Proforma Invoice
形式发票
In short
A proforma invoice is the supplier's formal quotation and, in most Chinese trade, the document you pay against. It carries the company name, bank details, product specification, quantity, unit price, Incoterm and lead time. Because it is the document closest to the money, it is the single most valuable thing to check before a deposit leaves your account.
What it proves
- What the supplier says it is selling, at what price and on what terms
- The payee name and bank account the supplier wants you to use
- Whether the commercial terms are internally consistent
What it does not prove
- That the payee is the same legal entity that will produce the goods
- That the specification is achievable at that price
- That the bank account has not been substituted by a third party
A proforma invoice is where fraud becomes executable. Almost every payment disaster in Chinese sourcing passes through one of four checks that nobody ran.
Name match. The payee on the invoice, the name on the business licence, and the name on the contract should be the same entity. When they are not, there is usually an explanation — a group trading company, a Hong Kong collection entity, an export agent. There is also, sometimes, no explanation, and the difference matters enormously before a wire and hardly at all after one.
Account jurisdiction. A Chinese factory paid into a Hong Kong or Singapore account is common and often legitimate, particularly for exporters who want to receive USD. It also removes the transaction from mainland banking recourse. If the account jurisdiction differs from the entity jurisdiction, ask why in writing and keep the answer.
Silent substitution. The most expensive version of this problem is an email that arrives mid-deal, from a lookalike address, announcing that the company has changed banks. Treat any change of bank details as a suspected interception until confirmed by a channel you already had — a phone number from the licence, not from the email.
Terminal consistency. Unit price, quantity, Incoterm, payment schedule and lead time interact. A price that is 20% below the market usually shows up as something else in the same document: no inspection clause, an unusually large deposit, or a lead time that only works if the goods are bought in rather than made.
The habit worth building is boring: read the proforma invoice against the licence, line by line, before paying, not after.
Last checked 2026-10
A document tells you what is claimed.
A visit tells you what is there.