Summary
Shipping Cost Audit compares what you expected to pay for each shipment, calculated from your carrier rate cards, with what the carrier billed on its invoice, and shows the difference per cost line. It brings cost data together across Invoice Overview, Booking Overview, Shipment Overview and the Shipping Cost section of every shipment, so billing discrepancies are found without spreadsheets.Who it’s for
Finance and accounting teams who reconcile carrier invoices, logistics operations managers who investigate unexpected shipping costs, and procurement teams who prepare carrier rate discussions. The problem it solves is that invoice checking is otherwise manual, partial and too slow to recover overcharges.Key benefits
- Every invoice is checked against your rate card. Once a carrier invoice is processed, each matched shipment shows a Rate-Card Rate, an Invoice Cost and the Discrepancy between them, per cost line.
- Weight differences are visible. The Weight Breakdown shows the weight you declared, the volumetric weight where the carrier bills by volume, the weight tier the rate card used and the weight the carrier billed, so you can tell a measurement dispute from a pricing one.
- Discrepancies are categorized. Filter Booking Overview by Base Charge, Duty & Tax or Other Surcharges discrepancies to find the shipments worth investigating.
- Landed cost in one view. Freight, duty and tax, and surcharge invoices link to the same shipment, and the shipment total is the sum of all of them.
- Reports you can hand to the carrier. Export processed invoices to an Excel report with an invoice summary and a per-shipment cost breakdown.
How it works
Key terms
Where cost data appears
Cost values display as a three-letter currency code with two decimals, for example
USD 23.00. Hover over a column or line item for a tooltip explaining its data source.
Cost Breakdown
The Cost Breakdown table in Shipment or Booking Details lists each cost line with its Rate-Card Rate, Invoice Cost and Discrepancy:- Base Charge. Its tooltip shows the Weight Type, Rate-Card Weight, Rate-Card Rate, Invoice Cost and Discrepancy together.
- Fuel Surcharge. The tooltip shows the percentage rate applied.
- Duty & Tax. Appears once a duty and tax invoice is matched to the shipment and at least one of Invoice Cost or Rate-Card Rate exists. Hidden otherwise.
- Surcharges. Each surcharge from an Other Charges invoice (for example Remote Area Surcharge or Return Charge) is its own line item, not grouped under a generic heading.
Weight Breakdown
The Weight Breakdown table shows Shipment Weight, Volumetric Weight (when applicable), Rate-Card Weight and Invoice Weight, each with a tooltip on how it is derived. A difference between Rate-Card Weight and Invoice Weight points to a weight measurement discrepancy rather than a rate error.Filtering and search
Two filters in Booking Overview combine with your existing filters and only show options that have data:
The Duty & Tax option appears only when duty and tax discrepancies exist. Invoice Overview and Booking Overview also filter by invoice type.
The Booking Overview search accepts Invoice No., Invoice UUID, Rate Card ID and Rate Card UUID, with partial matching, to find shipments tied to a specific invoice or rate card. Filtering by cost amount ranges is not available.
Invoice Overview dashboard
The dashboard loads with the current month and is scoped to freight invoices. The calendar dropdown offers a rolling 12 months; the month is matched on the invoice’s Invoice Date. The invoice table below the dashboard is not affected by the month filter and lists all invoices.
Costs above one million display in a shortened form such as
EUR 1.24M.
Currency conversion
Choose a display currency from the dropdown in the dashboard header. The list contains only currencies that appear in invoices uploaded in the past 12 months; the default is EUR until you choose. Your choice is saved in your browser. Converted values carry a conversion icon; hover to see the original currency and full amount. Rates are refreshed daily from the European Central Bank reference rates; on weekends and holidays the most recent rate is used. Invoice details always show the original invoice currency without conversion.Invoice details
Click an invoice row to open its details panel: Carrier, Invoice ID, Invoice No., Invoice Type, Invoice Date, Billing Period, Total Invoice Amount, Shipments, Avg Cost per Shipment and Due Date. Fields with no data are hidden. The Service Overview breaks the invoice down by shipping service (Shipments, Weight in kg, Avg Cost, Total) with a TOTAL row; a dash means no value,0 means zero. Service names appear as the carrier wrote them.
The Cost Breakdown section of the panel shows summary cards for Total Shipments, Matched Shipments and Audited Shipments, and a table aggregating Rate-Card Rate, Invoice Cost and Discrepancy across audited shipments. View Invoiced Shipments opens Shipment Overview filtered to that invoice.
Invoice reports
Select one or more invoices with OK status in Invoice Overview and export. You receive an email with a download link valid for 7 days. The Excel file has two sheets:- Invoice Summary. Invoice No., UUID, carrier, date added, invoice period, totals by category (Base Charge, Fuel Surcharge, Other Surcharges, Total Cost) and currency.
- Shipment Cost Breakdown. Per shipment: Shipment Weight, Volumetric Weight, Rate-Card Weight, Invoice Weight and Weight Difference; cost per line item (surcharges named by type); discrepancy per cost category.
[InvoiceType]_Invoice_[InvoiceNo]_[Date].xlsx, for example Duty&Tax_Invoice_A1234567_2026-01-14.xlsx. Exporting several invoices packages them in InvoiceReports_[Date].zip. Reports and emails are in English only.
Duty and tax comparison
When a duty and tax rate card is set up for a carrier, the Rate-Card Rate for the Duty & Tax line is estimated per shipment from its product line items. The estimate is produced only when the destination country is covered by the rate card, the product reference matches a reference in the rate card and the line item is priced in SGD; otherwise the Rate-Card Rate shows-. Product line items with product references must be sent at shipment level for this to work. Credit notes are not processed, and remote area surcharges are not calculated as a separate duty and tax line.
Languages
Labels, tooltips and filter options are available in German, Spanish and French as well as English. Numbers and units are the same in every language.Set up in the portal
Shipping Cost Audit has no configuration screen of its own. It works once rate cards and invoices are in place:- Make sure a rate card is configured for each carrier you want to audit. See Rate Card Management.
- Upload the carrier’s invoices in Cost Audit > Invoice Overview and wait until their status is OK. See Carrier Invoice Processing.
- Open Booking Overview, select the Shipping Cost Audit bookmark and use the Shipping Cost Type and Discrepancy Types filters to find the shipments to review.
- Open a shipment and scroll to the Shipping Cost section to compare the Weight Breakdown and Cost Breakdown.
- To share findings, return to Invoice Overview, select the invoices and export the report.
If you cannot see the Shipping Cost Audit columns, bookmark or Invoice Overview, ask your account team to confirm the module is enabled for your organization.
Use via API and MCP
There is no REST endpoint for invoices or cost audit data. From an AI assistant connected through the Perform.AI MCP, the toolslist_invoices, get_invoice_detail, get_invoice_stats and list_invoice_exchange_rates read your invoices, their cost breakdown, statistics and the exchange rates used for conversion. See Installation and Tools.