UPS Audit: How to Save up to 20% on UPS Shipments
Aaron Stahl / Small Parcel / June 26, 2024
UPS is one of the most commonly used shipping carriers among businesses, and it’s known for being a solid mix of affordable and reliable. However, mistakes are inevitable with any shipping carrier. From late deliveries to double charges to incorrect DIM weight charges, errors can pop up anywhere. The problem is that it’s not UPS that ends up paying for these mistakes a majority of the time. It’s you.
It’s important to ensure that UPS is working for you and not the other way around. There are always choices regarding your company’s shipping needs, so don’t settle for being overcharged. If you want to know where you’re being overcharged and start getting an adequate refund, a UPS audit is the first step.
A UPS audit is a deep and continuous examination of your company’s UPS invoices to locate any potential errors, unnecessary fees, and overcharges with the goal of ensuring that you’re not overpaying for small parcel shipping. These UPS audits can go back six months for overcharges, but refunds for late UPS deliveries must be filed within 15 days.
It’s not just past refunds, either. With ongoing auditing, you can double-check each month that you’re being charged appropriately and that any mistakes made by UPS are contested on time. Plus, with the information uncovered during a UPS audit, you can compare your costs with the industry averages and consider renegotiating your contract or finding a new shipping carrier.
UPS offers a lot of great incentives to get business owners to choose their company for parcel shipping needs. However, clear and simple invoices are not one of those things. In fact, the refund process is so convoluted that 75 percent of refunds (a staggering $1.5 billion) go unclaimed every year. These unclaimed refunds represent significant losses that could be reinvested into your business.
UPS invoices often contain mistakes that can cost your business a substantial amount of money. A thorough UPS invoice auditing process can help identify these overcharges and errors.
Common errors include:
Early identification of billing errors is crucial. The sooner you spot mistakes, the quicker you can address them, preventing them from becoming recurring issues that drain your resources. Implementing regular UPS parcel audits can help catch these errors early on and ensure you request a refund in the allotted time frame.
Between the work necessary to properly examine invoices and the notoriously complicated refund process, many businesses miss out on claiming their refunds. Ensuring timely claims is essential to recoup the money you’re owed and to maintain a healthy cash flow. By understanding what a UPS audit entails, you can streamline this process.
Lowering business costs is always one of the main concerns for business owners. But when you find out you’ve been paying for services that you didn’t even receive, it can be infuriating. P3 has years of experience in finding savings for our clients, not just through invoice auditing but through contract analysis and negotiation, as well as ongoing reporting and analytics.
When your UPS invoice is hundreds of pages long, you’re probably not super keen on crunching every number in there. But with three to five percent of packages being delivered late every day, plus countless other billing mistakes that routinely show up, you can’t afford to let those refunds slip past you.
P3’s team of auditors will use our proprietary software to tackle that daunting task for you. By running a 45-point UPS invoice audit on every shipment, we can fully automate the refund process, ensuring you get the money that you’re owed on each and every invoice.
Just like invoices, contracts can be highly complex and challenging to understand. Unsurprisingly, carriers like UPS design these contracts to be profitable. Confusing language, multiple pricing tiers, and lots of fine print make it easy to misunderstand or miss crucial information.
You don’t have to accept these contracts as-is. By working with a team of experts with experience understanding carrier contracts, you can negotiate better savings that will save your company thousands. P3 can help you gain access to the most competitive pricing available on the marketplace.
The savings don’t stop with contract negotiation and claiming refunds. It’s crucial to locate inefficiencies and figure out ways to lower costs moving forward. There’s no better way to do that than by monitoring real-time shipping data within your business.
Using P3’s intuitive and secure online dashboard allows you to produce and view reports that make it clear where to cut costs or make modifications. With package-level details, our online tools offer the data necessary to manage trends, maximize efficiencies, and identify areas to increase savings.
At P3, we like to make all of our processes as simple and transparent as possible. So once we get to know you and your business’s needs and you give us access to what we require for our audit, you can sit back and relax and let our team of experts start saving you money.
Time is money, and we won’t take a lot of yours. Our first meeting should only last around 20 minutes, where we will discuss everything we need to start your UPS audit. We’ll explain our shared savings agreement (spoiler alert, you pay nothing out of pocket) and describe what we need from you. This typically includes copies of contracts, invoices, and authorization documents.
During onboarding, we ask that you share your UPS credentials with us so we can gain access to previous and future UPS invoices.
The P3 team will be analyzing each UPS invoice using our proprietary software. We will run a 45-point check, searching every line for overcharges, billing errors, and possible refunds.
Our software doesn’t just pinpoint refunds owed by UPS but also automates the refund process. That means no work necessary on your part. The refund credits will automatically appear back in your UPS account.
We will continue to run weekly UPS invoice audits for every billing cycle to make sure that all eligible refunds are claimed within the required timeframe.
Companies who run a UPS invoice audit with P3 often save 15 to 20 percent on shipping expenses. And the best part is that you don’t have to lift a finger. In fact, you won’t have any out-of-pocket expenses either. You only pay P3 a share of what we save your business, so there is absolutely no risk for you.
Through our UPS invoice audit, you can start to see refunds in your account within weeks, and if we decide to negotiate a new deal with them or explore other options, you can save even more long-term.
There are over $2 billion in audit credit refunds owed to business owners by shipping carriers every year. So don’t miss out on your chunk of the change.
What is a UPS audit, and why do I need it?
A UPS audit is a review of UPS invoices to identify billing errors and overcharges, helping businesses reclaim potential refunds and avoid unnecessary costs.
How do I request a refund from UPS on my own?
Requesting a refund from UPS on your own can be complicated, but it is possible. Check out our blog, How to File a UPS Claim, to get started.
What types of errors can be found in a UPS bill audit?
A UPS bill audit can uncover errors such as late deliveries, duplicate charges, invalid address correction fees, missing discounts, incorrect DIM weight charges, missing proof of delivery, incorrect surcharges, and charges for voided shipments.
How much can I save on shipping?
P3 clients typically save between 15-20% on shipping costs through comprehensive UPS auditing services.
What other parcel shipping services are offered outside of invoice auditing?
P3 offers contract analysis & negotiation, reporting & analytics, and ongoing monitoring to optimize shipping costs and processes.
How much is a UPS audit fee?
For P3 clients, UPS auditing is free. We only share in the savings we find for you.
Does UPS audit every package?
According to UPS, packages are audited as they move through the UPS network. However, mistakes still happen, and you should also audit your invoices from UPS.
Why did UPS charge me extra?
Extra charges from UPS can result from various factors, such as clerical errors, changes in shipment plans, and additional service fees. Auditing your invoices helps identify and dispute these charges.
There’s no doubt that a UPS audit is necessary to get the refunds you deserve. Unfortunately, UPS isn’t going to do this for you, and running through invoices line by line can take hours. The best choice for businesses looking to save money on small parcel shipping with UPS is to work with a third party like P3 Cost Analysts.
Our expert team has former pricing analysts from shipping carriers like UPS, so they have a strong understanding of how these contracts and invoices work. With P3’s small parcel invoice audit, errors, unnecessary fees, and overcharges are located swiftly, and refunds are credited to your account. By letting us tackle your UPS invoicing, you can use your time where you should be — scaling your business.
If you’re looking to save 15 to 20 percent on shipping costs, schedule a free expense audit with P3 Cost Analysts today.
