What is a post-payment freight audit?
A post-payment freight audit looks backward. Instead of asking whether an invoice should be approved before payment, it asks whether a historical payment matched the freight service and commercial terms that actually applied.
The review can cover a bounded period, carrier set, mode, business unit, or invoice population. The population should be frozen before results are measured so the denominator cannot shift after findings appear.
Post-payment audit vs pre-pay freight audit
A pre-pay audit is a payment control. It tries to stop unsupported charges before money leaves AP. A post-payment audit is a recovery control. It tests historical paid invoices for supportable discrepancies and then separates potential value from any amount that is actually recovered.
The two can coexist. A mature pre-pay process can still leave a residual population for a later independent Second-Look review.
What can a post-payment audit find?
- duplicate invoices or duplicate economic charges;
- rate-card, spot-rate, minimum-charge, or effective-date discrepancies;
- fuel-rule mismatches;
- unsupported or misapplied accessorial charges;
- LTL reweigh, reclassification, class, weight, lane, or minimum issues;
- parcel dimensional-weight, service, surcharge, or correction issues;
- credits or approved adjustments that never reached the account;
- settlement mismatches or later reversals.
Whether any individual item is recoverable depends on the governing agreement, available evidence, timing, carrier rules, and the scope of the engagement. A suspicious number is not enough.
A Second-Look post audit gives existing controls credit
If your TMS, freight-payment provider, internal AP process, or incumbent auditor already reviewed the population, RETALLY does not treat that as a reason to start over and claim everything it sees.
Instead, the Second-Look Recovery Audit freezes the incumbent-known findings, automatic credits, active claims, and other known matters where available, then measures only supportable residual value.
Net-new attribution is part of the audit design, not a sales afterthought.
Evidence needed for a defensible post audit
A historical invoice by itself may show a difference, but it usually cannot prove the complete economic claim. Depending on the issue, the audit may need invoice data, BOL/shipment identity, tracking or PRO references, rate confirmations, contracts, tariffs, amendments, delivery evidence, accessorial support, prior-audit output, payment evidence, carrier correspondence, credits, refunds, or remittance records.
The RETALLY Evidence Standard defines the minimum reasoning boundary used to keep unsupported or duplicate value out of recovery totals.
The recovery states stay separate
- Candidate difference. A calculation or pattern worth review.
- Validated finding. A supportable discrepancy that survived the applicable evidence and review gates.
- Authorized claim. A finding the customer approved for recovery action.
- Approved claim. An accepted or approved recovery outcome that may still be unpaid.
- Actual recovered funds. Eligible cash, credit, refund, remittance, or other engagement-defined realized benefit that actually posted.
- Reversal. A later counter-event that reduces realized recovery.
RETALLY does not collapse those stages into a single headline savings number.
$0 upfront for the bounded audit
The initial historical recovery audit is $0 upfront. If supportable findings exist and you authorize recovery work, the exact contingency rate, scope, exclusions, eligible-recovery definition, payment timing, and reversal treatment are confirmed in writing before execution.
No eligible actual recovery means no recovery fee under the flagship model.
Post-payment freight audit FAQ
How far back can a freight post audit review?
The usable period depends on the available records, governing agreements, carrier rules, contractual or legal deadlines, and the agreed scope. RETALLY confirms the review period before analysis rather than promising one universal lookback window.
Can a post audit run if we already have a freight-payment provider?
Yes. That is the intended use case for the Second-Look Recovery Audit. Existing findings and credits are separated before any net-new opportunity is attributed to RETALLY.
Does a post-audit finding guarantee a refund?
No. A validated finding is not the same as an approved claim or actual recovered funds. Carrier response, evidence, timing, agreements, and other factors can affect the outcome.
Start a bounded historical freight audit
Begin with non-sensitive company, freight-volume, mode, carrier, history, and record-readiness information.
Start My Free Post AuditDo not email freight records, contracts, credentials, or payment data before an approved secure intake route is confirmed.