CONTRACTOR GLOSSARY · MATERIALS & PURCHASING

What is a Delivery ticket?

A delivery ticket is the supply house's record of a jobsite drop — what was delivered, to which job, and who signed for it.

When the supply house truck drops material at the job, the driver gets a signature on the delivery ticket. That signature does real work: it's the house's proof of delivery and your acceptance of what's listed — quantity and condition. A shortage discovered after a clean signature is a hard argument to win, so whoever signs should actually count, and any damage or shortage gets noted on the ticket before the pen moves.

Material dropped on a busy site has a way of walking — absorbed by other trades, buried by the GC's laydown shuffle, or just rained on. The ticket plus a same-day photo of the pile is cheap insurance, and it keeps the field copy from dying in a gang box. Like the counter ticket, a delivery ticket that never reaches the office is a material cost that never gets billed.

Delivery tickets also carry dates that matter later: they're contemporaneous proof of when you furnished material to a project, which is exactly the kind of record payment and lien paperwork leans on.

Common questions

What should you check before signing a delivery ticket?

Count the pieces against the ticket, eyeball condition, and confirm it's your material and your job. Note any shortage or damage on the ticket itself before signing — that annotation is what preserves the claim.

What's the difference between a delivery ticket and a packing slip?

The packing slip lists a shipment's contents; the delivery ticket documents the delivery event — job address, date, and a signature accepting it. A jobsite drop often comes with both.

RevnuPros tracks the thing, not just the word

Permits to sign-off, T&M tags to signature, materials to billed through, retainage to released — built for subcontractors. Browse the full contractor glossary or the Massachusetts permit guide.

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