What you were billed
Comes from the courier billing file. If the cost is missing, the line is flagged. You shouldn't have to hunt for it in a second export.
Courier invoice reconciliation
People look for this when they need to know whether the courier bill and the customer invoice actually belong together. It's a checking job.
What we mean by it
In accounts, reconciliation often means matching two ledgers until they agree. Courier Billing doesn't do that. It doesn't post invoices, and it doesn't tick a carrier invoice off against purchase ledger.
In a parcel business the question is usually simpler. The courier billed us for this consignment. We're about to bill the customer. Is the charge right, is the cost there, and do we still make money?
Courier cost versus customer charge, on the same line, before the invoice is finalised. That's the gap this page is about.
Two numbers that shouldn't live in separate workbooks
What you're about to bill
Comes from that customer's rates. If nothing matches, the charge stays at £0. You review it instead of inventing a sell price.
Gross profit is the difference. Margin is that difference as a share of the charge. If the sell price is £0, margin is left blank. There isn't an honest number to show.
What usually eats the month
A surcharge appears on the courier file that nobody budgeted for. If you only look at the customer invoice, you may still bill the agreed service rate and miss that the cost has moved.
Or the file contains a service, zone or weight the rate card doesn't cover. In a spreadsheet that often gets a guessed figure. Here it stays unmatched until you confirm it.
Sometimes the customer charge is correct and still below cost. Seeing gross profit on the line is how you catch that before the invoice is sent, not six weeks later in a management pack.
Unmatched rates and missing costs are called out while the invoice is still a draft. You can change a line — that change is recorded — then finalise when the file is clean enough to stand behind.
What it checks, and what it doesn't
It applies customer pricing to imported courier data. It shows cost, charge, gross profit and margin. It flags unmatched rates and missing costs. It warns when a customer is below a target margin, or when margin drops sharply against the previous period. You review the draft, then generate the customer invoice.
It doesn't decide whether the carrier billed you correctly against their own tariff. It doesn't match payments. It doesn't replace a bookkeeper.
Questions
Straight answers
What does courier invoice reconciliation mean here?
Putting courier cost and customer charge on the same consignment so you can see whether billing is right before the customer invoice is final. It isn't purchase-ledger matching, and it doesn't tick supplier invoices off in your accounts system.
Does Courier Billing reconcile with Sage or Xero?
No. You get the invoice pack, plus cost, charge, profit and exceptions. You still post into accounts yourselves.
What kinds of issues show up?
Unmatched customer rates, missing courier cost, lines that would invoice at £0, weak margin, customers below a target margin, and sudden drops against the previous period.
When should we look at this, rather than invoicing?
If the question is 'can I send this invoice?', start with invoicing. If it's 'does this billing even make sense?', start here.
See the exceptions before the customer does.
Book a demo and we'll look at how your courier files, rate cards and drafts show cost, charge and margin together.