What are freight audit services?
Freight audit services compare what a carrier billed with what the shipment records and governing commercial terms support. A defensible audit does not stop at invoice arithmetic. It connects the billed record to the shipment, identifies the applicable rate or contract authority, recalculates the expected charge, and preserves the evidence behind any exception.
That distinction matters because a suspicious charge, a validated finding, an approved carrier claim, and money actually recovered are different financial states.
What a freight audit checks
Depending on mode, carrier, contract structure, and available records, a freight audit can test:
- Duplicate billing. Repeated invoices, repeated economic charges, duplicate PRO/tracking references, and corrected invoice chains that only look duplicated.
- Rate discrepancies. Linehaul, minimum charges, discounts, customer-specific schedules, spot quotes, and effective-date errors.
- Fuel. Fuel bases, percentages, indexes, effective periods, and whether the billed fuel rule matches the governing agreement.
- Accessorials. Detention, liftgate, residential, inside delivery, re-delivery, appointment, reweigh, reclassification, and other add-on charges when applicable.
- LTL billing. Weight, class, reweigh, reclassification, minimums, lane/rate authority, and supporting shipment evidence.
- Parcel billing. Dimensional weight, service level, duplicate charges, surcharges, corrections, and credits.
- Credits and settlement. Approved credits that never posted, refunds, remittances, offsets, and later reversals.
The goal is not to maximize flags. It is to isolate findings that can survive finance review and carrier challenge.
What records make a freight audit defensible?
The strongest review population usually combines several record types rather than relying on the invoice alone:
- carrier invoices or invoice exports;
- bills of lading, shipment records, tracking or PRO references;
- contracts, tariffs, rate sheets, rate confirmations, spot quotes, and amendments;
- weight, class, service-level, delivery, and accessorial evidence where relevant;
- prior audit output, existing disputes, and automatic credits for Second-Look reviews;
- payment, credit, refund, and settlement evidence for actual-recovery reconciliation.
Start with non-sensitive business information. Scope and an approved secure transfer route are confirmed before records move.
Pre-pay audit, post-payment audit, and Second-Look audit are different jobs
RETALLY is strongest as a bounded historical review and recovery service. If mature audit controls already exist, the Second-Look Recovery Audit is designed to measure only the residual opportunity rather than pretend the incumbent process did nothing.
The RETALLY Evidence Standard
Every material finding is governed by a ten-rule evidence standard: freeze the population, establish identity, resolve controlling authority, apply the correct effective date, recalculate independently, route ambiguity to human review, exclude pre-existing and duplicate value, require customer authorization, reconcile settlement once, and call value recovered only when an eligible realized benefit actually posts.
How the freight audit process works
- Qualify fit. Confirm company, modes, freight-volume range, history, records, and current controls.
- Freeze a bounded population. Define entity, period, modes, carriers, currencies, invoices, and exclusions.
- Resolve identity and authority. Match invoices to shipments and determine which commercial source controls each material charge.
- Recalculate independently. Compare billed and expected amounts using the applicable shipment facts and terms.
- Human-review exceptions. Reject or hold ambiguous, duplicate, unsupported, already-known, or pre-existing value.
- Deliver the audit output. Summarize supportable findings and the evidence gaps that remain.
- Authorize recovery separately. No carrier or outside recovery action occurs merely because the audit identified an opportunity.
- Reconcile settlement and reversals. Actual recovered funds are recognized separately from potential or approved claim value.
What you receive
The free audit is designed to answer whether a meaningful, supportable recovery opportunity exists. Validated recovery work can then produce a Recovery Evidence Pack showing invoice/shipment identity, billed and expected amounts, commercial authority, supporting evidence, reviewer disposition, authorization, claim state, carrier response, settlement, reversals, and net actual recovered funds.
See the fictional recovery-status example or download the controlled fictional audit walkthrough.
How RETALLY is priced
The initial bounded audit is $0 upfront. If supportable findings exist and you authorize recovery work, the exact scope, contingency rate, exclusions, eligible-recovery definition, payment timing, and treatment of reversals are confirmed in writing before execution.
No recovery means no recovery fee under the flagship success-based model. Estimated savings, flags, and unpaid claims do not by themselves earn a recovery fee.
Who is usually a strong fit?
Strong candidates include freight-heavy distributors, manufacturers, retailers, multi-site operators, and shippers with meaningful parcel and/or LTL spend, multiple locations or carriers, internal AP/finance, several months of historical records, and accessible commercial authority.
Companies with an existing TMS, freight-payment provider, internal audit, or incumbent auditor can still be excellent fits for a Second-Look review.
Freight audit services FAQ
What is a freight audit?
A freight audit checks carrier billing against shipment records and the commercial terms that should govern the charge. It can identify supportable duplicate charges, rate discrepancies, accessorial issues, billing adjustments, and missed credits.
What is the difference between freight audit and freight payment?
Freight audit evaluates whether charges are supported. Freight payment is the operational process of approving, allocating, and paying valid carrier invoices. Some providers combine the two; RETALLY's launch service focuses on evidence-first audit and recovery.
Can you audit freight that was already paid?
Yes, when the historical records and applicable commercial terms support a post-payment review. Recoverability can depend on the governing agreement, deadlines, carrier rules, record quality, and the agreed engagement scope.
What if we already use a freight audit provider?
That is the intended use case for the Second-Look Recovery Audit. Existing findings, credits, and known claims are separated before RETALLY measures any supportable net-new opportunity.
How much does the initial freight audit cost?
The initial bounded recovery audit is $0 upfront. Any later recovery engagement confirms its commercial terms in writing before outside recovery work begins.
Do you guarantee freight recovery?
No. A calculated difference, validated finding, approved claim, and actual recovered funds are different states. Recovery depends on the evidence, commercial terms, authorization, carrier response, timing, and other engagement-specific factors.
Comparing freight audit companies?
Provider models differ substantially across freight audit & payment, pre-pay software, post-payment recovery, and Second-Look services. Use the freight audit companies buyer guide to compare evidence, pricing, data requirements, and operating models before choosing a provider.
Start with a $0-upfront freight audit
Share non-sensitive company, freight-volume, mode, carrier, and record-readiness information. Do not attach invoices, contracts, credentials, or payment records to the first email.
Start My Free Freight AuditQuestions: email RETALLY. 715 Yorktowne Road, Pottsville, PA 17901.
Related freight-audit resources
Freight invoice audit · Freight overcharge recovery · Freight invoice audit checklist · Accessorial charge audit · Carrier rate audit · Duplicate freight charges · LTL freight audit · Parcel audit · Post-payment freight audit · Compare freight audit companies