Accessorial

What it means

Anything billed on top of the agreed per-unit rates. In fulfillment: pallet wrapping, kitting, rush handling, oversize items, returns processing, labelling. In parcel: residential delivery, address correction, fuel, dimensional weight adjustments.

What goes wrong

Accessorials are where contracts go quiet. A rate card can price pick and pack to four decimal places and then say value-added services quoted separately — which means there is no rate to audit against. A charge with no clause behind it cannot be verified, and a charge nobody can verify tends not to be checked.

The arithmetic

invoice, line 7
  Pallet wrapping · 48 pallets      $312.00
  implied rate                    $6.50 / pallet

rate card, section 4
  “Value-added services quoted separately.”

authorising clause                     none found
                                       --------
verified                                  $0.00
unverified                              $312.00

How to check it

Ask which clause authorises it. If the answer is a quote rather than a schedule, that line is unverifiable and should be treated as such rather than assumed correct. SpendVerify marks these as unverified instead of pricing them from a guess.