Invoice problems
The 7 line items operators miss on distributor invoices
· by the Candor team — operators auditing real restaurant invoices
Most distributor overcharges aren't dramatic — they're a dollar here, a fee there, a case that quietly changed size. Industry analysis puts typical overcharges at about 1% of each invoice's total (FSR Magazine). On a restaurant spending $20,000 a month on food, that's $2,400 a year hiding in line items nobody re-reads. Here are the seven that hide best — the same categories our audit engine checks on every invoice.
1. Price creep on a staple
The classic: a case that was $2.40 is now $2.90, and no single invoice flagged the climb. When industry costs rose, distributors passed them straight through — Sysco told investors it moved a 13.4% cost increase "with little pushback" (Restaurant Business). Check: compare your top 10 items by spend to the same SKU 60–90 days ago on your own invoices. Why creep happens and the words to stop it.
2. Pack-size and unit changes
The item code shifts, the case goes from 6/#10 to 4/#10, and the per-case price looks lower — but your cost per usable unit went up. Check: always compare per-unit, not per-case. This is the single most common way a "price cut" is actually an increase.
3. Off-contract pricing
You negotiated a price; the invoice bills a different one. It happens on items that fall outside your agreed list, or when a contract lapses and nobody re-flags it. Check: keep your agreed prices on the items that matter and spot-check them monthly against what's billed.
4. Substitutions billed as originals
You ordered one brand; a substitute shipped at a different (often higher) price, on the same line. Check: reconcile what was delivered against what was ordered — the substitution is legitimate, the silent price change may not be.
5. Fuel surcharges and fees that never leave
A fuel surcharge appears during a spike and stays after fuel settles. Delivery fees, small-order fees, and "administrative" lines accrete. Check: total your fee lines across a month (taxes and credits stay in their own buckets). Ask which are contractual and which are negotiable — most fees are more negotiable than they look. How fuel surcharges actually work, and what's negotiable covers this line in full.
6. Duplicate and arithmetic errors
The same line billed twice; a qty × unit price that doesn't equal the extended price. These are honest mistakes, and they're recoverable — but only if someone does the multiplication. Check: verify that quantity times unit price equals the line total. Our audit does this arithmetic on every parsed line automatically; by hand, a calculator and ten minutes finds most of them.
7. Short and over deliveries
You're billed for cases that never arrived, or you're routinely over-ordering a perishable and eating the waste. Check: match the invoice against the delivery receipt at the door, not at month-end. (We flag over-ordering but never put a dollar figure on it — that number depends on your waste, which we can't see from an invoice.)
The pattern behind all seven
None of these is a scandal. Each is small enough to survive a busy week, and that's exactly why they compound. The fix isn't paranoia — it's a monthly hour with your top items and your own invoice history, comparing per-unit prices and checking the math.
Or send us your last 3 invoices. In 48 hours the free benchmark comes back with your top 3 overpaying items, each cited to your own invoice line — invoice #, date, SKU. No citation, no claim.