The quick answer
Open the Pending Fulfillment transfer order and click Fulfill. On the Item Fulfillment, check the date and posting period, set Status to Shipped, confirm every line is selected at its full quantity, and click Save. On the saved fulfillment, click the print icon beside Actions and choose Print, or Print Packing Slip where your account labels it that way. The packing slip opens as a PDF. Check Order #, Ship To, Ship Date, Ship Via and the Ordered and Shipped quantities.
This example ships transfer order TO-3318 from Denver Central Kitchen to Boulder Retail Store: four bakery items, 60 units in all. The company, location and item names in the screenshots are fictional example data.
Before you start
You need Multi-Location Inventory and Transfer Orders. The transfer order must be approved and eligible for fulfillment, normally Pending Fulfillment, so approve it first if it is Pending Approval. The quantity has to be available or committed at the From Location according to your commitment settings, and the fulfillment date has to fall in a posting period that allows the inventory transaction. Your role needs permission to fulfill transfer orders and to print transactions.
Items and locations that require inventory detail need the bins, lots, serial numbers or inventory status entered on Inventory Detail before the fulfillment will save. The example items do not use any of it. This guide covers a standard transfer order fulfillment. If Pick, Pack and Ship, WMS, Ship Central or a shipping integration is enabled, your account can add stages or different screens. The packing slip layout comes from your account's template, so yours can differ from the one shown.
01 · Check the transfer order
Open TO-3318 and confirm its status is Pending Fulfillment, the From Location is Denver Central Kitchen, the To Location is Boulder Retail Store, and the Fulfill button is there. Scroll down to the Items subtab to see the four lines, committed at the From Location.
02 · Fulfill the order as Shipped
Click Fulfill. NetSuite opens an Item Fulfillment created from the order, with Created From set to Transfer Order #TO-3318 and the Destination Location Boulder Retail Store. Check the Date, which is the fulfillment date and separate from the order date, and the Posting Period where your form shows it.
Set Status to Shipped. The form can open on Picked. Picked and Packed are non-posting warehouse stages used with Pick, Pack and Ship, and Shipped is the one that records the shipment and moves the stock out of the From Location. Choose Shipped only when the goods are actually leaving, which they are here.
On the Items subtab, confirm every line is checked in the Fulfill column and each Quantity equals the quantity on the order. This example ships every line in full. If a line needs bin, lot, serial or status detail, open its Inventory Detail icon first. If your account uses ship via, packages or tracking numbers, review the Shipping and Packages subtabs, and otherwise those fields can stay blank. Then click Save.
03 · Check the saved fulfillment
NetSuite shows the Confirmation band and creates IF-4471. Check that its status is Shipped, that Created From is Transfer Order #TO-3318, and that the four lines show the expected quantities from Denver Central Kitchen. Saving as Shipped reduces the on-hand quantity at the From Location, and the shipped quantity counts as in transit until the destination saves its Item Receipt.
04 · Print the packing slip
Click the print icon beside Actions and choose Print. In the account observed the menu lists Print, Print GL Impact, Print Label and Print Item labels. Other accounts and releases label the first entry Print Packing Slip, and the menu depends on your role, form and features. NetSuite generates the packing slip output, commonly a PDF that opens in a new browser tab, though browser settings can download it instead. Confirm that it is the packing slip you intended, with the title and fields your template uses.
05 · Read the packing slip
On the standard layout, Order # TO-3318 and Order Date come from the transfer order. Ship To is the destination location's address, here Boulder Retail Store. Ship Date 10/20/2026 is the fulfillment date, and Ship Via shows Company Truck, which carries over from the order in this example. Tracking # is blank because no tracking number was entered. A carrier or package integration can fill it in.
Each item line shows Ordered and Shipped. Here all four lines show the full quantity shipped, 12, 24, 18 and 6, and Back Ordered is blank. Inventory Detail stays blank because these items have no bin, lot or serial detail. Columns such as Back Ordered and Inventory Detail appear only when your template includes them. The layout comes from the packing slip template, so your slip can show different fields.
06 · Confirm the transfer order moved on
Close the PDF tab, return to the fulfillment and click the Created From link to open TO-3318. Its status is now Pending Receipt. For a fully shipped order the status normally reads Pending Receipt. A partial shipment can leave fulfillment or receipt work outstanding, so check the status and quantities in your account. The destination location records an Item Receipt as a separate later step, which can also be partial. Printing the packing slip did not record one and did not change any status.
Check the result
- Fulfillment: IF-4471 is saved as Shipped and created from TO-3318.
- Packing slip: Order # is TO-3318, Ship To is the destination address, and Ordered equals Shipped on all four lines.
- Order: TO-3318 is Pending Receipt, with the Item Receipt still to come.
Common questions
Where is the packing slip for a transfer order?
Print it for a specific shipment from the saved Item Fulfillment, not from the transfer order. Click the print icon beside Actions and choose Print, or Print Packing Slip where your account labels it that way. Confirm the output is the packing slip you intended, with the title and fields your template uses, because the menu entries depend on the account and the form. For several fulfillments, a packing slip print queue can be quicker where your account offers one.
Should the fulfillment be Picked, Packed or Shipped?
Choose Shipped when the goods have left the source location and you are recording the shipment. It posts the inventory movement but does not prove carrier pickup or delivery. Picked and Packed are non-posting warehouse stages used with Pick, Pack and Ship, and the form can open on Picked. A slip can also be printed from a Picked or Packed fulfillment where your account allows it, but then it reflects that stage and is not evidence that anything shipped.
Which values on the slip come from the transfer order and which from the fulfillment?
On the standard layout, Order # and Order Date come from the transfer order and Ship To is the destination location's address. Ship Date comes from the fulfillment, and Tracking # stays blank until package or tracking data exists. Ordered comes from the order and Shipped from the fulfillment. The exact source and aggregation depend on the layout or template, so check the fields in your account if you use a custom one.
Does printing the packing slip change the fulfillment or the transfer order?
Ordinary printing is a document-only action. It does not ship, pack or receive anything and does not change the status of the fulfillment or the order. The destination location still records its own Item Receipt for a transfer order. An inventory transfer is a different one-transaction process with no fulfillment and receipt cycle.
Why does my packing slip look different from the one shown?
The columns and layout come from the packing slip template, a standard form or an Advanced PDF template, and from the forms used by the transfer order and the fulfillment. Printing preferences, enabled features and your role also matter. Some templates show the memo or lot numbers under Inventory Detail, and a custom template can include, leave out or source lines differently.
What if I ship less than the ordered quantity?
Partial fulfillment depends on your account. Pick, Pack and Ship settings, transfer cost settings and commitment behavior can decide whether a transfer order line may be partly picked, packed or shipped, so test it in your account first. Where it is allowed, the slip compares the quantity on the fulfillment with the order quantity, and shows Back Ordered if your template includes it. With several fulfillments the shown quantity can be per fulfillment or per order, depending on the template. This example ships all four lines in full.