FAQs
Everything you need to know about working with ClearLane.
Our pricing follows the scope of the engagement and tied to the scope of your operation. As your volume grows, pricing scales with you, and you can scale down during slow periods. Services are available individually or as bundled packages. Revenue recovery is performance-based: you only pay a percentage of additional revenue we identify. Contact us for a custom quote based on your specific operation.
Yes. We work with freight and logistics companies throughout the United States and Canada. Our teams log into the TMS and accounting systems you already run, so the work happens inside your operation rather than at an office you would visit. The two addresses are where the company is registered, not a service boundary.
Yes. All data transmission uses TLS/SSL encryption. We implement role-based access controls so team members only see data relevant to their assigned clients. Every team member signs NDAs and undergoes background checks. We use individual credentials with activity logging for all TMS access. See our Security page for more detail.
Yes. That is what a full back-office engagement is built for. ClearLane runs the complete administrative function: carrier invoice audit and AP, shipper billing, AR management and collections, carrier onboarding and compliance, pre-billing revenue recovery, and optional bookkeeping. Most clients start with the one task that hurts most, then hand over the rest as trust builds. You keep dispatch, sales, and customer relationships. We run the paperwork behind them.
Yes. Many freight companies run more than one entity: a brokerage and a fleet under one MC or as separate companies, plus entities like a warehouse that have no MC at all. We keep billing, books, and AR separate for each entity, handle intercompany loads so each company bills the other correctly, and monitor compliance per operating authority. Our teams work inside TMS platforms that support multi-entity profiles, and reporting comes per entity, consolidated, or both.
Yes. Clean records are the currency of any freight transaction, and we prepare them for both sides. For buyers, that means acquisition validation: an organized review of the target company records, receivables, billing files, and cash flow so you know what you are actually acquiring. For sellers, we prepare the sale package: current books, per-entity statements, AR aging, and the reporting a buyer or lender expects to see. Formal due diligence opinions and audited statements remain with your CPA and advisors.
Every engagement is governed by a formal Client Agreement that defines service scope, responsibilities, confidentiality, and how issues are handled. Combined with our QA processes, NDAs, background checks, and documented operational playbooks, this gives you clear accountability, not just a promise. We can walk through the Client Agreement during your onboarding conversation.
Absolutely. That’s one of the core advantages of our model. Unlike fixed domestic hires, our service scales with your operation. During slow months, your costs decrease. During peak seasons, we scale up your dedicated team without you needing to recruit or train.
Virtual assistants and freelancers offer low-cost staffing without standardized processes, quality controls, or freight-specific expertise. ClearLane provides trained specialists working from documented operational playbooks, with daily QA, weekly reporting, technology-enhanced workflows, and North America-based account management. We’re an operational platform, not a staffing service.
Back-office operations cover everything that happens after dispatch books a load. Proof of delivery gets collected from carriers. Carrier invoices get verified against rate confirmations. Shipper invoices get prepared and sent, accounts receivable and collections get worked, and carrier compliance gets monitored. Running underneath all of it is the audit for missed billable charges like detention, layover, and TONU. These tasks are critical to cash flow but pull your team away from moving freight.
A pre-billing revenue audit reviews every shipment file before the shipper invoice goes out, checking for missed billable charges: detention, layover, TONU, lumper fees, and rate discrepancies between the rate confirmation and what was actually invoiced. ClearLane’s audit is performance-based: you only pay 10-25% of the revenue recovered. If nothing is recovered, you pay nothing.
DSO stands for Days Sales Outstanding: the average number of days it takes to collect payment after a shipper invoice is sent. Industry benchmarks show the average freight broker runs DSO between 45 and 65 days. High DSO ties up working capital, limits cash flow, and creates dependency on factoring or credit lines. ClearLane’s operations are designed to reduce DSO by speeding up POD collection, eliminating billing delays, and running proactive AR follow-up.
The most common ones are rate mismatches between the rate confirmation and the carrier invoice, and missed accessorials like detention, layover, TONU, and lumper fees. After those come duplicate carrier invoices for the same load, incorrect fuel surcharges, and shipper invoices sent without the supporting documents, usually a missing POD or BOL. These errors create disputes, slow collections, and erode margins.
The most commonly missed accessorial charges are detention and demurrage, layover charges when loads are held overnight, TONU (truck ordered, not used) fees, lumper charges at delivery, and driver wait time at pickup. These get missed when dispatch is moving fast and the charges don’t make it from the driver’s notes into the billing system before the invoice goes out.
AP (accounts payable) is what you owe carriers: verifying their invoices, checking them against rate confirmations, and preparing payment. AR (accounts receivable) is what shippers owe you: preparing invoices, submitting them with documentation, tracking aging, and collecting payment. ClearLane handles both sides of the financial workflow.
After a load delivers, ClearLane’s team contacts the carrier to retrieve the proof-of-delivery document, verifies the signature and delivery details, and uploads it into your TMS, targeting completion within 24 hours of delivery confirmation. The request workflow escalates when carriers are slow to respond.
