A few years back, when running our 3PL business, I was digging around for a reference number on an invoice—can't even remember why now. But to my surprise, I stumbled across something that didn’t look right. After combing through, I realised we had discrepancies amounting to a whopping £2,453.32 on just one invoice! Naturally, we went straight to the carrier to challenge it, only to be told that the time window for queries had passed, as per our contract. Despite all our efforts, we couldn’t get that money back—lesson learned, the hard way.
On average, across a year and among 12 of the UK's top couriers, our data shows that you’re likely to be overcharged by around 0.35% of your total invoices. While that might seem like a small amount, in an industry with already squeezed margins, every percentage point is crucial. At the end of the day, it’s money you shouldn’t be paying out—and in many cases, we’re talking tens of thousands of pounds per year.
Now, if it were easy to reconcile, this wouldn’t be a problem. But if you’ve ever laid eyes on a shipping invoice—especially when dealing with large volumes—you know they can be incredibly long and painfully time-consuming to sift through. As previously mentioned, with many couriers, you’re racing against the clock due to set expiry dates for raising any queries, which only adds to the challenge.
Now, just to be clear, we don’t think couriers do this on purpose. More likely, it’s down to accounting slip-ups, clerical errors, outdated software, or just the complexity of running a massive legacy operation.
But the good news is—we figured out how to solve this issue for ourselves through Pimento, our WMS software, and now that you can use it too, we think we've helped solve it for you as well!
We’re excited to introduce 'Invoice Reconciler' as part of the premium set of features on our Scale Plan. With this tool, you can easily upload your courier invoices, and in about 10 seconds, Pimento will generate a detailed report highlighting any overcharges, complete with the corresponding overages and reasons for the discrepancies. In simple terms, it shows you what you should have paid versus what you actually paid. You can then take this report and send it to the respective courier to have the overcharges credited on your next invoice—it's as straightforward as that!
If you're currently scrutinising each invoice—a process that likely takes you hours or even days—'Invoice Reconciler' will reduce that to mere seconds. And if you haven't been cross-checking your invoices yet, this feature will make it incredibly easy to start, helping you catch any discrepancies along the way. The team at Hutch has been using this tool for over 2 years, saving thousands in the process. We’re just putting on the final touches, and it will be available on the Scale Plan next quarter.
If you've been paying attention to the way we talk about Pimento, you’ll notice we refer to ourselves as 'a new kind of WMS.' That’s because one of our guiding principles is "Build for Everyone." We believe your WMS should do more than just manage what happens inside your warehouse as running a warehouse involves much more.
Our mission is to help brands and 3PLs run profitable operations while delivering exceptional experiences to online shoppers and we think 'Invoice Reconciler' is just one of many examples of how we literally thinking outside the box. It’s designed to extend benefits beyond just the operations team. We've seen it revolutionise the accounting processes for some of our early customers, enabling them to save thousands. In fact, one customer even shared that it has paid for the software itself!
If you’re interested in learning more about the 'Invoice Reconciler' feature and how it can help you run a smarter, more profitable warehouse, feel free to drop me an email at sait@getpimento.com. I’d love to chat and see how we can assist you!
