What is a proforma invoice in a sock order?

1. A proforma invoice is not a quotation

Two documents reach a buyer before the goods do, and they do different jobs. A quotation is the costing we send against your brief: a reference range, the trade term it is quoted on, and the minimum order quantity. It is an invitation to proceed — it is not a binding offer.

The proforma invoice is what comes after the specification is confirmed. It states price, trade term, quantity, lead time and payment, and what it states governs the order. Every range printed on this site is an indication; the proforma invoice is where an indication stops being one.

That table is not a house convention invented for this page. Both definitions are entries in our own glossary of trade terms, and they are written the way the export desk uses them when it prices a brief.

Basis: the definitions of quotation and proforma invoice as published in our own glossary, and the trade-term section of our published wholesale terms.

2. The eight lines a usable one carries

A proforma invoice that is missing any of these is not short — it is unreadable, because the missing line is the one an argument will be about later. These are the eight our own document carries.

The last line is the one buyers skip and later wish they had not. The export and contracting entity behind this site is QS Knitting Co.,Ltd, at Baoshan District, Shanghai; the floor that produces the socks is Zhuji Qingsheng Knitting Co.,Ltd., in Datang, Zhuji, Zhejiang. The name on your proforma invoice is the first of those two, and our glossary says so in the entry for each company.

Basis: the field list is the one our own proforma invoice carries; the entity split is stated in our glossary entries for both companies and in the footer of every page on this site.

3. What binding actually covers

Binding is narrower than buyers expect and more useful than it sounds. A proforma invoice binds on one specification: a needle count, a composition, a colour count, a packing format, a quantity and a size run. Change any one of those and you are not holding a variation of the document, you are holding a document for something else.

That is why the specification has to be confirmed before the invoice is issued, and why the samples matter to the paperwork. A signed sample on file is what makes a line on the invoice checkable at the other end: bulk runs to the sample the buyer approved, and that signed sample is the binding reference.

Binding also has a clock on it. A quotation holds its range for a validity window, and past that window we re-cost rather than honour the old figure quietly — yarn and freight move, and a supplier who pretends they do not is either eating the difference or planning to make it up on the specification. The proforma invoice carries its own validity dates, so the clock is on the document instead of in somebody's memory.

Basis: our published statements on what a proforma invoice governs, on quotation validity, and on the signed sample as the reference a bulk run is measured against.

4. The three-letter code only means one thing when its year is named

EXW, FOB, DAP and DDP are Incoterms® 2020 codes. The rulebook is revised, and a three-letter code carries its standard meaning only inside the year edition named on the document — which is why the year belongs next to the code and not in the covering note.

The four terms we quote, in the words our own glossary uses:

• EXW — we hand over the goods at the factory door and you carry everything from there.
• FOB — we deliver the goods onto the vessel at the Chinese port and you carry the main carriage. For a first order it is the reference term most buyers compare against.
• DAP — we carry the goods to your named destination, with import duty and taxes unpaid and for your account.
• DDP — we carry the goods to your destination with duty and taxes paid. It shifts the most responsibility to the seller; whether it is workable depends on your import setup.

The term is not a preference, it is a market variable. We quote the best one for your market and confirm it on the quotation; US-bound orders go DDP or DAP with the duty treatment confirmed on the quotation, and EU-bound orders go DAP or DDP with the value stated on the quotation. Two of those four sentences contain the word duty — that is not an accident, and it is the reason the duty line is one of the eight above.

Basis: the four trade-term definitions as published in our glossary, and the trade-term, duty and quote-validity section of our published wholesale terms.

5. The production clock starts twice

Buyers write "20–30 days" into a plan and then wonder why the date slips. The figure is bulk production, and it starts when two things have both happened: we receive the deposit, and you approve the sample. Both, not either.

A deposit alone does not start it, because the sample is not approved yet. An approved sample alone does not start it, because the slot is not booked. Between those two stamps sits the sampling round, which is 3–5 days after the brief and artwork are confirmed — and that is why a project that felt like a four-week order is a six-week one.

The minimum itself is 1,000 pairs per style. It is a starting point, not a fixed floor, and one style can split across sizes — the count that matters is pairs per style, not per size. An order below the minimum is settled per enquiry, because whether it is workable depends on the construction; where it is not, the sample route is the standing alternative.

Basis: the lead-time, minimum-order and quantity-band sections of our published wholesale terms, and the deposit entry in our glossary, which names both conditions for the bulk clock.

6. Lead time is quoted per stage, with each start point named

"Lead time" on its own is not a number, it is a word waiting for a start point. We quote it per stage, and each stage names where its clock begins.

All five are typical figures for planning and not guarantees; transit depends on destination. The binding lead time is the one stated on your proforma invoice, which is the whole reason that document exists.

Basis: the lead-time and freight sections of our published wholesale terms, repeated here with the start points that section names.

7. The sample the invoice points at is the one you signed

Sampling is charged per style rather than per piece, quoted with your quotation, and you cover the courier freight. That fee is not a deposit on goodwill — it buys a physical object that becomes the reference for everything after it, and a signed copy of that object stays on file against your order number.

Which is why the inspection stage belongs in the paperwork rather than in an email. The final check before goods ship is one you may attend in person, by live video, or through your own third-party inspector — SGS, BV, TUV or another firm you name. If you want that check written into the payment terms, this is the moment to say so, while the proforma invoice is still a draft.

And if the bulk run arrives and does not match the sample you signed: raise it in writing within 30 days of arrival with your order number and photographs or an inspector's report. A repair or remake comes first, and where the fault is ours we carry the cost of putting it right. The sample on file is what that conversation is measured against — without it there is nothing to measure.

Basis: the sampling, sampling-fee, pre-shipment inspection and returns entries in our glossary, and the returns and claims section of our published wholesale terms.

8. Six lines to read before you sign one

Basis: the six lines are the eight fields above, collapsed to the ones a buyer can check without the factory side of the table.