3PL handling charges checklist

Storage gets the attention, but handling is where invoices quietly lose money. Handling work happens fast, on the floor, by several people, and nobody is thinking about billing while a pallet is coming off a truck.

This checklist goes through each handling charge a 3PL commonly bills. For every one it names the unit to count, where that count comes from, and who has to record it. The point is simple: a charge you cannot count, you cannot bill.

How to use this page

Print it and walk your floor with it. For each charge, ask three questions.

Do we do this work for any client today?
Is it written in that client's rate card?
When it happens, does anything get recorded that billing can see?

A "yes, yes, no" is a leak. Mark it and fix it before you worry about anything else.

Inbound charges

Receiving

Unit to count: pallets, cartons, or units received, depending on the contract. Pick one per client and stick to it.

Where the count comes from: the receiving scan or the receipt entered against the inbound notice. If the count is typed in at the end of the day from memory, expect gaps.

Who records it: the receiver, at the dock, as the goods are checked in.

Hypothetical example: a client's inbound has 24 pallets. The rate card says a set amount per pallet received. The receipt shows 24, the invoice shows 24. If the receipt was never closed, the invoice shows nothing.

Unloading

Loose-loaded containers and floor-loaded trailers take real labor. Many 3PLs bill per container or per hour, with a different rate for palletized freight.

Unit to count: container, trailer, or labor hours.

Who records it: the dock lead, with start and finish times. Hours not written down on the day are hard to defend later.

Putaway

Some contracts fold putaway into receiving. Others bill it separately by pallet or by location touched. Decide which, because a client who sees two lines for what looked like one job will ask why.

Outbound charges

Pick

Unit to count: order lines, units picked, or both, as in "a first-unit rate plus an additional-unit rate".

Where the count comes from: the pick confirmation. A system that records picks per order gives you this without extra effort. A paper pick list does not.

Pack

Unit to count: per order, per carton packed, or per unit.

Watch for orders that ship in more than one carton. If the rate is per order but your team packs three cartons, the client got three cartons of work for one charge. That may be intentional. Make sure it is.

Packing materials

Cartons, void fill, tape, and mailers can be bundled into the pack rate or billed at cost plus a margin. If billed separately, the count of materials used has to be recorded, which is where most 3PLs fall down. A common fix is to give each carton size a code and bill by the code scanned at pack.

Shipping label and carrier handling

Some 3PLs charge a small fee for generating and applying labels. Separate from that, postage and freight are usually passed through at the carrier's invoice amount. Keep the pass-through on its own line so the client can see the carrier cost and your fee apart.

Special handling charges

These are the ones most likely to go unbilled, because they are exceptions.

Labeling and relabeling

Unit to count: labels applied.

Who records it: the person doing the work, ideally on a task sheet that the supervisor checks off. A relabel job on 500 units that is only mentioned in a text message will not reach the invoice.

Kitting and assembly

Unit to count: kits built, or labor minutes per kit. Decide in advance whether the components pulled are billed as picks as well.

Inspection and quality checks

Unit to count: units inspected, or hours.

Returns processing

Unit to count: returns received, with a separate line for any that need inspection or regrading.

Special projects

Rework, sorting, photographing, bundling for a promotion. Quote a rate per hour or a fixed project price before the work starts, and record the actual hours anyway. A project quoted as fixed that took twice as long is information you want.

After-hours and rush work

If you charge a premium for weekend or same-day work, the time of the work has to be recorded. Otherwise billing cannot tell a rush order from a regular one.

The "who records it" column

Copy this small table onto a whiteboard or your intranet. Fill in the names for your own floor.

Charge	Unit	Recorded by	Recorded where
Receiving	pallet or carton	receiver	receipt
Unloading	container or hour	dock lead	time sheet
Pick and pack	line, unit, carton	picker, packer	pick and pack scans
Materials	carton code	packer	pack scan
Relabeling	labels applied	line worker	task sheet
Kitting	kits built	kitting lead	task sheet
Returns	returns received	returns clerk	return receipt
Special project	hours	supervisor	project sheet

If a row has no name in the "recorded by" cell, nobody owns it. That is the row to fix first.

One-off versus recurring charges

Recurring charges repeat every month and are easy to automate: storage, a monthly account fee, a minimum. One-off charges depend on someone remembering: a setup fee, a special project, a rush. A good habit is to give each one-off charge a standard name and code so billing can find it. "Misc" is where money goes to disappear.

Common gaps to look for

Work done for a client with no matching line in their rate card.
Rate card lines with no way to count the work.
Counts that exist on paper but never get typed in.
Charges written one way in the contract and another way on the invoice.

Next step

Pick your busiest client and take last month's invoice. Next to each line, write who recorded the count. Then list the work you know you did for them that has no line at all. That list is your first fix.