Freight audit providers fall into three groups. Freight audit and payment firms such as Cass Information Systems, nVision Global, CTSI-Global and U.S. Bank Freight Payment check each carrier invoice and pay the carrier for you. Software platforms such as Trax Technologies, Intelligent Audit, Loop (loop.com) and Freehand run the audit in software and can also pay carriers or add a managed service. A third group leaves payment with your AP team. Duvo checks carrier invoices against the contract and shipment evidence, then submits approved disputes and follows them through to a verified correction or credit. Shipping software such as FreightPOP and nShift also includes invoice audit tools.
For a large retailer, the first question is whether the provider should pay your carriers. After that, compare who handles a dispute until the credit arrives, and whether the provider covers the modes you ship, from parcel and LTL to ocean and air.
Duvo sells freight audit too, so it is one of the options on this page.
Freight audit providers compared
| Provider | Type | Pays your carriers | Scope it publishes | Pricing it publishes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cass Information Systems | Audit and payment service with its own bank | Yes | Rates each shipment, audits the invoice against it and pays the carrier. Says it processed 35 million freight invoices worth $37 billion in 2025 | Not on its site. Its annual report describes per-item fees and income from payment balances |
| nVision Global | Audit and payment service with software | Yes | TL, LTL, air, ocean, intermodal and regional carriers in one audit and payment process | Not published |
| CTSI-Global | Audit and payment service with its own TMS | Yes | A 45-point multimodal audit with refund processing for exceptions. Parcel is a separate service | Not published |
| U.S. Bank Freight Payment | Audit and payment run by a bank | Yes | All modes plus small parcel, with a pre-payment audit of every invoice (carrier page). Says it processed more than $46 billion of freight payments in 2025 | Not published |
| Trax Technologies | Software platform with services | Makes disbursements to carriers | All modes, currencies and regions | Performance-based pricing, no figures |
| Intelligent Audit | Software with a dedicated audit team | Yes, through a carrier payments product | Freight and parcel, any mode | Subscription based on annual shipment volume, modes and number of carriers |
| Loop (loop.com) | AI software with an optional managed service | Yes: custodial, directed disbursement, or a pay file you execute | Parcel, LTL, FTL, ocean and air, audited before payment | Not published |
| Freehand | AI audit, dispute and payment software | Yes. Its payment agent routes approved payments to bank rails | Parcel, LTL, FTL, ocean, air, intermodal and last mile | By invoice volume, quoted after a scoping call |
| Duvo | Audit and recovery work run across your existing systems | Your AP team pays. Approved corrections reach your ERP before payment | Carrier invoices from email, portals, EDI files, AP queues or a TMS, checked against contracts and shipment evidence. Approved disputes are followed to a verified correction or credit | Price agreed before work starts, with no token or seat charges (pricing) |
Which group fits depends mostly on who should pay your carriers:
- A provider pays them: Cass Information Systems, nVision Global, CTSI-Global or U.S. Bank Freight Payment. Ask how the provider earns from the payment flow as well as from your fees.
- Software, with payment or a managed service if you want it: Trax Technologies, Intelligent Audit, Loop (loop.com) or Freehand. Ask which parts of the audit and dispute work the product executes and which fall to a service team or to you.
- Your AP team keeps paying: FreightPOP compares each invoice with the original shipment quote before export to AP, nShift sells carrier invoice audit software that builds disputes and tracks recoveries, and Duvo runs the audit and dispute work across your existing systems.
Navix also appears in freight audit searches, but it is built for freight brokers and 3PLs rather than shippers.
How much is at stake depends on your own invoices. CTSI-Global states that 3 to 5% of annual transportation spend is billed incorrectly by carriers. An audit of a sample of your invoices is the number to plan on.
How freight audit providers charge
Freight audit providers charge per invoice or shipment, as a share of the savings, by subscription, or partly through income from paying carriers. None of the providers above publishes a price list, so compare the models:
- A fee per invoice or shipment. The provider charges a set rate for each invoice or shipment it audits, whatever the audit finds. C & S Transportation, itself a freight audit provider, explains this and the other models in its pricing comparison. Freehand prices by invoice volume.
