Auditing freight and 3PL spend in Global Shop Solutions

Executive Summary

Global Shop Solutions manages freight the way it manages any other job cost: an amount, a GL code, a vendor. It has no native field for a contracted rate per lane, a fuel surcharge formula, or an accessorial fee schedule, so the system has nothing to compare an incoming invoice against except itself. Three-way matching in Global Shop Solutions confirms a freight charge was expected and posted to the right job.

It does not confirm the rate charged matches the rate contracted.

That distinction is where freight margin drift accumulates: a surcharge that should have stepped down with diesel prices and did not, an accessorial fee billed outside its own tariff definition, a minimum charge applied to a shipment that cleared the threshold. None of these throw an error in Global Shop Solutions, because none of them are outside the system's own rules. They are outside the carrier's contract, which the system never held in the first place.

Closing that gap means keeping the rate card, fuel index and accessorial schedule outside the ERP as the reference documents, and checking every freight invoice against them before or after it posts. That can be done as a one-time recovery and control review or built as a standing process. Either way, the check has to happen somewhere Global Shop Solutions was not built to do it.

1. How do you audit freight and 3PL spend in Global Shop Solutions?

You pull freight invoices and payment history out of Global Shop Solutions by vendor and GL code, then check each line against the underlying carrier or 3PL contract rather than against anything the ERP itself stores. That means matching lane rates, fuel surcharge percentages, accessorial fees and minimum charges to the contract document, not to the purchase order or job cost record, because the job cost record only shows what was charged, never what should have been charged.

Start with an export of AP transactions coded to freight and 3PL GL accounts, typically 12 to 18 months, since that is the window most drift accumulates in before anyone notices. Group by carrier.

For each carrier, lay the contract's rate card, fuel index and accessorial tariff next to the invoice history. Global Shop Solutions will confirm the invoice matched a purchase order and a receipt. It will not confirm the rate on that invoice matched the rate the carrier agreed to.

Where the invoice and the contract disagree, log the line, the clause, and the dollar difference. That log becomes the recovery list and, separately, the list of rules a forward control needs to enforce.

2. What does Global Shop Solutions actually check on a freight invoice?

Global Shop Solutions performs standard three-way matching: it confirms the invoice ties to an open purchase order and a recorded receipt, and it flags a duplicate invoice number from the same vendor. Those checks catch clerical errors, not contract violations. A freight bill that matches its own purchase order, was never duplicated, and still charges the wrong fuel surcharge percentage will clear every check the system runs and post without any flag at all.

The purchase order a freight charge matches against is usually a blanket or standing PO for a carrier relationship, not a line-item authorization for a specific lane rate. So the match confirms a freight charge was expected from that vendor in that period, nothing about its correctness.

Three-way matching checks the invoice against the PO and the receipt; it does not test a surcharge's expiration condition, a rate card's lane-specific price, or an accessorial fee against its own tariff definition. Those checks require a document Global Shop Solutions was never given: the contract itself.

3. Where do freight rate discrepancies hide in Global Shop Solutions?

Discrepancies hide anywhere the invoice references a number the ERP does not independently know: the fuel surcharge percentage, the accessorial fee for detention or liftgate service, the minimum billable weight, and the lane-specific base rate. Global Shop Solutions records the total it was billed and posts it. Nothing in the system compares that total, or any of its components, against a contracted figure, so a wrong component simply becomes part of the job cost.

A. Fuel surcharge drift

A fuel surcharge is usually set as a percentage tied to a published diesel index and meant to move with it. Once the carrier's invoicing system applies a surcharge percentage, it can keep applying that percentage after the index that justified it has moved, because nothing on the invoice or in Global Shop Solutions checks the surcharge against the current index value.

B. Accessorial fee drift

Detention, liftgate, residential delivery and redelivery fees each have a tariff definition specifying when they apply. An invoice can bill an accessorial fee for a shipment that did not meet the tariff's own trigger condition. Global Shop Solutions has no field for the trigger condition, only the fee amount, so it cannot test whether the fee was earned.

4. How do fuel surcharges create drift that Global Shop Solutions won't catch?

A fuel surcharge is set as a formula against a published diesel benchmark, and that benchmark moves independently of anything posted in an ERP. The Producer Price Index for gasoline stood at 319.584 in August 2026, up 46.5% year over year (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, PPI Commodity data, series WPU0571, read September 25, 2026). A surcharge percentage set against an earlier, lower benchmark and never recalculated overcharges every invoice it touches until someone checks it.

Diesel and broader truck transportation costs move on their own schedule. The Producer Price Index for truck transportation of freight, series WPU3012, read 177.458 for August 2026, up 14.3% year over year (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, read September 25, 2026). The general freight trucking long-distance truckload index, series PCU484121484121, showed 207.644, up 13.9% year over year over the same period (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, read September 25, 2026).

