Carrier invoice (freight bill)

The invoice is where a load’s money gets settled, and where the paperwork of the previous week either agrees or does not. A complete carrier invoice carries the carrier’s name and remit-to (or the factoring company’s), the broker’s load number, the pickup and delivery, the date of delivery, the linehaul, fuel if separate, each accessorial as its own line with its support attached, and the total; and it comes with the signed POD.

What the audit checks, against the rate confirmation and the POD:

1. The load number matches, and the invoice is not a duplicate of one already paid.
2. Linehaul and fuel equal the rate confirmation.
3. Every accessorial was authorized on the rate confirmation or approved afterwards, and has its support: times for detention, the receipt for a lumper, the dispatch record for a TONU.
4. The POD is present, signed, and free of exceptions, or the exceptions have been dealt with.
5. The remit-to matches the carrier’s file, or the factor’s notice of assignment.

Most invoices pass. The ones that do not are the same handful of cases every week: an accessorial with no support, a fuel surcharge computed on a different base, a duplicate submission, a POD from a different load. An AP clerk finds them by reading three documents side by side; a system finds them by reading the same three documents and comparing the fields. Either way, the check is the job, not the typing.