Glossary / Storage basis
Glossary
Storage basis
Which measurement a per-month storage charge is priced from — and why two honest numbers disagree.
What it means
Storage is billed per pallet, bin or cubic foot, per month. But how many is a choice: average daily occupancy, a month-end snapshot, or the month's peak. The same warehouse produces three different bills depending on which one the contract names.
What goes wrong
The contract says average daily and the invoice used peak. Both parties can be reading real data and still be tens of percent apart, which is what makes this argument so hard to settle by email.
The arithmetic
One month, one warehouse, $12.00 per pallet.
Three honest counts:
Average daily occupancy 412 $4,944.00
Month-end snapshot 467 $5,604.00
Month’s peak 530 $6,360.00
The contract names average daily.
The invoice used peak.
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Overbilled $1,416.00How to check it
Find the basis in the clause before comparing any number. SpendVerify refuses to accept a storage quantity without one, because a pallet count with no basis is not a measurement.
Read next
Rate cardThe pricing schedule attached to a fulfillment contract — every charge, its unit, and its rate.Monthly minimumA floor on what you pay, whatever the volume — and sometimes a true-up that bills the gap.Volume tierA rate that changes once you pass a threshold — $1.25 per carton up to 200, $0.95 after that.