None of those index movements appear anywhere inside Global Shop Solutions. A surcharge formula is a clause in a contract document, and unless someone re-reads that clause against the current index on a schedule, the invoiced percentage can drift from the contracted one in either direction without the ERP registering anything unusual.

5. What does a freight and 3PL audit in Global Shop Solutions actually involve?

A freight and 3PL audit in Global Shop Solutions combines an AP recovery pass, which finds duplicate payments and missed credit memos already sitting in transaction history, with a contract compliance pass, which checks invoiced rates against the carrier's actual rate card and surcharge terms. Run together, these two passes cover what happened and what should have happened, which is the comparison Global Shop Solutions itself was never built to make.

• Duplicate payment check: Scan freight AP history for repeated invoice amounts and near-identical reference numbers across carriers, since duplicates often post under slightly different formatting and slip past the ERP's own matching logic.
• Rate card comparison: Match every lane's invoiced base rate against the contracted rate card, line by line, rather than trusting the PO match Global Shop Solutions already performed.
• Surcharge recalculation: Recompute the fuel surcharge each invoice should have carried under its contract formula and compare it to what was actually billed.
• Accessorial validation: Test each detention, liftgate or redelivery fee against its tariff's trigger condition rather than accepting the line item as billed.
• Credit memo reconciliation: Confirm every credit a carrier issued was actually applied in Global Shop Solutions and not left sitting unapplied against a later invoice.

6. Should you build this control in Global Shop Solutions or run a diagnostic first?

Build a standing control once you know which rate card clauses, surcharge formulas and accessorial triggers actually get violated in your freight spend. Run the diagnostic first when you do not yet know that, because a control configured before the violations are known enforces whatever rules someone guessed at, not the ones your carriers actually break. Global Shop Solutions has no native field for any of these rules either way, so the reference data lives outside the ERP regardless of.

A periodic audit tests 12 to 18 months of invoice history against the contract documents and produces a recovery figure plus a list of the specific clauses that were violated. A forward control tests every new invoice against those same clauses going forward, which only works if the clause list is complete and current.

Take your annual freight and 3PL spend, multiply by the share you believe moves through carriers with a contracted rate card rather than a spot rate, and that product is roughly the base exposed to this kind of drift. What fraction of it is actually leaking is not something Global Shop Solutions or any spreadsheet built from its exports can tell you without checking the contracts directly.

For the wider pattern this sits inside, start with the margin drift guide. See also diagnostic or software: what to buy first and margin drift diagnostic for infor cloudsuite syteline.

7. Frequently Asked Questions (People Also Ask)

Does Global Shop Solutions do three-way matching on freight invoices?

Yes. It matches the invoice to a purchase order and a receipt and flags duplicate invoice numbers from the same vendor. It does not check the rate, surcharge percentage or accessorial fee on the invoice against the carrier's contract, because it has no field to store those contract terms.

Can I store a carrier's rate card inside Global Shop Solutions?

Not as a structured, checkable rate table. The system holds a purchase order and a GL cost, not a lane-by-lane rate schedule, a fuel surcharge formula, or accessorial tariff definitions, so the rate card has to be kept and checked outside the ERP.

Why does a freight invoice clear Global Shop Solutions and still be wrong?

Because clearing in Global Shop Solutions means the invoice matched an open PO, tied to a receipt, and was not a duplicate. None of those checks test whether the rate, surcharge or fee actually matches what the carrier's contract specifies.

How far back should a freight and 3PL audit look?

Most audits cover 12 to 18 months of AP history, which is enough time to catch a surcharge formula or rate card that drifted without correction and to still have supporting documentation available from carriers and internal records.

What is a fuel surcharge formula and why does it need checking?

It is a contract clause that ties a percentage add-on to a published diesel benchmark, meant to rise and fall with fuel costs. If the percentage applied on invoices is never recalculated against the current benchmark, the surcharge drifts from what the contract actually specifies.

Is this a Global Shop Solutions problem specifically?

No. Any ERP built around job costing and purchase orders, rather than contract management, has the same gap: it can confirm a charge was expected but not that the charge was correct under the vendor's contract terms.

What does an accessorial fee trigger condition mean?

Carrier tariffs define exactly when a fee like detention or liftgate service applies, for example after a set number of free minutes at a dock. The fee is only earned if that condition was met. Global Shop Solutions records the fee amount but has no field for the condition, so it cannot verify the fee was earned.

Can I run this audit myself using Global Shop Solutions exports?

Yes, if you have the carrier contracts, rate cards and surcharge formulas on hand to check against. The export gives you what was billed. The contract documents are what tells you whether that billing was correct, and Global Shop Solutions cannot substitute for either.

What is the difference between an AP recovery audit and a contract compliance audit here?

An AP recovery audit finds errors already in the transaction history, like duplicate payments or unapplied credit memos. A contract compliance audit checks whether invoiced rates, surcharges and fees match what the carrier's contract actually specifies. A full freight audit runs both together.