Freight Invoice Audit Against Rate Contracts

• Head of Logistics
• Logistics Finance Controller
• Accounts Payable Manager
• Transport Procurement Manager

Shippers and 3PLs pay many carriers and transporters, each billing in its own format: per-trip FTL bills, PTL and courier invoices with weight slabs, fuel surcharges, ODA, detention and loading charges. Rate contracts sit in spreadsheets, PDFs and email amendments, so most audit teams check a sample and pay the rest.

We build a freight audit pipeline that reads each carrier invoice and its annexure, whether PDF, Excel or scan, and extracts every shipment line. Each line is matched to the shipment in your TMS or ERP and to its POD, then recalculated from the applicable rate contract: lane, vehicle type, weight slab, fuel surcharge formula and agreed accessorials. Differences, missing approvals and possible duplicates are listed with the expected amount and the reason. Clean lines are approved for payment, and variance lines are queued for the logistics team to accept or dispute, with a draft debit note where needed.

• Extracts shipment lines from PDF, Excel and scanned freight bills and annexures
• Digitises rate contracts into lane, vehicle, slab, fuel and accessorial rules with effective dates
• Recalculates each line and shows expected versus billed amount per charge
• Checks charged weight against shipped weight and dimensions in your system
• Flags detention, ODA and other accessorials without supporting evidence or approval
• Detects duplicate billing across invoices and billing cycles

1. 01Receive invoicesCarrier invoices and annexures arrive by email, portal or AP system and are grouped by carrier and billing period.
2. 02Extract linesEvery shipment line is extracted with LR or AWB number, lane, weight and each charge component.
3. 03Match shipments and PODsLines are matched to TMS shipments and PODs, and unmatched lines are flagged.
4. 04Recalculate chargesThe applicable contract rate is applied and the expected amount is computed per charge component.
5. 05Review variancesLines with variances, missing evidence or possible duplicates go to the logistics team to accept or dispute.
6. 06Approve and postApproved amounts and dispute notes are posted to the ERP for payment and carrier communication.

1. Intake
   • Email and carrier portal connectors
   • AP system invoice feed
2. Extraction
   • Table extraction for PDF and Excel annexures
   • OCR for scanned bills
   • LLM line normaliser
3. Contract and matching
   • Rate contract rule store
   • TMS shipment and POD matcher
   • Duplicate detector
4. Calculation
   • Charge recalculation engine
   • Fuel surcharge formula library
5. Review and posting
   • Variance review queue
   • Debit note drafts
   • ERP posting adapter

The logistics or finance team decides every variance, unmatched line and possible duplicate before payment. Procurement reviews the digitised rate rules when they are first set up and whenever a contract changes.

• ERP such as SAP, Oracle or Tally for accounts payable
• TMS for shipment and weight data
• POD repository or ePOD app
• Carrier portals and email
• Contract repository or spreadsheets holding rate cards

• Every recalculation shows the contract clause and rate applied
• No automatic disputes; people decide what is raised with carriers
• Rate rules versioned with effective dates
• Unmatched lines never auto-approved
• Sampling of auto-approved lines each billing cycle

• Supports GST input tax credit checks by matching carrier GSTIN and invoice details with your records; the GST treatment of freight under forward or reverse charge stays with your tax team.
• Keeps an audit trail of every adjustment for statutory and internal audit.

• Logistics & Supply Chain

  Proof of Delivery Capture and Verification

  Check every POD photo or scan for consignment number, date, signature, stamp and remarks, match it to the shipment in your TMS, and flag short, damaged or doubtful deliveries before billing.

• Logistics & Supply Chain

  E-Way Bill and GST Document Validation

  Check that each consignment's tax invoice or delivery challan, e-way bill and vehicle details agree before dispatch, then track validity and Part B updates while goods are in transit.

• Manufacturing

  Purchase Order, GRN and Invoice Three-Way Matching

  Read supplier invoices, match every line to POs and GRNs in SAP or Tally, check GST details and tolerances, propose debit notes and send only real exceptions to accounts payable.

• Retail, D2C & Quick Commerce

  Vendor Invoice and Credit Note Reconciliation

  Match vendor invoices, GRNs, RTVs and credit notes, recalculate what each vendor owes you from the agreements, and chase missing or short credit notes with evidence.