Choosing review months for a first logistics cost audit
Why the calendar window you pick changes the quality of freight and warehouse reconciliations more than the number of dashboards you open.
Teams often ask for “last year” on day one. For a first Logistics Cost Audit, a tighter window produces cleaner reconciliations and faster briefings.
Prefer closed months
Choose months where invoices are posted and credit notes settled. Open months hide timing differences that look like leakage.
Cover a peak and a normal week
If your network has festive or monsoon peaks, include one peak month and one ordinary month. Patterns that appear only in peaks deserve separate notes.
Keep corridors coherent
Auditing every lane at once dilutes sampling. Start with corridors that share a carrier or a warehouse so app references stay consistent.
Leave room for expansion
Document in the proposal how you will extend the window if variance clusters appear. Financial audit applications are iterative by design; the first pass should not pretend to be the last word on every cost centre.