Why you should audit your 3PL invoices (even if you trust your partner)
Most e-commerce brands treat their 3PL invoice as a fixed cost. You ship, they bill, you pay. But fulfillment billing is rarely that simple. Contract rates get updated without notice, surcharges get applied in ways that don’t match your agreement, and small errors compound across thousands of orders.
We’ve seen brands overpay by 10–25% for years without realizing it. Not because their 3PL is “bad”—often the opposite: the relationship is good, so nobody double-checks the numbers.
What usually goes wrong
- Storage billed on outdated dimensions or wrong SKUs
- Pick fees that don’t match your contract tiers
- Surcharges with no clear description or approval
- Rate increases applied without a formal change order
- Minimums and accessorials that no longer apply
An audit doesn’t mean you don’t trust your partner. It means you treat fulfillment like the significant cost line it is—and you want to pay for what you actually use, nothing more.
Book a discovery call to see what might be hiding in your last few months of invoices.