Freight audit checks a carrier's invoice against the applicable contract, rate card and shipment evidence. A useful audit explains what was billed, what should have been billed and why. Recovering an overcharge then requires a decision, a supported claim, a carrier response and confirmation that the correction or credit reached your records.
A spreadsheet of possible errors still leaves a transport or finance team collecting documents, sending disputes and checking whether promised credits arrive. Agentic freight audit carries the approved recovery process through those steps.
Duvo combines freight invoice audit with execution across existing systems, human approvals, and operator and executive dashboards. The Duvo Loop connects that execution to learning: each verified result helps the team improve the next cycle.
What freight audit checks
The starting point is the agreement that applies to the shipment. A rate from the wrong contract period can make a correct invoice look wrong. An accessorial charge may be legitimate, but the supporting record may sit in a carrier portal rather than in the invoice extract.
| Check | Evidence needed | Decision it supports |
|---|---|---|
| Base rate and discount | Applicable contract, rate card, lane and service | Does the billed rate match the agreed terms? |
| Weight or freight class | Shipment record and any reweigh or reclassification evidence | Is the change supported? |
| Fuel and accessorial charges | Relevant schedule, shipment facts and required approvals | Was this charge due, and was it calculated correctly? |
| Duplicate billing | Invoice references, shipment identifiers and payment history | Has the same obligation already been billed or paid? |
| Adjustment or credit | Carrier response, corrected invoice or credit, and finance records | Did the agreed correction actually arrive? |
Missing evidence must remain visible. An absent reweigh certificate is a reason to investigate; it is not, by itself, proof that the carrier owes the full disputed amount.
Timing also changes the outcome. Before payment, an approved correction can prevent an overpayment. After payment, the process must recover and reconcile the amount owed. Freight payment itself is a separate action with its own permissions and controls.
Software or managed audit?
When comparing freight audit software and outsourced audit providers, establish who will do the work after an error is found. A software purchase, a managed audit service and an agentic workflow can all include automation. The useful distinction is the responsibility your team retains.
| Approach | What to establish before choosing |
|---|---|
| Software operated by your team | Who maintains the rate data, reviews exceptions, submits disputes and checks credits? Which of those steps does the product execute? |
| Managed audit service | Which audit and recovery tasks does the provider own? What comes back to your team, and how can you inspect progress and challenge a finding? |
| Agentic execution | Which steps can agents complete across your systems? Where do people decide, and who owns a stalled claim or failed update? |
For a large retailer or shipping operation, test the proposed scope against your actual carrier mix, entities and peak invoice volumes. Include an invoice with missing evidence and a claim that receives only a partial credit. Ask who owns each case through to closure, including after it leaves the audit system.
Duvo starts with a file-based audit of an agreed sample. Recurring recovery adds the permitted system access, carrier channels and approval rules needed to execute the process. Your transport, AP and IT teams should review those requirements before the production scope is agreed.
Comparing Duvo and Freehand
Buyers considering agentic freight audit may evaluate both Duvo and Freehand. Freehand's published freight audit offering and dispute-management documentation describe automated disputes and credit tracking. End-to-end execution is therefore a capability to examine closely across providers, not a claim to accept from a category label.
Duvo's approach connects freight recovery to the wider operating process: understanding the current handoffs, executing the version your team approves, exposing operator and executive views, and using verified outcomes to improve subsequent cycles. It can span APIs, browser-based portals and desktop applications within the supported scope, while preserving the required human decisions.
Ask each provider to demonstrate the same representative invoices and exceptions. Evaluate:
- Coverage: the carriers, modes, entities, document formats and checks supported by the proposed scope, including how incomplete records are reported.
- Resolution: who submits the dispute, handles a changed claim and follows up when the carrier does not respond.
- Control: what happens when approval is missing, evidence contradicts the finding or a system update fails.
- Visibility: whether an operator can act on the exception and an executive can trace a reported result to its records.
- Improvement: how a resolved exception changes the next cycle, and who authorizes that change.
- Implementation: what your team must supply, how systems are accessed, and who tests the audit rules, approval paths and finance updates before recurring execution.
A useful evaluation includes a legitimate charge as well as an overcharge. Correctly closing a false alarm is part of a good audit. So is showing that a claim stays unresolved when the supporting credit has not arrived.
What does freight audit cost?
Freight audit quotes may charge per invoice or shipment, a recurring subscription, or a share of recovered savings. C & S Transportation describes these structures in its freight audit pricing comparison. Compare quotes using the same invoice volume and scope, including whether the fee covers dispute handling and credit reconciliation.
Ask for setup and integration costs, recurring minimums and charges for work outside the agreed scope. If fees depend on savings, define whether that means a flagged discrepancy, an accepted claim or a credit actually received. A low audit fee can still leave your team doing the recovery work.
With Duvo, you agree a fixed fee for the work upfront, with no token or seat charges. We back the agreed scope with a 5× ROI guarantee: if the measured value is less than five times the contract price, the contract is free. See pricing and guarantee terms.
From finding to recovery
Consider a carrier invoice with an unexpected weight adjustment. The transport team needs to establish which weight is correct and whether the charge follows the contract. A missing reweigh certificate triggers an evidence request before anyone decides to dispute the invoice.
Duvo assembles the invoice, applicable terms, calculation and shipment records so the reviewer can inspect the claim. The authorized person can accept the invoice, request more evidence or approve a dispute. Within the agreed scope, Duvo then submits the approved claim through the carrier's channel, follows the response and brings unresolved questions back to the responsible person.
