What’s in this Freight Paper?
- Learn what it means to “audit” an invoice.
- Overview of the freight/shipping invoice process.
- Steps for how do dispute an invoice discrepancy.
If you’re reading this you have undoubtedly received a discrepancy on your shipping invoice. Welcome to the freight industry! Unfortunately, this is common in shipping. Luckily, we’re here to help. Whether you are new to the freight world or an old hand, this white paper is designed to give a bit of insight into our invoice auditing process at FreightPros. We’re committed to making your shipping experience as easy as possible, and invoice auditing is one way we do that.
What Is A Freight/Shipping Invoice?
Simply put, a shipping invoice is the bill you receive from the freight carrier or the third party freight broker (such as FreightPros). It notates the services rendered by the carrier/broker and their cost, as well as other usual bill information such as the invoice due date. Each LTL or truckload shipment will require a shipping invoice, one that is usually dispatched via mail, fax, or email between one and two weeks after the delivery of the shipment. If you’re using a third party freight broker, the invoice will be delivered to them and you’ll pay the broker. If you’re working with the freight carrier directly, you’ll be responsible for handling the charges with the carrier.What Does It Mean To “Audit” An Invoice?
When you set up a freight shipment, you’ll get a freight quote letting you know the planned cost of the shipment based on weight, class, and distance. Most of the time, the quote and the actual cost of the shipment match up, but sometimes there is a discrepancy between quote and the invoiced amount. When this happens, our FreightPros confirm the charges with the carrier through documentation. This is called “auditing” the freight invoice. We make sure that any additional charges are legitimate before invoicing our customers for the charges.Do All Carriers And Brokers Audit Their Invoices?
To answer simply: No. One of the things that make FreightPros unique is that we audit our customers’ invoices. Instead of approving invoices that have price discrepancies, we make sure that the charges are legitimate and fair before sending the invoice to our customer. Our customers can rest assured that when they receive an invoice from FreightPros,our experts have audited it and the charges are accurate. If we find that there is a legitimate difference between the quoted price of your shipment and the invoiced price, we’ll inform you of the charge, the price difference, as well as any additional information that may be significant. If you do want to dispute the charge, it’s important to let us know ASAP. It’s much easier to dispute a charge in the immediate aftermath of the shipment, as opposed to months, or even weeks, after the shipment has been delivered and the invoice paid.What If I Want To Dispute The Invoice Discrepancy?
Just because an additional invoice charge such as a reweigh is supported by documents from the carrier, doesn’t mean that it’s always correct. In the event that our customer still wants to dispute the charge we are more than willing to facilitate the process by filing a dispute with the carrier on behalf of our customer. For more information about disputing invoice discrepancies, take a look at our freight white papers about Disputing A Reclass and Disputing A Reweigh.Download this Freight Paper
