ERP
Financial Management
Warehouse Management
3PL Billing Software: How Warehouses Bill Storage, Handling and Value-Added Services
Last updated: October 7, 2026 · Independent buyer’s guide · We do not sell rankings or coverage.
3PL billing software turns what happens on your warehouse floor into client invoices. It applies each client’s rate card to storage counts, receiving and shipping transactions, and value-added work, then produces an invoice the client can check line by line. It usually lives inside a 3PL warehouse management system (WMS), and invoices then flow to QuickBooks, NetSuite or another accounting system. The hard part is choosing the right storage method, capturing every billable event and defending each charge when a client disputes it.
Key takeaways
- Decide your storage method before you pick software. Split month, anniversary and daily billing produce different invoices for the same pallets, and not every WMS supports all three.
- The IWLA standard contract terms (January 2026) default to a full month for goods received on the 1st to 15th and a half month for goods received from the 16th, unless your contract says otherwise.
- Charges should come from WMS transactions, not re-keying. Ask each vendor which events create charges automatically and which depend on staff remembering.
- Build a review step before invoices go out. Extensiv requires recurring storage charges to be confirmed before they appear on an invoice.
- Published pricing is rare. Of the vendors we checked, only Packiyo ($949 per month for its 3PL plan) and Mintsoft (from £375 per month) show a figure.
The four groups of charges a 3PL bills
The International Warehouse Logistics Association (IWLA) publishes standard contract terms that warehouses can adopt or adapt. They separate storage, handling, extra services and minimum charges into distinct sections, which makes them a useful map of what is billable (IWLA, January 2026).
Storage. Under the IWLA terms, storage is charged “per package or other agreed unit per month” unless otherwise agreed. In practice the unit is a pallet, a pallet position, a bin or shelf location, or a cubic foot. Your software must count that unit at the right moment.
Handling. The IWLA handling charge covers the ordinary labor of receiving goods at the door, putting them into storage and returning them to the door. Unloading and loading labor, damaged goods and orders shipped in smaller quantities than received can carry extra charges. Ecommerce 3PLs add pick fees, packaging and shipping markups.
Extra services and accessorials. The IWLA terms list labor outside ordinary handling, special stock statements, recording serial numbers, physical counts, packing materials and after-hours receiving as chargeable. If you assemble kits for clients, our guide to kitting inventory management covers how systems track the components.
Minimums and fixed fees. The IWLA terms allow minimum storage and handling charges per lot and a minimum monthly charge per account. No transaction triggers a minimum, so your system needs a rule that tests each client’s total at period end.
Split month, anniversary, snapshot or daily storage
Calendar month with a split day. This is the IWLA default. Goods received between the 1st and the 15th pay a full month, goods received from the 16th pay half a month, and everything in storage on the first of each following month pays a full month. Storage is due on the first day of storage for the initial month and then on the first of each calendar month. Logiwa documents this as a “Split Month Storage” fee type with a default split day of the 15th (Logiwa Help Center, no date shown).
Anniversary. The IWLA terms allow, by written agreement, a storage month that runs from a date in one month to the same date in the next, so each receipt is billed on its own monthly anniversary (Extensiv, no date shown). It is fairer to clients who receive late in the month, but the WMS must track receipt dates at lot or pallet level.
Snapshot. Some systems bill next month’s storage from a count on the last day of the current month. Extensiv’s example is that 100 pallets in stock on 31 January produce an invoice for 100 pallets stored in February (Extensiv, September 11, 2025).
Daily. The warehouse charges per pallet per day or bills a daily average count. It tracks occupancy closely but makes invoices harder to predict.
Worked example: one client, three storage methods
Illustration only. The rates and volumes are invented to show the mechanics and are not market prices.
A 3PL stores pallets for a beverage distributor at an illustrative $18 per pallet per month, or $0.60 per pallet per day. The client receives 120 pallets on 3 September and 80 on 22 September. On 10 October, 60 pallets from the first receipt ship out.
| Method | September | October | Two-month total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Split month (IWLA default) | 120 × $18 + 80 × $9 = $2,880 | 200 on hand 1 Oct × $18 = $3,600 | $6,480 |
| Anniversary | 120 × $18 (3 Sep) + 80 × $18 (22 Sep) = $3,600 | 120 × $18 (3 Oct) + 80 × $18 (22 Oct) = $3,600 | $7,200, covering storage into November |
| Daily at $0.60 | 4,080 pallet-days = $2,448 | 4,880 pallet-days = $2,928 | $5,376 |
Split month charges a full October for the 60 pallets that left on 10 October. The anniversary October charges prepay storage running into November, so the totals are not like for like. Daily billing is lowest because pallets pay only for days on hand.
The accounting matters too. Under ASC 606, revenue is recognized over time when the customer “simultaneously receives and consumes the benefits” as you perform, and routine recurring services are the standard example (Deloitte DART, ASC 606-10-25-27, no date shown). If you bill storage in advance, part of each invoice relates to the next period, so agree with your accountant how to treat that portion at month end.
Capturing billable events from the WMS
In every product we reviewed, a transaction closes in the WMS, a rule matches it to the client’s rate, and a charge line is created for review.