- A share of savings. The fee is a percentage of the money the audit saves or recovers. It is common for audits of invoices already paid: US federal guidance notes that a post-payment audit contract generally pays the auditor "a percentage of the recovered amount" (GSA transportation handbook). loop.com's guide to freight audit companies puts these gain shares at 5% to more than 50%, depending on the recovery model. Trax describes its pricing as performance-based.
- A subscription. A recurring fee for the platform, usually tied to volume. Intelligent Audit sets its subscription by annual shipment volume, modes and number of carriers.
- Income from paying carriers. Providers that pay carriers can earn from that flow too. Cass's annual report says it is paid through per-item service fees, discounts for services it provides to carriers, and payment balances that can earn interest.
Whatever the model, C & S Transportation's advice holds: "A clear agreement should specify which recoveries qualify, how the provider calculates fees, and whether it excludes certain types of corrections." Compare quotes on the same invoice volume and scope. Ask for setup and integration costs, minimums, and whether the fee covers dispute handling and the check that a credit arrived. If the fee depends on savings, define whether a saving means a flagged discrepancy, an accepted claim or a credit received. Ask each provider which outcome it will commit to in the contract.
Duvo prices the agreed scope before the work starts, with no token or seat charges. See pricing.
What a large retailer should check
Ask every shortlisted provider the same questions:
| What to check | What to ask each provider |
|---|---|
| Carrier payment | Who holds the funds, when carriers are paid and what the provider earns from payment on either side |
| Timing | What share of invoices is checked before payment, and how invoices already paid are recovered |
| Modes and carriers | Coverage for your carrier list, parcel and freight, domestic and international, and how missing rate data is reported |
| Disputes and credits | Who files the dispute, follows up with the carrier and confirms the credit reached your records |
| What counts as a saving | Whether fees and reports count flagged discrepancies, accepted claims or credits received |
| Systems | How invoices, approvals, GL codes and corrections move between the provider, your TMS and your ERP, and what that integration costs |
| Evidence | Whether your team can trace each finding to the invoice, the contract terms and the shipment record |
Timing also matters. As the GSA handbook says, "A prepayment audit will detect overcharges prior to the invoice being paid." After payment, the amount has to be recovered and reconciled instead.
Test the shortlist on the same sample of your own invoices. Include a legitimate charge, an invoice with missing evidence and a claim that ends in a partial credit. Closing a false alarm correctly is part of a good audit, and so is keeping a claim open when the credit has not arrived.
Who does the work after an error is found
Software, a managed service and agentic execution can all include automation. They differ in the work your team keeps.
| Approach | What to establish before choosing |
|---|---|
| Software your team operates | 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 a failed update? |
For a large retailer, test the proposed scope against your actual carrier mix, entities and peak invoice volumes, and ask who owns each claim through to closure.
Where Duvo fits
Duvo runs the audit and recovery work around the systems you already use. It reads carrier invoices from email, portal exports, EDI files, AP queues or your TMS, matches each invoice line to its shipment, and checks rates, discounts, minimums, fuel surcharge caps, accessorials, detention and service-level credits against the contract. Overcharges outside policy, unclear evidence and material disputes go to the invoice owner with the evidence already assembled. Approved corrections are applied before the invoice is paid, approved claims go to the carrier and are followed to resolution, and the status, evidence and reason codes are written back to SAP.
Duvo works with the payment process you already run: approved corrections reach your ERP before your AP team pays the carrier. If you want a provider to take over carrier payment, compare the audit and payment firms above.
Whichever tools you shortlist, ask each one to take the same invoices and exceptions through to a reconciled credit, and evaluate:
- Coverage: the carriers, modes, entities, document formats and checks in 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.
- Implementation: what your team must supply, how systems are accessed, and who tests the audit rules, approval paths and finance updates before recurring work starts.
