Checklist · print and tick
3PL month-end billing checklist
What to check before a pallet warehouse sends its monthly invoices. It works the same whether you bill from a spreadsheet, an accounting package or billing software.
Print it and tick it off at month-end.
Updated September 19, 2026
01 Rates, before the month closes
- Every client with activity this month has a rate card that covers the whole month.
- Rate changes agreed by email or phone are written down with the date they start.
- New clients have an opening balance: the pallets already on the floor when billing began.
- Every service you did for a client has a price on that client's rate card.
02 Receipts and shipments
- Every receiving tally and bill of lading for the month is entered, dated the day the pallets moved, not the day it was typed in.
- Late trucks and weekend receipts are marked, so after-hours receiving is charged where the contract says so.
- Same-day cross-docks are entered as a receipt and a shipment.
- Shipments on the first days of next month are dated next month.
03 Services and extras
- Restacks, rewraps, repacks, labelling and palletising are recorded with a quantity and a unit.
- Anything done at a client's request by phone has a record, not just a memory.
04 Counts
- Pallets on hand for each client match the floor, or a cycle count.
- Differences are fixed with a dated adjustment and a reason, not by changing old entries.
- No client shows more pallets shipped than received.
05 Storage rules
- Pallets carried over from last month are billed the way the contract says: days in this month only, or a full month.
- Free days are applied to each receipt, and only where the contract gives them.
- Minimum monthly charges are checked for small and seasonal clients.
- Clients on half-month or anniversary terms are billed by those terms.
06 Review and issue
- Each draft invoice is read line by line against the client's rate card.
- Credits and extra charges carry a reason someone else could understand next year.
- Invoice numbers run in order, with none skipped or used twice.
- Nothing is edited after it is issued: a wrong invoice is voided and reissued, and the reason is kept.
07 After it goes out
- Invoices are sent, and the date they were sent is noted.
- Back-dated entries for a billed month are flagged, so the next invoice picks up the difference.
- A copy of the month's records is saved somewhere other than the laptop it was built on.