A subscription invoice asks: what did this account owe for this period? A freight invoice asks: what moved, under which deal, at which published fuel, for which shipper?
Those are different grains. Pretending they are the same period calendar is how accessorials get lost and how diesel is applied from the wrong table.
In Sonic, shippers and carriers are separate catalogs. The contract is the carrier deal: term as inclusive calendar dates, billing frequency (none, daily, weekly, monthly), rated charges, and the mapping from the export onto distance, stops, identity, and the shipper column. Weekly is seven days from the start date — not a silent Monday–Sunday week.
Rate indexes hold a Default published series and optional branches. A carrier listed on a branch uses that branch’s values. Anyone else uses Default. If the chosen series has no rate for the shipment date, fuel is skipped. It does not quietly read the other table. Issued invoices keep the rate they were billed on.
Production files live on Shipments. Process freezes how each shipper name was detected. Unlinked names are not failures; they are waiting to be confirmed. Create writes the rows that already have a catalog shipper. Invoice preview groups the current selection. Issued invoices are never rewritten. Document numbers use a mapped column only when the invoice has exactly one shipment; grouped invoices use the shipper–carrier–window form.
Revenue is one ledger per shipment, net of rate lines. Recognition dates the haul, even when the invoice came first. Same calendar day can merge billed and recognised. Split dates stay split. Deferred revenue is not a freight account.
If your finance team still “accrues freight monthly” in a sheet, that sheet is the competitor.