How to invoice a freight broker

1. Read the rate con's billing instructions

The rate confirmation is the contract for the load, and most of them say exactly how the broker wants to be billed. Before you pick up, find:

• Payment terms. Usually Net 30, sometimes longer. Also whether they offer quick pay and what it costs.
• Where invoices go. A billing email, a carrier portal, or a factoring company if you use one.
• What they require. Nearly always the signed POD. Some want the BOL as well, lumper receipts, scale tickets, or photos.
• Deadlines. Some brokers won't pay invoices sent more than a set number of days after delivery, or charge a fee for late paperwork.

More on what to check before you sign: reading a rate confirmation.

2. Get a clean signed POD

The proof of delivery is usually the bill of lading, signed by the receiver. It's the single document most likely to hold up your money. At the dock:

• Make sure the receiver signs and dates it, and prints their name.
• Any shortage, overage or damage should be written on it. If it's clean, it should say nothing, not "subject to count."
• Photograph every page before you pull out: flat, in good light, all four corners in the frame.

The difference between the two documents: BOL vs POD.

3. Write the invoice

Accounts payable matches your invoice against the rate con, line by line. Make it easy:

• Lead with the broker's load number. It's what they search by. Put yours underneath.
• Match the rate con to the cent. Line haul, fuel surcharge, and each accessorial on its own line.
• Bill only accessorials the rate con allows, or that were approved in writing, with the receipt or approval attached.
• Show the terms and due date, and where to send payment, or your factor's remit-to if you factor.
• Number invoices in order and never reuse one.

Our free trucking invoice template lays all of this out for you and saves a PDF.

4. Build the packet

Send everything as one PDF, in this order: the invoice, the signed rate confirmation, the signed POD, then any receipts. One file can't get separated in someone's inbox, and nobody has to open four attachments to pay you. Name it with the broker's load number and your invoice number.

5. Send it the same day

The payment clock usually starts when the broker has your complete paperwork, not when you delivered. Every day the packet sits on your side is a day added to Net 30.

• Send to the billing address on the rate con, not your dispatcher's email. Dispatch doesn't pay invoices.
• Put the broker's load number and your invoice number in the subject: Invoice 1047, load CHR-448120, Blue Line Freight.
• If they use a portal, upload there, and keep the confirmation.

6. Track it until it's paid

• Confirm it arrived within a few days. A quick email to accounts payable asking them to confirm the invoice is in their system catches problems while they're still easy to fix.
• Follow up on the due date, not two weeks after it, with the invoice attached again.
• Record the payment against the load when it lands. Brokers often pay several invoices in one transfer, so check the remittance to see which loads it covers and whether anything was short-paid.

If the due date has come and gone: what to do when a broker won't pay.

Why invoices get rejected

Quick pay and factoring

If you can't wait 30 days, you have two options. Quick pay is offered by the broker: they pay in a few days and keep a fee, often a few percent of the load. Factoring is a separate company buying your invoice for a fee and collecting from the broker. Either way, the paperwork rules above still apply: a factor won't fund an invoice without a clean POD either.