Learn from the invoices
Freight audit explained by experts who check carrier invoices for a living. How charges work, where they go wrong, and what our audits find on real shipments, from surcharges and Incoterms to disputes and credit notes.
Tenders and ratesCarrier Bid Comparison: Normalising Bids to All-In Cost
A bid priced on base rate shows only part of what will be invoiced; comparing carriers fairly means pricing every surcharge on the same shipments, the same basis and the same index level.
6 min ·
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SurchargesCarrier FX Surcharge: How to Check the Exchange Rate Used
The cost of a currency conversion often sits inside the rate itself, on no line of its own, so the check is to work the rate back out of the invoice.
6 min ·
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Incoterms and dutiesCustoms Duty on the Freight Invoice: Check the Incoterm
A duty line shows who was billed for customs, not who agreed to bear the cost. Here is how to check it against the order and the customs entry after the 1 October 2026 EU change.
7 min ·
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SurchargesDemurrage vs Detention: Free Time Rules and 5 Line Checks
Demurrage usually covers the container inside the terminal, port or depot and detention the container outside it; the tariff or contract in force decides how each day is counted.
6 min ·
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Invoice checkingFreight Cost per Shipment: Build It From Invoice Lines
Carriers bill shipments in bundles that rarely match the shipment itself, so a reliable cost per shipment is built line by line, not divided out of invoice totals.
6 min ·
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Tenders and ratesFreight Tender vs Spot: What Invoices Show a Year Later
The awarded rate and the invoiced rate are two different numbers, and the invoices show how far apart they actually were.
6 min ·
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Invoice checkingHow to Evaluate Freight Audit Tools: 8 Criteria to Test
Eight criteria a controller can test before choosing, and how four ways of checking carrier invoices usually compare.
6 min ·
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SurchargesTerminal Storage Charge: Free Days, Rate Bands, 5 Checks
Storage covers container space in a terminal beyond free time; the tariff in force sets how it is counted and whether it sits apart from demurrage, and the line often arrives weeks later with no rate card line to hold it against.
7 min ·
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Disputes and credit notesWhat a Freight Audit Service Checks Before You Sign
What an audit finds depends on the references it is given, and what it recovers depends on who follows each claim to a credit note.
6 min ·
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SurchargesFuel Surcharge 2026: Same Fuel Shock, Very Different Bills
When fuel jumped in March 2026, one kind of fuel surcharge followed the index to the week. The rest followed their contract wording, and some never came back down.
6 min ·
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Invoice checkingHow to Check a Freight Invoice: Four Checks That Find Errors
Four comparisons decide whether a carrier invoice is approved, held or queried, and each one uses data you typically already hold.
6 min ·
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SurchargesLow Water Surcharge: Checking the Tier on a Freight Invoice
Under the published Rhine tables, the amount depends on one gauge, one date and one table version, and all three can be checked after the invoice arrives.
6 min ·
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SurchargesParcel Invoice Audit: FedEx 2027 Surcharges Beyond 5.9%
A rate increase is an average across base rates; the surcharge lines on a parcel invoice move on their own tables, and from 4 January 2027 several of the ones FedEx has published move by more.
6 min ·
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Tenders and ratesPeak Season Surcharge: The Tender Clause That Decides It
Whether a PSS can be billed on top of your contract rate depends on wording set in the tender, and the Q4 2026 notices are the moment to read yours.
7 min ·
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Invoice checkingAI for Checking Freight Invoices: 5 Checks on Every Line
AI can check every line of every carrier invoice against your contracts; your team still decides the disputes and keeps the rates current.
6 min ·
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Invoice checkingFreight Invoice Reconciliation Without ERP Integration
Freight invoice reconciliation without ERP integration works from files you already receive, with the ERP taking only the approved result.
6 min ·
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SurchargesWar Risk Surcharge 2026: Rates per Container, What to Check
Carriers added war risk and emergency fuel surcharges from March 2026 and have adjusted them since. Each one is a separate invoice line to check against your contract.
5 min ·
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