A carrier may accept only part of a claim or supply evidence that changes the calculation. The process must preserve that history and route the new decision correctly. Once a correction or credit arrives, Duvo reconciles it against the approved claim and updates the permitted finance records. An unanswered email remains open; a partial credit leaves an identifiable balance.
The advantage is practical: the person who approves a claim does not also have to act as the routing system between every document, inbox, portal and ledger. Duvo runs the approved steps while the team retains the decisions that need its authority or judgment.
Where people decide
Automation works well when a step has sufficient evidence and a permitted action. Freight recovery also contains decisions that depend on commercial context. A transport manager may know why an exceptional delivery charge was agreed. AP may need to assess a payment hold against the terms. Procurement may own a recurring carrier issue.
Those responsibilities should be defined before execution starts. Specify which discrepancies can follow an approved rule, which require a named reviewer, what happens when that reviewer is unavailable and where a disputed interpretation goes next. A handoff should include the evidence and the decision required, so the recipient can act without repeating the investigation.
Duvo's process discovery captures how the current process runs across those people and systems. Automation executes the approved version. The result is a workflow the team can operate, including its exceptions, rather than a collection of disconnected automated tasks.
Operator and executive views
Duvo provides both views through Operating Insights. They connect to the underlying process records, so a dashboard number can be investigated rather than accepted at face value.
The operator dashboard is for the next decision: findings awaiting review, missing evidence, carrier responses and recovery steps that need attention. An operator can see the reason and supporting records before deciding how the process should continue.
The executive dashboard is for the performance of the agreed process: completed activity, intervention and failures, unresolved recovery, and verified outcomes against the baseline. For freight recovery, configure the view to keep potential discrepancies, approved claims and confirmed credits separate. A large amount found should never conceal a small amount actually resolved.
This also makes bottlenecks actionable. If claims are prepared quickly but wait for internal approval, more invoice-checking automation will not remove that delay. The process owner can address the approval handoff using the records behind the result.
How the Duvo Loop learns
The Duvo Loop makes improvement part of running the process:
- Capture. Establish the current invoice-to-resolution process through the team's explanations, walkthroughs and records. Include who decides and where evidence is obtained.
- Diagnose. Identify the discrepancy and the process problems around it: missing shipment references, repeated document requests or an approval that consistently stalls.
- Decide. Apply the agreed authority. The responsible person reviews a disputed finding or approves a proposed change to the process.
- Act. Duvo carries out the authorized steps across the relevant systems, including evidence gathering, dispute submission and follow-up.
- Verify. Check that the action landed and that the outcome is supported. Match a received credit to the claim and keep any shortfall open.
- Learn. Use resolved claims, rejected claims and recurring exceptions to recommend better evidence collection, checks and handoffs for later cycles.
For example, repeated reweigh disputes may show that requesting a particular carrier document earlier avoids an extra review cycle. Duvo can surface that improvement for the process owner to approve. The next approved process then retrieves the document before asking the reviewer to decide.
The process improves from its own results without silently changing commercial terms or payment authority. Learning produces a proposed improvement; approval makes it the rule for future execution.
Get a free sample audit
The free freight audit starts with an agreed sample, rate cards and shipment records. You receive an invoice-level report with evidence, missing records and the next decision. Download the sample Excel report to see the expected output.
Use that first result to assess the checking quality. Then agree recurring audit, recovery execution, dashboard views and the approval rules for the continuing process. Supplier invoices need a related but distinct set of checks; the accounts payable recovery audit guide explains that workflow.
Frequently asked questions
What is freight audit?
Freight audit checks carrier invoices against the applicable contracts, rate cards and shipment evidence. It identifies discrepancies for review before payment or supports recovery of charges already paid.
What makes freight audit agentic?
An agentic freight audit solution can interpret evidence and execute the approved recovery workflow: prepare claims, submit disputes, handle responses, follow up and reconcile credits. Required human decisions remain part of the process.
How does Duvo improve freight audits?
The Duvo Loop uses verified outcomes, recurring exceptions and human decisions to identify improvements. The process owner reviews and approves changes before they govern later audits, disputes or payment actions.
What data do we need to start?
Start with carrier invoices, the applicable contracts or rate cards, surcharge schedules and shipment records for an agreed sample. Include payment and credit records when checking charges already paid. The first audit uses files without live ERP access, with a reviewer who can explain missing records and validate findings.
How much does Duvo cost?
Duvo agrees a fixed fee for the work upfront, with no token or seat charges. The agreed scope carries a 5× ROI guarantee: if the measured value is less than five times the contract price, the contract is free. See Duvo's pricing and guarantee terms.
How should we compare Duvo and Freehand?
Ask both providers to demonstrate the same invoices and exceptions through to a reconciled credit. Compare carrier coverage, system access, dispute ownership, human approvals and implementation effort. With Duvo, also examine how operator and executive dashboards support the workflow and how the Duvo Loop turns resolved exceptions into approved process improvements.
Can freight audit recover charges already paid?
Yes. A post-payment freight audit can identify overcharges on paid invoices. Duvo validates the evidence, submits approved claims, follows carrier responses and reconciles received credits or refunds within the agreed scope. A pre-payment audit instead checks charges before payment so approved corrections can prevent an overpayment.