Carrier compliance monitoring means continuously tracking each carrier’s FMCSA authority status, insurance certificates, and safety ratings. ClearLane verifies authority and insurance during onboarding targeting under 4 hours and monitors for expirations, cancellations, or changes on an ongoing basis, so you never accidentally dispatch a load with a non-compliant carrier.
The three biggest levers for reducing DSO are collecting PODs faster so invoices can be sent sooner, eliminating billing errors that cause disputes and payment delays, and running structured AR follow-up with aging analysis and escalation. ClearLane addresses all three through dedicated POD chase, pre-billing audits, and proactive AR management.
ClearLane is a managed service scoped to your operation. The Start With One Function tier covers carrier invoice verification and shipper billing. Financial Back Office adds POD chase and carrier compliance. Full Back Office includes AR management, collections, and pre-billing revenue audits. Contact ClearLane for a custom quote.
The ROI comes from three sources: reduced labor costs by replacing $13K-$25K per month in in-house staff with variable scoped, managed-service pricing, recovered revenue from missed billable charges typically 10-25% of previously uncaptured accessorials, and faster cash collection from reduced DSO. Most clients see the service pay for itself within the first month through revenue recovery alone.
Yes. ClearLane integrates with all major freight brokerage TMS platforms including McLeod, TMW, Aljex, Tai TMS, Turvo, and others. The team works directly inside your TMS: no data exports, API integrations, or middleware required.
ClearLane handles day-to-day financial recordkeeping for freight brokers. Bank and credit card accounts are reconciled on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Transactions are categorized into your chart of accounts. Carrier payments and expenses are recorded on the payables side, and shipper payments are matched to invoices on the receivables side. Month-end reconciliation confirms everything is recorded and the accounts balance.
ClearLane’s bookkeeping service is scoped to data recording and reconciliation only. It does not include audited or tax-basis financial statement preparation. Those stay with your CPA. ClearLane does prepare management reporting: monthly packages per entity, and combined statements across related companies, for owners, lenders, and shareholders who want an independent view. It also does not include payroll processing, sales tax calculation or remittance, year-end tax preparation, financial forecasting, or accounting judgments such as accruals, deferrals, or adjusting entries. These responsibilities remain with your CPA or accountant.
ClearLane’s bookkeeping team works inside your existing accounting software. Supported platforms include QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, FreshBooks, and Sage. If you use a different platform, compatibility is assessed during onboarding.
No. The bookkeeping team is completely separate from the freight operations AP and AR teams. Bookkeeping staff have accounting expertise and focus exclusively on financial recordkeeping. They are not pulled into load-processing workflows. Each bookkeeping client is assigned a dedicated bookkeeper who becomes familiar with their chart of accounts, recurring transactions, and reconciliation preferences.
ClearLane’s AP and AR services handle the freight-specific workflow: verifying carrier invoices, preparing shipper invoices, and collecting payments. But those transactions still need to be recorded in your accounting system, categorized correctly, and reconciled with your bank and credit card statements. Without bookkeeping, that work either falls on you, an office manager, or goes undone until your CPA scrambles at quarter-end. ClearLane’s bookkeeping service closes that gap. The same financial data that flows through your freight operations is recorded cleanly in your books.
Yes. We handle the billing, POD retrieval, and carrier invoice audit that drayage operations need, including per diem tracking, chassis fee verification, demurrage passthrough billing, and terminal documentation. The workflow is built for port and intermodal container moves.
Yes. We attach temperature logs and continuous recorder data to every POD and invoice, verify reefer fuel surcharges on carrier invoices, and capture pre-cooling and monitoring charges on shipper billing. For loads rejected due to temperature excursions, we assemble the documentation package for claims.
Yes. We audit carrier and vendor invoices across ocean, air, rail, and truck legs, reconcile all costs against the customer rate, and build the customer invoice with complete documentation attached. Each leg is audited individually before costs roll up to the customer billing.
Yes. We capture tarping fees, escort and pilot car charges, permit costs, and equipment surcharges on flatbed, step-deck, lowboy, and RGN loads. Each charge is documented for the customer invoice with the backup to support it.
Yes. We verify freight class on every carrier and customer invoice, manage reweigh and reclassification disputes, and capture LTL accessorials like liftgate, inside delivery, residential surcharge, and limited access. The team handles the class-level detail that LTL billing requires.
Yes. We audit rail carrier invoices against tariffs, audit drayage carrier invoices with chassis and per diem verification, and reconcile both legs against the customer rate. Per diem is tracked across the full move from rail to final delivery.
Yes. We audit freight invoices from ocean carriers, drayage companies, freight forwarders, customs brokers, and domestic carriers. Each invoice is checked against contracts and tariffs. We also organize freight records for duty drawback claims and financial reporting.
For the arithmetic behind the figures in these answers, including the DSO formula and what counts as a billing error, see how we measure it. Industry reference ranges sit in the freight back-office benchmarks.
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