Getting ready for your pallet company's audit

Pallet companies count equipment at customer sites and reconcile it to their records. How to prepare, what to have on the day, and what to check in the result.

What the audit is

Pooled pallet companies audit customer sites, often once a year: they count the equipment on site, sometimes by sampling, and reconcile it to the balance in their hire records. The result can add charges for pallets they consider lost, and it can also adjust for a surplus.

Whatever you can explain and fix before the auditor arrives costs much less than arguing the result afterwards.

In the weeks before

Reconcile your account against your own shipping and receiving records, the same way you would for a monthly audit, and work the lists: declare shipments that were never declared, correct quantities, and dispute transfers credited to you that never arrived.
Ask suppliers to declare pallets they sent you; until they do, your balance looks lower than what you hold.
Pull together signed bills of lading for anything you're disputing.

On the day

Set a count cutoff time and agree it with the auditor. Loads that ship after it are still on hand.
Count every area: racks, dock, staging lanes, trailers in the yard, damaged and repair piles, overflow storage.
Count each pallet company and each size separately (full 48x40, half and quarter pallets).
Have someone walk with the auditor, keep your own count sheet, and agree the numbers before they leave.

After

Compare their count and their balance with yours. Differences usually trace back to undeclared or mis-declared transfers, receipts that were never credited, or areas that weren't counted.
Raise disputes with your count sheets and paperwork. A surplus at one site is usually counted against losses at others on the same account.
Your contract sets the actual process, deadlines and charges, so check it.

Find your missing pallets

PalletAudits matches every shipment to a declared transfer and lists what to declare, dispute and recount. Your first audit is free.

Run a free audit See a sample

More guides

General information, not advice about any specific contract. Your agreement with the pallet company sets the actual fees and deadlines.