In Operating Insights, operators and executives see views built on the same records: the operator's for the next decision, such as findings awaiting review, missing evidence and carrier replies, and the executive's for the result of the agreed process. For freight, configure the executive view to keep potential discrepancies, approved claims and confirmed credits separate, so a large amount found never hides a small amount resolved. The Duvo Loop uses resolved and rejected claims to propose better checks and earlier evidence requests, and the process owner approves each change before it applies to later audits.
From finding to recovery
Take the example in Duvo's sample report, which comes from its product record rather than a customer audit. A carrier invoice billed $3,550.00 against an expected $1,265.02. The carrier billed for a 7,300 lb reweigh with no certificate on file, so the record applies the 5,900 lb bill-of-lading weight and the 58% contract discount. The $2,284.98 difference is a potential overcharge until someone decides.
The record gives the reviewer two choices: approve the invoice and post the full amount as billed, or dispute the difference and hold the SAP posting until the carrier responds. If the reviewer approves a dispute, Duvo records it with the supporting evidence, sends the request, obtains the missing evidence, including the reweigh certificate, and routes any changed amount or unresolved term back to the owner.
A carrier may accept only part of a claim or supply evidence that changes the calculation. The history stays with the claim and the new decision goes to the right person. Once a correction or credit arrives, Duvo reconciles it against the approved claim and updates the permitted finance records. An unanswered email stays open, and a partial credit leaves an identifiable balance.
Get a free sample audit
The free freight audit starts with an agreed sample of carrier invoices, 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 judge the quality of the checks. Then agree recurring audit, recovery, 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 process, and AP recovery audit firms for large retailers compares the providers.
How we compared
We included providers that audit carrier invoices for large shippers and publish their scope, across the three models: audit and payment firms, software platforms and providers that leave payment with your AP team. Each description comes from the provider's own website, or from Cass's annual report filed with the SEC, checked on 28 September 2026. "Not published" means we could not find the fact on the provider's own pages; it may still be available on request. Duvo's row describes Duvo's own offer. Providers change their products and terms, so confirm the details with each one.
Frequently asked questions
Which freight audit providers should a large retailer compare?
Compare three kinds of provider, grouped by who pays your carriers. Freight audit and payment firms such as Cass Information Systems, nVision Global, CTSI-Global and U.S. Bank Freight Payment check and pay carrier invoices for you. Software platforms such as Trax Technologies, Intelligent Audit, Loop (loop.com) and Freehand run the audit in software and can also pay carriers or add a managed service. If your AP team keeps paying carriers, compare Duvo with the audit tools in shipping software such as FreightPOP and nShift. Duvo checks carrier invoices against the contract and shipment evidence, then submits approved disputes and follows them through to a verified correction or credit. Within each group, ask who handles disputes and which modes each provider covers.
How do freight audit providers charge?
The common models are a fee per invoice or shipment, a share of the savings or recoveries, and a subscription based on volume. Providers that pay carriers can also earn from the payment process. Few publish prices, so ask each provider to quote the same invoice volume and to define in the contract what counts as a saving.
What is the difference between freight audit software and a freight audit and payment provider?
Freight audit software checks carrier invoices and can leave payment to your own AP process or ERP. A freight audit and payment provider also pays the carriers on your behalf. Several software vendors now offer payment or a managed service as well, so ask each one who holds the funds and who handles disputes.
Should the freight audit provider also pay our carriers?
It depends on how you want to run payment. A provider that pays carriers puts audit and payment in one place, but it then handles the payment flow and may earn from it: Cass's annual report, for example, describes income from services to carriers and from payment balances. If your AP team wants to keep paying carriers through your ERP, choose a tool that checks invoices and hands approved amounts back to your process.
Can freight audit recover charges already paid?
Yes. A post-payment freight audit can identify overcharges on paid invoices. Duvo assembles the evidence for your reviewer to validate, 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.
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 prices the agreed scope before the work starts, with no token or seat charges. See Duvo's pricing.