Freight claims: from disputed charge to credit note

Start with one invoice, a selection of invoices or a carrier-specific claim. Add the actual charge lines you want to dispute, then keep their invoice and shipment references, claimed amounts, documents and correspondence together. You can review the claim in a board or list and open its full history without maintaining a separate spreadsheet.

The workspace distinguishes what has been identified, what the carrier has accepted and what has actually been recovered. An accepted claim is not yet a received credit note.

The agent helps find and assemble claim lines and prepares correspondence from the claim’s evidence and your instructions. Review the wording, recipients and attachments before sending. A draft can be changed or dismissed while its history stays with the claim.

Where your process requires it, send an internal pre-check to colleagues before contacting the carrier. Required approvals can block the first carrier send until the check is satisfied. Configured roles govern who may authorise sending, and the send confirmation shows the recipients, attachments and warnings. This is a controlled workflow, not a promise of unattended negotiation.

Keep the carrier’s emails in the claim thread, work with a returned breakdown sheet, or let the carrier respond through the portal. In the portal, the carrier can approve, partially approve or deny individual positions and add comments rather than answering one invoice total.

Those answers become proposals for your review. Follow-up correspondence, supporting documents and internal discussion stay attached to the same claim, so another reviewer can see what was asked, what changed and what still needs a decision.

Reconcile the carrier’s answer and the supporting credit documents against the claimed positions. A credit note, or a cancellation and corrected invoice, needs to be linked to the relevant charges before its effect is treated as recovery. Partial acceptance and partial credit remain separate from a fully settled claim.

A credit note whose invoice references all belong elsewhere does not silently count towards this claim: a reviewer must confirm the association. This keeps the distinction between a requested amount, an accepted amount and documented recovery visible.

Set carrier contacts, claim instructions and process playbooks around how your team handles that carrier. Internal checks and carrier communication can have different recipients and scopes. Administrative settings control approval requirements and who can edit the governing configuration.

The claim keeps the charge-level trail through drafts, sends, responses and reconciliation. Lines already credited are protected against being claimed again, while changes to a claim after an internal check are surfaced for review.