- Automatic charges. Extensiv Billing Manager defines “Auto” triggers that run every time a transaction is closed or confirmed, conditional “Smart” rates, tiered rates and per-transaction minimums (Extensiv, May 19, 2026).
- Prompted manual charges. The same page describes “Pre-Defined Manual” charges that surface inside each transaction so staff can add them before closing, a safeguard for accessorials such as relabeling.
- Value-added work. Datex says one-time accessorial charges can be added from desktop or mobile devices as work is completed (Datex, no date shown).
- Storage counts. Infoplus bills storage by “Count of Distinct Locations,” using a daily average or an end-of-period count (Infoplus, no date shown). This only works if putaway is accurate and clients’ goods are not mixed in one location.
Revenue usually slips when rate cards change in the contract but not in the system, or when staff skip an unload charge. Ask each vendor to trace one invoice line back to the transaction and the user who closed it.
Invoicing, client portals and disputes
Once charges are reviewed, the system groups them into an invoice by client and period. Packiyo generates invoices for a selected period from each client’s rate cards and exports them as CSV for QuickBooks or as a PDF (Packiyo Help Center, no date shown). Logiwa lists sending invoices to QuickBooks and NetSuite and a client portal with online reports (Logiwa, September 18, 2026).
The IWLA terms require the depositor to claim any invoice dispute in writing within 30 days of the invoice date, prohibit offsets without the warehouse’s written consent, and allow a service charge on invoices more than 30 days past due. Your software should let you attach the storage counts or orders behind each line.
Under UCC 7-209, a warehouse has a lien on goods covered by a warehouse receipt for storage, labor and other charges, but loses it on goods it voluntarily delivers (Cornell LII, UCC 7-209, no date shown). Confirm with counsel before relying on it. Collection after that is an accounts receivable task, covered in how AR automation shrinks DSO.
How the main software options handle 3PL billing
Billing sits in 3PL-specific WMS products, separate billing applications attached to a WMS, or enterprise WMS billing modules. Accounting packages such as QuickBooks sit at the end of the chain.
| Vendor | Storage methods documented | Invoicing and accounting | Published price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extensiv 3PL Warehouse Manager with Billing Manager | Monthly, semi-monthly or weekly; initial storage with split day; receiver anniversary | Charges confirmed before invoicing; QuickBooks export | None found |
| Logiwa IO | Split month with split day | QuickBooks and NetSuite; client portal | Not published; priced on volume |
| Datex Footprint 3PL WMS | Anniversary, split month, daily, weekly, monthly, set schedule | Posts invoices to the general ledger | None found |
| Infoplus | Location count, daily average or end of period | Invoice worksheets; export and API | Not published |
| Packiyo | By location type, daily, weekly or monthly | CSV for QuickBooks; PDF | 3PL plan $949/month, 5 users, up to 5,000 shipments a month |
| Infor WMS | Daily, weekly, monthly or custom schedules from receipt date; quantity, weight or cube; free days | Enterprise billing module | Not published |
Extensiv. 3PL Warehouse Manager supports automated, manual and location-based recurring storage (Extensiv, September 11, 2025), with initial storage fees at receipt that can be prorated around a split day (Extensiv, September 11, 2025). An older help page describes an “On Each Receiver’s Anniversary Day” option (Extensiv, no date shown). Billing Manager is a separate application (Extensiv, no date shown), and a charge adjustment cannot be edited in Warehouse Manager once submitted to it (Extensiv, December 11, 2025). Extensiv says Billing Manager reduces billing time by up to 75%. This is a vendor claim (Extensiv, no date shown, checked October 7, 2026).
Logiwa, Packiyo and Mintsoft. These target ecommerce fulfillment 3PLs. Logiwa lists tiered pricing, markup rates and value-added services billing (Logiwa, September 18, 2026) and prices by volume and complexity rather than users (Logiwa, February 22, 2026). Packiyo gives each client a primary rate card with an optional secondary card for negotiated overrides (Packiyo Help Center, no date shown), and its 3PL plan costs $949 per month (Packiyo, no date shown). Mintsoft lists “3PL Client billing” in a 3PL plan from £375 per month, priced in pounds (Mintsoft, no date shown). None of the three documents anniversary storage in the pages we reviewed, so test it if your contracts use it.
Datex, Infoplus and enterprise platforms. Datex lists the broadest storage options among mid-market vendors, including a receiving anniversary schedule. Infoplus builds billing from rules over an activity table, which takes careful setup. Infor WMS creates recurring storage charges per billing lot with free days and holiday exceptions (Infor, no date shown), and Boltrics documents an anniversary calculation for its 3PL Dynamics WMS (Boltrics, no date shown).
Our independent take
Choose billing software by the storage methods and accessorials in your actual contracts. Give each vendor five real contracts to configure during evaluation, including one anniversary client, one with a monthly minimum and one with heavy project labor. Packiyo and Logiwa are strong on pick, pack and shipping markups. Datex and the enterprise platforms document more storage methods, which matters for B2B pallet warehouses. No vendor is best for every 3PL, and published pricing is too thin to compare total cost without quotes.
