing offer be­fore­hand.

• If you had made a non-binding agreement be­fore­hand, maybe in relation to the price or delivery (e.g. terms like ‘non-binding’, ‘price subject to change’, etc.). In this case you specify and outline the terms of the offer by for­mu­lat­ing a new one or else directly with an order con­fir­ma­tion.

• If there is a change in relation to the details of what was pre­vi­ous­ly ordered (eg. the price, quantity, etc.)

• If you have made the customer several different offers

• If the customer responds to an offer too late, and hasn’t noticed that it has already expired. 

It is es­pe­cial­ly the case with new customers that it is rec­om­mend­ed that you confirm an order in writing. This means any potential mis­un­der­stand­ings can be avoided, and also demon­strates to them that they are dealing with a pro­fes­sion­al sales or­ga­ni­za­tion.

When it comes to the content and structure of an order con­fir­ma­tion, there are several aspects of it that it shares with a purchase order, as both documents are very similar. When an offer is made which the customer accepts, then it is often the case that the written offer is given an audit cer­tifi­cate and then sent again to the customer; as opposed to having write a whole new order con­fir­ma­tion. A preceding written offer also makes for a suitable separate order con­fir­ma­tion template. However there are some dif­fer­ences between the two that you should take note of.  The sim­i­lar­i­ties between an offer and an order con­fir­ma­tion is clear, among other things, in the for­mal­i­ties of the two documents. As with an offer, the logo, name and address of the company, as well as that of the customer (including the contact person) should all appear at the head of the document. The only dif­fer­ence is that next to the date and customer number, instead of the offer number, you write the order con­fir­ma­tion number (or even the invoice number), and not the offer number. The date that the customer made the order should also be included, either in the heading or in the main text of the order con­fir­ma­tion. Bear in mind that if the order has been made as a result of an offer being accepted, you should include a reference to the previous offer – this can be done by including the offer number. This is an ideal way of referring back to the already discussed services and con­di­tions. The biggest dif­fer­ence between an offer and an order con­fir­ma­tion becomes obvious in the main body of the document. When con­firm­ing an order, there is ab­solute­ly no need to use any marketing tech­niques; at this stage the customer is convinced of your business’ ca­pa­bil­i­ties and trusts you enough to make an order. Thus the size of the text is seriously decreased. Fur­ther­more the content of the document should be short, precise, and for­mu­lat­ed without the use of technical language. Often you thank the customer for placing the order, followed by the listing of the agreed on products and/or services, as well as relevant in­for­ma­tion like de­scrip­tion, quantity, price, etc. In general, you should make sure that your order con­fir­ma­tion contains the following in­for­ma­tion (assuming that they are relevant to the order):

• The offer, customer, and con­fir­ma­tion/invoice number
• De­scrip­tion and name of the goods and/or services
• Quantity and price of the goods and/or services
• In­for­ma­tion on the delivery and/or the execution of the service
• Payment and delivery con­di­tions
• Packaging and postage costs
• Details on pro­pri­etary rights, rights of use, and delivery location
• Reference to the general terms and con­di­tions, and the area of ju­ris­dic­tion

In our digital guide you can find a free order con­fir­ma­tion template, which you can per­son­al­ize and edit free of charge. This design will save you from having to work on for­mat­ting and also offers different sug­ges­tions when it comes to for­mu­lat­ing the main body of the text. The template is suitable for Microsoft Excel and Word.

Another issue of im­por­tance is the time period in which you send the order con­fir­ma­tion to the customer. Once the customer has confirmed the purchase, the order con­fir­ma­tion should be prepared as quickly as possible. Ideally it should be dis­patched within the same working day. It should take no longer than three days until the con­fir­ma­tion has been received by the customer. But bear in mind that the earlier this happens, the more pro­fes­sion­al your business will appear.

On occasion it is the case that staff shortages or short­com­ings may lead to the agreed method of delivery, or certain service, or the envisaged delivery period, no longer being possible. Even if this seems highly unlikely, it may still be possible that an order con­fir­ma­tion differs from an offer pre­vi­ous­ly submitted to the customer. This signals a can­cel­la­tion of the contract that had been offered pre­vi­ous­ly.

Given that order con­fir­ma­tions are seen as sales documents, it is required of you to retain them for a certain amount of time. The IRS rec­om­mends that you hold onto such documents for a minimum of 7 years.

So when it comes to con­firm­ing an order there are certainly quite a few things that you need to be aware of. Of most im­por­tance is that there are no details missing from the document that could be of im­por­tance to you or the consumer. Make sure that every­thing is correct, precise and in the right order. This then means that if a conflict arises between you and the customer relating to the agreed on products/services, you can refer back to the in­for­ma­tion outlined in the order con­fir­ma­tion as this then acts as proof of the original agreement.

Please note the legal dis­claimer relating to this article.