SHIPPERS
You get freight bills from truckload, LTL, parcel, and intermodal providers. ClearLane runs freight bill audit and payment as a managed service: every invoice checked against your contracts and tariffs before it is paid, overcharges disputed and worked to a credit, and freight spend reported by lane, mode, and carrier. Freight audit services for shippers, without enterprise minimums or added headcount.
THE SHIPPER FREIGHT AUDIT DESK
Shippers get freight bills from truckload carriers, LTL networks, parcel providers, and intermodal operators. Each one arrives with its own rate structure: linehaul, fuel surcharges, accessorials, reweighs, reclassifications. When AP treats a freight bill like any other vendor invoice, it gets coded and paid as billed. The rate agreement never enters the picture.
We run the full freight audit and payment workflow. Every invoice is checked against the contract, tariff, or spot quote. Discrepancies are disputed before payment goes out. Clean invoices are processed and paid on your schedule, and freight spend gets reported by lane, mode, and carrier in your GL coding.
This is where managed audit differs from audit software. Software flags exceptions. Someone still has to work the queue, file the dispute, chase the credit, and confirm the correction landed. An exception flagged is not an exception resolved. A dedicated ClearLane team owns each discrepancy until it closes.
Invoice Accuracy
Invoices Audited
Reporting
When freight invoices land in a general AP queue, they get coded and paid to keep carriers moving. Rate mismatches, duplicate invoices, and unearned accessorials go through with everything else. Industry benchmarks put freight invoice error rates high enough that unaudited spend carries a built-in overcharge.
A reweigh or class change can move an LTL invoice hundreds of dollars above the quote. Each one is verifiable against the BOL, the NMFC classification, and the inspection certificate. Without that check, the adjusted amount simply becomes the amount paid.
Detention, redelivery, liftgate, and storage charges are billed from the carrier’s side of the transaction. Many are disputable when timestamps, appointment records, or the rate confirmation tell a different story. Accepting them as billed turns disputable charges into permanent cost.
Audit software catches discrepancies and puts them in a queue. Then the queue grows. Dispute windows close, credits expire, and the flagged savings never reach the P&L. Catching an overcharge only matters if someone follows it to resolution.
Related reading: the complete freight audit guide, carrier invoice audit and accounts payable (AP), and the freight invoice audit checklist.
We review your carrier agreements, LTL tariffs, freight spend by mode, and how invoices currently move from receipt to payment.
The team learns your rate agreements, accessorial rules, GL coding, and approval thresholds. Two to three weeks.
Every freight bill audited before payment, every discrepancy disputed and tracked to resolution, and spend reported weekly.
More lanes, more modes, and more carriers do not require more AP staff on your side.
The result is freight spend you can trust line by line:
ClearLane logs into the TMS and accounting systems you already run. We do not bring in our own platform or move your data somewhere else. Our team learns your setup and works right inside it, so your information stays where it belongs and nothing about your workflow has to change.
A freight bill audit is a line-by-line check of a carrier’s invoice against the agreed rate before payment. It verifies linehaul against the contract or quote, confirms fuel surcharges against the published index, and checks each accessorial against shipment records. Charges that do not match get disputed rather than paid.
The full cycle: invoice receipt, audit against contracts and tariffs, dispute filing on discrepancies, payment processing for clean invoices, credit tracking, and freight cost reporting coded to your GL. The audit and the payment run as one workflow, so nothing gets paid before it is verified.
Enterprise freight audit and payment providers are typically built around high-volume national accounts, with minimums to match. ClearLane does not set volume minimums. The engagement is scoped to your invoice volume, whether that is a few hundred freight bills a month or far more.
Software identifies exceptions. It does not file the dispute, negotiate the correction, or confirm the credit posted. That labor is the service. A dedicated team works each flagged invoice through to resolution, which is where the recovered dollars actually come from.
Pricing is based on the invoice volume your operation processes each month. A 20-minute call is enough to review your carrier mix and put together a quote.
Yes. We work inside the TMS, ERP, and accounting systems you already run. Invoice audit, dispute tracking, and payment processing all happen in your existing setup, with your data staying where it is.
Get Started
Most shipper clients start with freight bill audit, then grow into full audit and payment support.
