The 3% leak nobody was checking.
At one client, close to 3% of the invoice value we checked didn't match the rates they had agreed.
In short
Most businesses agree a contract once, then get billed against it hundreds of times a month. Nobody checks every invoice line item.
We built an agent that does. It reads every supplier invoice, checks each line against the contract, and attaches the evidence where it doesn't match. It runs every week.
At a mid-market logistics technology client, it found £50k+ in its first few weeks, each item traced back to the clause it broke, and it continues to flag overbilling each week.
The same rulebook runs the other way too, checking the invoices they send out.
The problem: more lines than any human team could check.
Our client is a mid-market logistics technology business. Their sellers' stock sits in warehouses across Europe and the US, and every warehouse bills on its own agreement.
The finance team checked what they could, and caught plenty. But checking every line of every invoice, every week, is unrealistic for a constrained finance team.
Then match every line of every invoice to the right one, every week. Each invoice may cover dozens of sellers, order intricacies, and custom requirements, adding further complexity.
What we built.
The agent reads every supplier invoice, checks each line against what was agreed, and attaches evidence where it doesn't match. Customer invoices are checked the same way.
A live rulebook.
Every contract, rate card or price list managed and maintained in one place. Automatic systems to manage updates and drift.
A weekly run.
Bills coming in are checked against the rulebook every week, with clear workings and traceability.
A claims tracker.
Findings are surfaced, prioritised, and actioned or pushed to the relevant team member with recommendations.
Lives where the team works
- Drive rate cards, invoices
- Xero bills as posted
- Xero postings, corrections
- Zoho Desk dispute tickets
- Linear the weekly ticket
- Notion the dashboards
- Slack Monday morning
Every finding arrives with its working attached.
Every finding ships with its workings and links to the source documents.
| Row | Charge | Units | Rate | Amount | Check |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ···01 | Storage, pallet week | ~320 | €4.10 | ~€1,300 | reconciles |
| ···02 | Goods in, carton | ~1,900 | €0.21 | ~€400 | reconciles |
| ···03 | Returns handling | ~90 | €1.35 | ~€120 | reconciles |
| ···04 | Order pick, item | ~9,000 | €0.53 | ~€4,800 | breaches clause R2 |
| ···05 | Packaging, standard | ~410 | €0.18 | ~€75 | reconciles |
| ···06 | Carriage | ~1,100 | €3.24 | ~€3,570 | reconciles |
Nine thousand item picks on one order. The agreement prices a bulk stock exit as ad-hoc labour per hour, not as customer orders. Flagged against a clause in the warehouse's own tariff.
One mark for each line the agent flagged for review
The agent flags high-risk line items, assigns value and probability, then leaves judgement to a person.
Example findings
- Billed
- Four lines on one invoice, charged at the standard order pick rate. They reconcile to that rate to the cent.
- Agreed
- The warehouse's own tariff prices a bulk stock exit as ad-hoc labour by the hour, agreed before the work.
- The gap
- About 6x what the agreed labour rate would have cost.
- Note
- The agent's first estimate was higher. The pick manifest arrived a week later, the labour genuinely owed became clear, and the claim came down.
- Billed
- The same pallet locations on two invoices covering overlapping weeks.
- Agreed
- Storage billed weekly in arrears, per occupied location, once.
- Caught by
- Cost per order jumped against a six-month baseline. The agent traced the variance to storage rather than to volume.
- Outcome
- Credit note raised and received.
- Billed
- Duplicate orders across multiple invoices on two warehouse sub-accounts.
- Independent check
- The warehouse proactively credited the client based on a sample check. We ran an independent full check to show their credit was within 0.3% of the credit due.
- Also found
- Three further invoices, a fourth affected seller, and one shipment their carrier-specific fix would have missed.
- Observed
- Every parcel billed above the carrier tariff we hold, by a different amount each time.
- What it did
- Raised the pattern, declined to put a number on it, and routed it to a person with the question to ask.
Client and suppliers anonymised · amounts rounded
Every invoice line gets checked every week.
the agreed contract terms
instead of next year's audit
didn't match the agreed rates
Findings now arrive while the dispute window is still open. A finding that arrives late becomes an audit record instead of a credit.
Invoice arrives
Finding raised, evidence attached
Dispute window closes
The audit finds it. Too late to claim
Checking invoices now costs less than the errors hiding in them.
Reading every line of every invoice used to cost more than it recovered. That maths has flipped.
Gross profit was up 24% month on month. Getting back what we'd been overbilled was part of that.
Your contracts, enforced on every invoice. Both ways.
Our agent extends to checking both sides, money out and money in, enabling finance leaders to track margin per customer, product and site.
Money out
Supplier and contractor invoices against rate cards. Price rises against contract caps. Credits promised against credits received.
Overbilling caught inside the dispute window; faster credit processing.
Money in
Customer invoices before they go out. Work done but never billed. Rebates and service credits owed to you.
Underbilling or billing errors caught on time; less team time on billing admin.
Margin
Customer prices against supplier cost, line by line, with automated allocations.
Gross margin by customer, product or site, and how it changes.
What this looks like in your business.
Direct-to-consumer brandcouriers, packaging, margin per order
Courier surcharges, zones and failed-delivery fees. Supplier and packaging rate cards.
Late and damaged delivery credits owed by couriers. Margin per order after delivery cost.
Pharmacy chainwholesaler rebates, locums, margin by branch
Wholesaler discounts and rebates actually applied. Locum and agency rates.
Service income billed against what was delivered. Margin by branch.
Clinic or hospitalconsumables, locums, insurer tariffs
Consumables against agreed prices. Locum clinician rates. Equipment leases, lab fees and maintenance.
Treatments billed against agreed packages and insurer tariffs. Margin per treatment or clinic.
Fleet or mobilitygarages, insurance, margin per vehicle
Garage labour rates and parts prices. Insurance and telematics contracts.
Driver and customer payments billed to contract terms. Margin per vehicle.
Outsourcing providercontractor rates, SOWs, margin per client
Contractor and agency rates, overtime and markups.
Client invoices against statements of work, minimums and service credits. Margin per client.
Multi-site childcarefacilities, agency staff, margin per site
Catering, cleaning and facilities contracts across sites. Agency staff.
Fees billed against funded hours and discount rules. Margin per site.
Getting started: protect your margin on every invoice.
- 01See it in action. Schedule a 30-minute demo to see how it works for a business like yours, on sample data.
- 02Start small. One supplier or customer, one month, against the contract.
- 03Grow it. Add the next contract when you're ready.
Or email hello@asymptotes.ai