Free tool

Carrier AP overpayment calculator

Two numbers, one answer: what unaudited carrier invoices are costing you a year. Industry experience puts AP overpayment at 1-3% of carrier spend when invoices are paid as billed.

Loads per month

Average carrier cost per load (USD)

Want the overpayment found and fixed?

ClearLane audits every carrier invoice against the rate confirmation before payment goes out. Request a demo to see the process on your own freight.

What is AP overpayment?

AP overpayment is the gap between what carriers bill and what the rate confirmation says you owe. It comes from duplicate invoices, wrong fuel surcharge weeks, accessorials without documentation, and contract rates not applied. Each error is small. Across thousands of loads they compound into real money.

The math

Annual carrier spend x 1-3% = estimated overpayment. A brokerage moving 2,000 loads a month at a $1,000 average carrier cost spends $24M a year with carriers. At 1-3%, that is $240,000 to $720,000 paid out on invoices that did not match the paperwork.

Where freight AP leaks money

Four places, in order of frequency: duplicate billing (same load, two invoice numbers), fuel surcharge errors (wrong base or wrong week), accessorials billed without backup (detention with no in/out times, lumper with no receipt), and line-haul that does not match the rate confirmation. The freight invoice audit checklist covers all four.

What the calculator tells you that the invoice cannot

  • Your annual carrier spend, which most operations underestimate.
  • The realistic overpayment range hiding inside it at industry error rates.
  • Whether a dedicated audit step pays for itself at your volume.

Thirty seconds, two numbers, and you will know if unaudited AP is a rounding error or a budget line.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the 1-3% overpayment range come from?

From industry AP audit experience across freight operations: when carrier invoices are paid as billed, the errors that slip through consistently land between 1% and 3% of total carrier spend. High-volume operations with informal AP checks sit at the top of that range.

Duplicate invoices, fuel surcharge calculated on the wrong week or base, accessorial charges without documentation (detention, lumper, layover), and line-haul that does not match the rate confirmation. None of them announce themselves. They only show up when someone matches the invoice to the paperwork.

Yes, with discipline: a dedicated audit step before payment using the freight invoice audit checklist. The honest caveat is volume. Past roughly 1,000 loads a month, deadline pressure beats discipline, and that is when a dedicated audit desk, in-house or managed, earns its keep.