The Audity 23-Point Reconciliation, in full

Every consignment re-rated from your contract. An old rate card left running after a negotiated decrease is the most common single error in freight billing.

Carriers bill the greater of dead and cubic weight. A cubic factor that doesn't match your contract inflates every cubic-bound consignment you ship.

Lines rated in the correct weight break, and "greater of minimum or calculated" applied the way your contract states — not a minimum stacked on top of a calculated charge.

The percentage, the base it is applied to, and the mechanism behind it — checked month by month. Small percentage errors compounded across a year are usually the single largest claim.

Tail lift, hand unload, futile delivery, redelivery, dangerous goods, residential, oversize. Two questions each: is it in the rate card at that price, and was it ever actually requested?

The same consignment on two invoices, the same invoice issued twice, or freight billed by consignment and then again on a summary invoice.

On-time, loss, damage and proof-of-delivery credits your SLA promises. Service failures that were never credited, inside the claim window, are recoverable.

Was the rise permitted under the cap, and was contractual notice actually given? An increase applied early or above cap is recoverable back to the date it started.

Free period honoured, correct unit and rounding rule, and billed pallet-weeks reconciled against stock movement. Billing the month's peak when the contract says daily average is a classic.

Receipt and despatch at contracted rates, plus a check for a single movement billed twice under two different names.

Per order, per line or per unit. Billing per line when the rate card says per order is one of the largest recoveries available in warehousing.

Shrink wrap, labels, pallet hire, cycle counts, admin fees. In the card, and requested? Pallet hire is frequently double-dipped when freight already covers the transfer.

Calculated the way the contract states, and not charged in months where your activity already exceeded the minimum.

Quantity times rate equals the line amount, and the lines sum to the invoice total. It fails more often than anyone expects.

Correct treatment on taxable and GST-free supplies, and GST not applied on top of a rate that was already GST-inclusive.

Every credit promised in an email, a dispute log or the SLA, matched to a credit note that actually issued. Promised and issued are not the same thing.

The same charge appearing in consecutive months — the same pallet-week, billed twice, two invoices apart.

Every line reading misc, general, sundry, adjustment or admin. No contractual basis, no charge. Where a basis might exist but isn't proven, the vendor is asked to substantiate it line by line.

Courier-weight consignments travelling on pallet rates. Usually the largest structural saving on the table, and nothing to do with what your carrier owes you.

Express and priority services bought on lanes where the transit data shows standard service would have met the need.

Multiple consignments to the same destination on the same day that would have rated cheaper as one.

Volume sitting just above a break point or a minimum, where renegotiating the structure is worth more than arguing about the rate.

Your effective levy charted against the national diesel price. The pattern to look for: it climbs when diesel climbs, then stays at the peak when diesel falls.