CargoWise Invoice Review: A Value Pack Billing Checklist

Put one CargoWise supplier invoice beside its usage detail and credit notes. Can you trace each amount back to an identified transaction or separate service, then distinguish it from what you billed and collected from customers? That is the result this checklist is designed to produce.

Correction and update, 30 September 2026: The earlier version incorrectly said CargoWise had no public price sheet, treated every created job as billable, and presented DOM-CWAF as a universal, non-configurable fee. Those claims and the formula built on them have been removed. This article now focuses on invoice review using current official sources. It does not establish which charge codes or reporting options exist in your installation.

For the commercial model and a dated rate example, read the separate CargoWise Value Pack pricing overview. Here, the task is to explain an actual statement and record anything that remains unresolved.

0. Gather the evidence for one billing period

Choose the invoiced entity, period and currency. Create a worksheet named Invoice review and record the review date. Keep copies of the supplier invoice, usage detail, related credit notes and the pricing or contract documents used for that period.

The official FAQ, reviewed 30 September 2026 says My Account provides job-level usage reporting and that postings include job references and unique identifiers. Retrieve the reports available to your account. Record missing access or missing fields as gaps; do not assume an export contains the whole population.

Also collect customer invoices, customer credit notes and allocated receipts if recovery is part of the review. Keep originals intact and do the comparison in a working copy.

1. Keep the identifiers that make a line traceable

Use the following as a worksheet specification. These are review fields, not a promise that every source has columns with these names.

Keep supplier charges and customer recovery in separate tables. Join through identifiers you have checked, and compare totals before and after joining. A job with several invoice lines can multiply amounts if you attach every line to every usage record.

2. Check the billed event before counting jobs

The FAQ describes the shipment fee trigger as accessing Billing after registration and saving. It also says a cancelled shipment without a billing job is not invoiced, and mode at billing determines the rate. Official billing-trigger guidance.

For a disputed row, record the evidence for its category, billing event and quantity. Investigate a difference between jobs created and transactions billed; do not label the difference an overcharge without checking the underlying records.

Review apparent duplicates by company as well as job. CargoWise says separate companies activating Billing on a shared job may incur separate fees, with O-CWAF and D-CWAF described for origin and destination. Official multi-company explanation. Repeated job references alone do not settle whether a charge is duplicated.

3. Match the rate, unit and currency

The Community Pricing page, version 26.09, reviewed 30 September 2026 publishes USD rates with category-specific charge units. Use the version and terms applicable to the invoice period. Today's page alone cannot establish a historical rate.

For each category, compare the evidenced quantity multiplied by the applicable unit rate with the amount billed. Keep separate services on their own rows, with the source explaining why they apply.

If the invoice uses another currency, retain both the original and converted amounts, the exchange rate used, its date or basis, and any rounding difference. Do not compare a USD list price directly with a GBP invoice amount. Keep tax in a separate reconciliation column so a tax-inclusive total is not mistaken for a higher unit price.

4. Match credits to the charges they adjust

Use a consistent sign convention: charges positive, credits negative. Retain the credit-note number, currency, date and original charge reference. Flag a credit relating to a different period so it does not silently reduce this month's transaction count.

For transition reviews, CargoWise describes controls against overlapping STL and Value Pack charges and credits for unused prepaid balances. Official transition FAQ. Verify the actual adjustment documents before treating a credit as received.

5. Separate customer recovery from supplier expense

CargoWise describes configurable customer recovery, with different defaults by pack. Official Value Pack overview, reviewed 30 September 2026. Inspect the actual customer invoice instead of inferring recovery from a charge code.

Record net customer charges after customer credits, and separately record receipts allocated to those charges. A billed amount can still be unpaid. An unallocated customer receipt does not prove a particular fee has been recovered.

Keep these operating comparisons distinct from expense recognition. The worksheet does not decide whether an item belongs in a clearing account, revenue or expense, or how it should be taxed. Have your finance team confirm those classifications.

6. Reproduce the arithmetic

The figures below are invented to demonstrate reconciliation. They are not a CargoWise quotation, published rates or a customer result. All amounts are in GBP, before tax, with no currency conversion.

Suppose the corresponding customer charges total GBP 750 and customer credits total GBP 50. Net customer billing is GBP 700. If allocated receipts total GBP 600, then:

• GBP 100 of net customer billing remains unpaid.
• GBP 250 of net supplier charges is not covered by net customer billing.
• GBP 350 has not been recovered in cash at the review date, comprising those two amounts.

Those are reconciliation differences, not a profit calculation or a direction to make accounting entries. With real data, explain differences through linked records and dates before drawing conclusions.

7. Close the review with evidence or an assigned exception

In the Invoice review worksheet, check these in order:

1. Coverage: The source documents cover the chosen entity and period, and their totals reconcile to the supplier statement. An empty export is not evidence of zero usage unless an independent source confirms it.
2. Traceability: Every included charge and credit has a source reference. Unmatched rows have a named owner and a next action.
3. Calculation: Category totals, separate services, credits, conversion, rounding and tax explain the invoiced amount.
4. Recovery: Customer billing, customer credits and allocated receipts remain separately visible and traceable.
5. Exceptions: The unresolved list is empty, or every remaining item has an owner and review date. An empty exception list is a pass only after the coverage and reconciliation checks pass.

For a supplier query, send the relevant invoice and line references, the supporting usage rows, your expected calculation and the exact difference. Keep the reply with the review so the next person can follow the resolution.

Next step: Use the CargoWise data-extraction and accounting guide to plan retrieval, preserve source identifiers and reconcile the records available to your account.