How to check your monthly UK warehouse invoice
Rebuild each charge from the agreed tariff and dated warehouse records. Calculate storage from daily billable occupancy, check how minimums apply, and match receiving, picks and returns to completed activity. Record discrepancies against invoice lines and request supporting records or corrections. Discuss factory packing records with Cambridge China Bridge.
Gather the tariff and the billing records
Collect the invoice, agreed tariff, contract, approved rate changes and previous credits. Request daily occupancy, receipts, dispatches, picking activity, returns and stock adjustments for the billing period. Ask for exports with transaction references and timestamps, rather than a dashboard total. Keep the original exports so later corrections remain traceable.
Build a reconciliation sheet with the invoice line, charging unit, billed quantity, agreed rate, expected charge, supporting reference and difference. Confirm the period, cut-off time and treatment of activity posted late. Our guide to importing without a warehouse covers delivery arrangements; this check starts with the warehouse's actual activity. For wholesale sales involving customs warehousing, see our guide to selling goods in a customs warehouse.
Rebuild pallet-days and minimum charges
For a daily tariff, add the billable pallet positions for every day in the period, then multiply by the agreed daily rate. Confirm whether receipt and dispatch days count, whether partial pallets round up, and whether charges follow occupied positions or pallet identifiers. Ask how oversized, stacked, picking and quarantined stock is counted. Do not substitute the closing pallet count for daily occupancy.
Trace occupancy changes to receiving, dispatch and pallet consolidation records. Moving cartons can change occupied positions without changing unit stock. Check whether the minimum applies to storage, total activity or each service, and whether it replaces calculated charges or creates a top-up. Apply the agreed calculation in that order; query any minimum added in full on top of charges it was meant to cover.
Match receiving and picks to completed work
Match receiving charges to goods-received records, delivery references and accepted quantities. Check whether unloading, counting, booking into stock and put-away are included or separately charged. Identify whether the tariff bills by delivery, pallet, carton, unit or labour time. For relabelling, sorting or repacking, request the instruction, approval and work record. Our stock-lot buying guide covers agreeing grades and packing before purchase.
For picks, distinguish orders, order lines, units, cartons and full pallets. Match the billed basis to completed warehouse tasks and dispatch references. Check cancelled orders, split dispatches, re-picks and duplicate task entries. A cancellation after picking may still involve chargeable work under the agreement, so inspect the task history. Check packing materials and carrier charges separately against what the tariff includes.
Follow returns through the stock reconciliation
Match each return charge to a received parcel and its original order reference. Separate receipt, inspection, repacking and restocking where the tariff does. A return authorisation alone does not show completed handling. Ask for condition records, approved extra work and the final stock status. Check whether returned goods occupy separately billed storage while awaiting a decision.
Reconcile opening units plus receipts and restocked returns, less dispatches and documented removals, with closing units, including approved adjustments. Track saleable, quarantined and damaged stock separately so internal status transfers do not inflate receipts. Investigate unexplained differences by product and batch. This unit reconciliation checks activity; the occupancy reconciliation checks storage. Link manufacturing or arrival defects to the separate faulty-goods claims guide.
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Resolve differences and check the revised bill
Send a discrepancy schedule identifying the invoice line, disputed quantity or rate, supporting record and requested explanation or correction. Separate missing evidence from confirmed errors. Agree how disputed and undisputed amounts will be handled under your payment terms. Request a corrected invoice or credit as appropriate, then check that the correction reaches the account statement and is not billed again.
Where both your business and the warehouse supplier are VAT registered, GOV.UK says a VAT invoice must be used. Check the VAT document with your accounts team as well as the activity calculation. Keep the reconciliation, original records and agreed corrections together. Feed confirmed recurring warehouse costs into your landed-price calculation, keeping them distinguishable from freight and import charges.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate pallet-days on a warehouse invoice?
Add the billable pallet positions for each day, then apply the agreed daily rate. Confirm rounding, receipt and dispatch day treatment, and special storage categories against the tariff.
Can a warehouse charge a minimum when stock is low?
Check the agreed minimum and its scope. It may replace calculated charges or create a top-up. Ask for the calculation if the warehouse adds the full minimum to activity already covered by it.
Why are billed picks higher than my order count?
The tariff may count order lines, units or separate tasks. Match the billed unit to task records and check split dispatches, re-picks and work completed before cancellation.
What records should support warehouse return charges?
Request the return receipt, original order reference, condition record, completed handling tasks and final stock status. Match extra inspection or repacking to approved work.