Billing monthly storage fees

How a warehouse operator keeps monthly storage fees billed for every shipper, where Industry CRM subscriptions fit, and the routine that works meanwhile.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.

Storage is the quietest income a warehouse earns. Pallets sit in racking day after day, the shipper rarely thinks about them, and nobody on the floor has to do anything for the charge to be due. That is exactly why it goes missing. A shipper who moves stock in and out every week gets invoiced because the movements prompt it. A shipper whose goods have sat untouched in a back bay since the autumn can go months without a storage invoice, and when someone finally notices, the shipper disputes the backlog.

A storage fee is a promise to bill the same client on the same date for as long as the goods stay. This article explains how Achekam handles repeating charges, where the Industry CRM's subscriptions come in, and a monthly routine that keeps every storage client billed whichever way you invoice.

What the core invoicing does and does not repeat

Achekam's standard customer invoicing has no recurring invoice. A business cannot set up an invoice that repeats itself for a customer; the only repeating invoices in the core product are retainers created from a signed engagement letter, which is an accounting-firm arrangement rather than a warehouse one.

So in the core invoicing, each storage invoice is its own document. It starts as a draft you can change or delete, and issuing it takes the next number in your sequence and posts it to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. That is fine for a handful of clients. It becomes a risk when there are dozens, because a document that has to be created by someone each month is a document someone can forget.

Subscriptions in the Industry CRM

The Logistics & freight pack in the Industry CRM calls customers Shippers and keeps a Shipper account for each, alongside spot quote requests and shipments. Subscriptions and renewals are part of the Industry CRM's third wave, together with bookings, deferred revenue and the other repeating arrangements that a one-off invoice handles badly.

For a warehouse, a storage agreement is the obvious candidate for a subscription: the same shipper, the same billing day, a renewal date to watch. Before moving storage clients onto subscriptions, work out with your team:

• which agreements are a fixed monthly fee and which vary with the space used;
• the billing day for each shipper, so the first subscription invoice does not double up with a manual one;
• who checks the renewal dates and the rates before each agreement rolls over.

Where a storage charge changes every month with the number of pallets held, a fixed subscription will not capture it on its own. Those clients still need a monthly count and a priced line, which is where the routine below earns its keep.

A monthly invoicing routine meanwhile

Whether or not your workspace has subscriptions switched on, a written routine stops storage slipping. Run it on the same working day each month:

1. Freeze the storage count. Take the pallet or bay count per shipper at month end from the warehouse system or the floor count, and save the list.
2. Price each shipper. Apply the rate in that shipper's agreement: per pallet, per bay, per square metre, or a fixed fee.
3. Draft the invoices. Create a draft for every shipper on the list, including those with no movements in the month.
4. Check before issuing. A second person compares the drafts with the count and the agreements, then issues them.
5. Send and file. E-mail the invoices and keep the count list with them as the evidence for each charge.

Storage is earned day by day whether or not anyone has invoiced it, which is the heart of accrual accounting. Investopedia's explanation of accrual accounting covers why revenue is recorded when it is earned rather than when cash changes hands, and that is the reason a forgotten storage month is lost profit in your management accounts as well as lost cash.

Storage as its own line

Do not bury storage inside a handling or freight charge. Give it its own line, with the period and the basis:

A separate line lets the shipper check the storage figure against its own stock records, and lets you see storage income on its own in your reports. If the shipper disputes the handling, the storage line can still be paid.

Checking every client is billed each month

The danger with storage is the client who is never missed because nothing reminds you of them. Two checks catch them.

The list against the count. Every shipper with goods on the month-end count must have a storage invoice for that month. Keep a simple tick list: shipper, pallets counted, invoice number. A blank invoice number is a missed bill.

The ageing report. Achekam ages receivables into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 days, with overdue totals. A storage client whose balance is climbing through those columns is a conversation to have before the goods leave the building, because once the stock is gone, so is much of your leverage. How to read and act on that ageing is covered in shipper accounts that drift past their terms.

A missed storage month, in words

A warehouse takes on a shipper's slow-moving spares in March. The goods are not touched until August, when the shipper calls for half of them. Preparing the handling-out invoice, the accounts office notices no storage was billed since April. Under a monthly routine with a tick list, the first missing invoice would have shown as a blank against the April count. Without one, the business now has to bill several months at once and explain why, and the shipper is entitled to ask for the counts behind each month.

Setting it up

List every shipper with goods in store today, note the rate and billing basis from their agreement, and pick the working day on which storage is billed. Decide which agreements suit a subscription and which need a monthly count. New storage clients should come in through the same front door as any other shipper; from enquiry to shipment covers that path.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.