Invoicing freight and recharging duties with proof
How the Logistics pack requests the signed proof of delivery, invoices the freight and recharges duties and storage with their proof attached.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
Freight forwarders spend other people's money all the time. To get a load through, they pay import duties at the border, storage at the port while a document is chased, demurrage on a container that sat too long, and a handling fee at the depot. Every one of those is money the shipper owes back. And every one is a candidate for a dispute when the recharge invoice arrives: "What is this storage charge? We never agreed to it. Send us the receipt."
If the receipt cannot be found, the forwarder often ends up absorbing the cost. On a busy lane, those absorbed costs can wipe out the margin on the freight itself.
The Logistics & freight pack in Achekam's Industry CRM closes each shipment with three steps designed to stop that happening. This article walks through them.
Three steps once the load is delivered
The pack's shipment workflow finishes with:
- a request for the signed proof of delivery;
- the freight invoice; and
- recharges of disbursements, such as duties and storage, sent with their proof.
The order is deliberate. The proof of delivery shows the job was done; the freight invoice charges for it; the recharges recover what you paid on the shipper's behalf, with the evidence attached so they are hard to dispute.
Requesting the signed proof of delivery
A workflow step in the Industry CRM can send the customer a request for documents, and the customer's answer moves the task on. Here, it asks for the signed proof of delivery when the driver's copy has not come back, or when the consignee is a third party and the shipper holds the signed copy.
The proof of delivery also controls the shipment record. A shipment in the pack can be marked Delivered only with a delivery date and the name of whoever signed the proof of delivery, as described in shipments leg by leg to signed proof of delivery. Invoicing a load that the record does not yet show as delivered invites exactly the dispute you are trying to avoid.
Invoicing the freight
Next comes the freight invoice. In Achekam, an invoice is created as a draft you can still change, and issuing it takes the next number in your sequence and posts it to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT.
Keep the freight invoice about freight. Charge the agreed rate for the lanes moved, and any agreed extras such as waiting time, and leave the disbursements to their own lines or their own invoice. A shipper's accounts team can then approve the freight, which matches their quote, without waiting for a query on a storage charge to be resolved.
Recharging duties and storage with their proof
The third step recharges the disbursements, each with its proof. The proof is the point. A recharge supported by the receipt is a reimbursement the shipper can check in a minute. A recharge without one is a claim they can reasonably question.
| Disbursement | The proof to attach |
|---|---|
| Import duty and taxes | The customs receipt or payment confirmation, with the entry number |
| Port or depot storage | The storage invoice, with the dates the load was held |
| Demurrage or detention | The line's or depot's invoice and the free-time terms |
| Handling or inspection fees | The service provider's invoice |
A recharge in words
A forwarder moves a consignment of machinery from the port to a customer's site. The load is held at the port while the shipper's supplier corrects a commercial invoice, so the forwarder pays the port's storage charges and the import duty to get it released. After delivery, the shipper receives the freight invoice for the agreed rate. Separately, it receives the recharge for duty and storage, with the customs receipt and the port's storage invoice attached. The shipper's accounts team can see why storage arose, how long the load was held and what was paid. There is very little left to query.
Before a recharge goes out, check three things: the cost relates to this shipment, it was not already in the agreed freight rate, and the proof shows the same amount you are recharging. Where the shipper's own sale uses an Incoterms rule, the ICC's page on the Incoterms rules explains the three-letter trade terms that set who pays for and carries the risk of goods at each stage of delivery.
Whether a recharge carries VAT, and which tax code it takes, depends on how the cost was incurred and on your country's rules. Agree the treatment of each kind of disbursement with your adviser before you start, and apply it consistently.
Disputes the documents prevent
Most freight invoice disputes fall into a few familiar shapes, and each has a documentary answer:
- "The load never arrived." The proof of delivery shows the date and who signed.
- "We didn't agree to storage." The storage invoice shows the dates the load was held, which you can set against the delays in the shipment's record.
- "That duty figure is wrong." The customs receipt shows what was paid and against which entry.
- "Why is this on our account?" The shipment's record shows which shipper, lane and load the cost relates to.
None of these documents is hard to keep at the time. All of them are hard to find three months later.
Making it routine
Agree with operations that no shipment is invoiced until it is marked Delivered, ask your clearing agents to send receipts with every payment they make on your behalf, and decide with your adviser how each kind of recharge is coded. New shippers should agree, in their signed trading terms, that disbursements will be recharged with proof; see shipper credit applications and signed terms.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
