Proforma Invoice Checklist

Buyers, sellers, traders, finance teams, and operations teams · Before deposit, PO approval, production release, or shipment planning

Risk warnings

Do not pay or release production from a proforma until entity details, bank details, commercial scope, payment triggers, and shipment documents reconcile.

Match supplier and customer legal names, addresses, tax or company numbers, and trading names against the PO, contract, and onboarding records.
Confirm the proforma number, issue date, validity date, currency, payment terms, and contact authority before treating it as an approved commercial document.
Verify beneficiary name, bank name, bank country, account number or IBAN, SWIFT/BIC, intermediary bank details, and bank-fee responsibility match the approved counterparty.
Use out-of-band callback verification for new bank details, bank-detail changes, urgent payment pressure, or instructions that differ from previous documents.

Check product description, SKU, specification, grade, pack size, quantity, unit price, total price, discounts, tooling, samples, and other line charges against the quote and PO.
Record the Incoterm, named place, Incoterms version, freight scope, insurance scope, local charges, destination charges, and what is explicitly included or excluded.
Confirm production lead time, shipment window, ETD and ETA assumptions, booking responsibility, partial-shipment rules, and whether dates start after deposit, artwork approval, or sample approval.
Set deposit and balance split, release trigger, payment milestone, inspection trigger, shipment trigger, document trigger, and what evidence must exist before each payment.

Reconcile the proforma against expected commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading or transport document instructions, certificates, and inspection report wording.
Check certificates, labels, artwork, private-label approval, sample approval, inspection standard, and regulated-product documents before production or payment release.
Validate HS code, country of origin, shelf life, date coding, batch or lot rules, storage requirements, and regulated-product details where relevant.
Reject, correct, or escalate the proforma before payment if entity data, bank details, Incoterm scope, product data, quantities, prices, approval evidence, shipment assumptions, or document requirements are unclear.