Three buyer scenarios
A 60,000 square foot B2B contract warehouse with 25 pallet clients. Most contracts follow the IWLA split month default and two use anniversary terms. Prioritize a WMS that documents both natively, such as Datex or Extensiv, and test minimums and handling by weight before signing.
An ecommerce 3PL shipping 4,000 orders a month for 15 brands. Revenue is mostly pick fees, packaging and shipping markup, with storage billed by bin. Packiyo’s published 3PL plan fits this volume on paper, and Logiwa and Mintsoft are reasonable comparisons.
A regional 3PL on Business Central or NetSuite with a basic WMS. You bill from exported reports and spreadsheets. If your WMS records counts and transactions reliably, a billing layer that posts to your ERP may cost less than a full replacement. Our guide to usage-based billing in accounting software explains how rated usage reaches the ledger.
When you do not need dedicated 3PL billing software
If you have a handful of clients on flat monthly fees, a spreadsheet and your accounting system will do the job. The same applies if storage is a fixed dedicated-space fee and handling is billed per truck. Dedicated billing earns its cost when many clients sit on different rate cards with variable storage and frequent accessorials. If month-end invoicing takes one person more than two days, or clients query charges you cannot quickly support, the case for software is strong.
How we researched this
Between 6 and October 7, 2026 we read the IWLA standard contract terms, UCC 7-209, ASC 606 guidance, help-center documentation from Extensiv, Logiwa, Datex, Infoplus, Packiyo, Infor and Boltrics, and vendor pricing pages. Vendor claims are labelled, and no vendor paid for coverage.
Frequently asked questions
What is anniversary billing in a 3PL warehouse?
Anniversary billing charges storage on a monthly cycle that starts on the date each receipt arrives, rather than on the first of the calendar month. A pallet received on 22 September is billed again on 22 October. The IWLA standard terms permit it when both parties agree in writing.
How do 3PLs charge for storage when goods arrive mid-month?
Under the IWLA default, goods received from the 1st to the 15th pay a full month and goods received from the 16th pay half a month. After that, everything in storage on the first of each month pays a full month.
Can QuickBooks handle 3PL billing on its own?
QuickBooks can produce and track invoices, but it cannot count pallets or capture pick and receiving transactions. Most 3PLs calculate charges in the WMS or a billing application and export invoices to QuickBooks.
How long does a client have to dispute a warehouse invoice?
Under the IWLA standard terms, the depositor must claim a dispute in writing within 30 days of the invoice date and may not offset payments without written consent. Your own contract may set a different period.
How much does 3PL billing software cost?
Most vendors do not publish prices. Packiyo lists its 3PL plan at $949 per month with five users and up to 5,000 shipments a month, and Mintsoft lists its 3PL plan from £375 per month. We found no published price for Extensiv, Logiwa, Infoplus, Datex or Infor.
Sources
- IWLA, Standard Contract Terms and Conditions for Merchandise Warehouses, revised January 2026. iwla.com
- Cornell LII, UCC 7-209 Lien of warehouse, no date shown. law.cornell.edu
- Deloitte DART, Revenue recognized over time (ASC 606-10-25-27), no date shown. dart.deloitte.com
- Extensiv (vendor), Understanding Recurring Storage Charges, September 11, 2025. help.extensiv.com
- Extensiv (vendor), Initial Storage Charges, September 11, 2025. help.extensiv.com
- Extensiv (vendor), Recurring Storage Tab, no date shown. 3w.extensiv.com
- Extensiv (vendor), Common Terminologies in Rate Creation, May 19, 2026. help.extensiv.com
- Extensiv (vendor), Billing Manager Charge Adjustments, December 11, 2025. extensiv.helpjuice.com
- Extensiv (vendor), Exporting Invoices to QuickBooks, September 11, 2025. help.extensiv.com
- Extensiv (vendor), Billing Manager Overview, no date shown, checked October 7, 2026. help.extensiv.com
- Logiwa (vendor), Split Month Storage Billing, no date shown. intercom.help
- Logiwa (vendor), 3PL Billing Software, September 18, 2026. logiwa.com
- Logiwa (vendor), Pricing, February 22, 2026. logiwa.com
- Datex (vendor), 3PL Third Party Logistics Billing, no date shown. datexcorp.com
- Infoplus (vendor), 3PL Billing Setup Guide, no date shown. infopluscommerce.com
- Packiyo (vendor), Managing 3PL Billing, no date shown. help.packiyo.com
- Packiyo (vendor), Pricing, no date shown, checked October 7, 2026. packiyo.com
- Mintsoft (vendor), Pricing, no date shown, checked October 7, 2026. mintsoft.com
- Infor (vendor), WMS Recurring Storage Billing, version 11.5.x, no date shown. docs.infor.com
- Boltrics (vendor), Storage Index Anniversary Calculation, no date shown. learn.boltrics.com
Related guides
- EDI 940 and 945: Warehouse Shipping Orders for 3PLs
- Warehouse Slotting Software: When You Need It and What It Does
- Cross-Docking Software: How Distributors Run Flow-Through Operations
Sherman Hsieh
Independent analysis of enterprise software — ERP, CRM and more
