SHIPPERS
Freight bill audit and payment services for 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
Freight audit and payment services that resolve, not just flag
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 accounts payable (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.
- Freight bill audit across TL, LTL, parcel, and intermodal invoices
- Rate verification against contracts, tariffs, and spot quotes
- Accessorial review: detention, TONU, reweighs, reclassifications, fuel surcharges
- Dispute filing and follow-through until credit or correction
- Freight payment processing and carrier remittance
- Freight cost reporting by lane, mode, and carrier
99%
Invoice Accuracy
100%
Invoices Audited
Weekly
Reporting
Where do shippers overpay on freight?
Freight bills paid as billed
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.
LTL reweighs and reclassifications unchecked
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.
Accessorials accepted at face value
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.
Exception queues nobody works
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.
How we run your freight audit and payment
- 1
Discovery
We review your carrier agreements, LTL tariffs, freight spend by mode, and how invoices currently move from receipt to payment.
- 2
Onboarding
The team learns your rate agreements, accessorial rules, GL coding, and approval thresholds. About 2 to 3 weeks.
- 3
Ongoing operations
Every freight bill audited before payment, every discrepancy disputed and tracked to resolution, and spend reported weekly.
- 4
You scale
More lanes, more modes, and more carriers do not require more AP staff on your side.
Freight back-office services for shippers
Freight invoices are the least-audited bills most shippers pay. A dedicated team changes that: every bill checked, every dispute worked, every dollar reported.
Freight invoice audit and accounts payable (AP)
Learn more →Every carrier and forwarder invoice audited against contract rates before payment: rate match, fuel surcharge against the index, accessorials verified against delivery records, duplicates caught. Clean invoices coded to your GL and staged for payment.
Document processing and POD collection
Learn more →Delivery paperwork collected and indexed shipment by shipment, so receiving disputes, freight claims, and rate audits get answered from the file instead of from memory.
Carrier compliance and onboarding
Learn more →Carriers you tender freight to, vetted and monitored: authority, certificate of insurance (COI), FMCSA safety data, and W-9 before the first load, lapses flagged after.
Bookkeeping
Learn more →Freight spend reconciled into your books by a dedicated bookkeeper: categorization, accounts payable recording, month-end close. Your CPA keeps tax.
Ownership and transaction reporting
Learn more →Freight cost reporting for owners, boards, and lenders on your cadence: weekly, monthly, or quarterly, per your SOP.
Fractional CFO support
Learn more →Sooner or later freight spend drives a bigger question: projections for the bank, numbers for a buyer, margins nobody has proven. Scoped engagements led by a CFO who has run finance inside operating freight companies put real numbers under those decisions.
What shippers get back
The result is freight spend you can trust line by line:
- Every freight bill audited before it is paid
- Overcharges disputed inside the carrier's dispute window
- Credits tracked until they actually post
- Freight payment processed without adding AP headcount
- Spend visibility by lane, mode, carrier, and charge type
- Audit-ready records for every invoice and dispute
We work inside your systems, not ours
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.
Frequently asked questions
What is a freight bill audit?
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.
What do freight audit and payment services include?
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.
Do freight audit services for shippers require volume minimums?
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.
How is this different from freight audit software?
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.
How much does freight bill audit cost?
Pricing is scoped to the functions you hand off and the team that work needs, and resized as invoice volume changes rather than metered per invoice. A 20-minute call is enough to review your carrier mix and put together a quote.
Will this work with our TMS or ERP?
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.
Related services
Carrier Invoice Audit
Learn more →Line-by-line invoice verification and AP.
Carrier Compliance
Learn more →Vet and monitor the carriers you tender to.
Bookkeeping
Learn more →Freight cost recording and reconciliation.
Fractional CFO
Learn more →Freight spend analysis and financial oversight.
Get Started
See what your freight bills are hiding
Most shipper clients start with freight bill audit, then grow into full audit and payment support.