If your company ships anything on a regular basis, you should know about freight invoice auditing. This is the method that shippers have used for 60 years to cut the costs charged by carriers and to make deliveries more efficiently to their end users.

Auditing does more than save on shipping costs; it also offers the business intelligence that allows companies to see and analyze their entire shipping practices. This in turn affords better transportation choices, faster and more customized deliveries—and satisfied customers. A crucial benefit is that auditing provides shippers the data to negotiate lower rates and discounts with existing or prospective carriers.

Auditing your freight and parcel shipping invoices pays for itself, and then some. A staple feature of invoice auditing has always been that, at the very least, it recoups its own cost, and typically achieves savings three to four times more than its cost. Savings happen instantly, because fees for prepayment audits are transaction-based and determined by the format (electronic vs. paper) and volume. Typical fees are $1 per paper invoice and 50¢ per electronic invoice. Because audits result in adjustments as the process begins, the savings are immediate.

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