21 Dec
It is getting difficult every single day for several groups within the organization, transportation and logistics to do more under all the pressure. They always have the need to find the best freight audit solutions in order to maintain the morale and development of the organization. In addition, they also have to find some ways to control the financial situation and manage the movement of goods as well.
There is a great opportunity for you when you are auditing and payment of freight bills. You can save loads of money during the process. However, you should first know what a freight audit company is. A freight audit company helps in providing valuable services to several shippers and reduces the stress right out. However, you should first get a clear idea about the term “Freight Audit.” Here’s the correct explanation of Freight Audit for you.
What is the meaning of freight audit?
Freight audit is designed to provide international business support and optimize operation and expenses. In addition, it also helps in improving logistics processing. So, a simple definition of freight audit would be that it is performed to verify and analyze the freight bills.
The main goal of freight auditing is to get an idea of deep logistical insights. In addition, it also includes the purpose of cost savings with that. That is why different companies need freight auditors in order to maintain their business profits. Freight audit is done by manually evaluating freight bills or advanced software.
Although a freight audit company provides a lot of help to your company, if you are able to know the freight audit checklist by yourself, wouldn’t that be great? Well-designed, implemented, and maintained systems will lead you to a great freight audit practice. However, you will need a little guidance, and we are here to give you that in an effective manner. So, make sure that you read everything in this article. If you select a freight audit company, then you should keep these pointers in mind before making any decisions.
- Verify every collection and analytical data capability of the company
- Ensure that they use the best and latest technology
- Choosing a well-experienced company is the key to success
- Ensure that they have the best carrier relationships
- Business Intelligence Reporting
- Request for Proposal (RFPs)
- Tenders
- Freight Management technology systems
- Freight Benchmarking
5 Freight Audit & Payment Best Practices
To perform freight audit best practices, you will need this ultimate checklist guide to perform freight audit best practices. However, you will need to devote additional resources that can help you achieve the main goal. It may also let you implement a whole different plan than usual to reach the goal. Read all the pointers carefully and implement them accordingly.
1. The use of electronic invoices should be mandatory and maximized.
Transmitting invoices and related documentation via electronic invoicing is the best freight audit practice that you can do in order to go to the top. You will be starting to feel several positive outcomes if you do this, and it will definitely show a payback. Automating invoice receipts is also a good way to achieve immediate improvement. Here are some of the other benefits of electronic invoice:
- Reduced costs.
- There will be Fewer disputes and rejected invoices.
- It Improves customer satisfaction too.
- There is increased productivity as well as automation.
- The risk of putting the input wrong will also reduce.
- There will be fewer freight bill expectations as well.
Find out more: 5 key benefits of outsourcing freight auditing
2. A good investment will be needed to develop and integrate the matchpay system highly.
First, let us know what matchpay is. It is a way of tracking the shipment and freight movement by matching invoice files to shipment files. It allows the company to get better processing control, better quality and increased volumes of data, and expanded options for cost allocation at several levels. Matchpay system uses much more sources than usual which means that nothing will go to waste if your company chooses to use this system. You will be getting several benefits from this method of payment practice. Some of the best shippers in the world are using this method to provide themselves with the best freight audit practice.
3. Manage your rating system of freight.
You need to enable the audit of the carrier invoices and generate freight accruals, which only the freight rating system can help you with. A freight rating system is just as good as transportation pricing agreements. In simpler terms, Freight payments need to be audited in order to attain successfully good freight audit practice. Suppose the rates are on a per-kilometer basis, then the agreement should also state that the mileage source, version, and any parameters, including trailer length, may apply with it.
4. Take advantage of full payments and use the maximum value of the data.
There is a heavy chance that your payments are being scheduled based on the invoice process date rather than the due date, even if your partner pays the freight bill. As a result, the carrier payments are to be made accordingly.
5. Advanced duplicate protection controls
You need to expand in order to add new data fields, including Bill of Lading (BL) number, Purchase Order (PO) number, type of invoice (line-haul vs. balance due vs. separately billed accessorials), shipment date, and type of charge (service, accessorial, etc.) It will help you set up an invoice number data mask that enforces the pro number pattern for each carrier, which makes it important to achieve freight audit and payment best practices. You will also get the feature of using sophisticated logic to detect suspect invoices.
Conclusion:
Best practice freight bill audit and payment processing will lead you to save money and then you can use that money and something more important such as buying new inventory, or any other types of equipment. Investing your precious time in the best freight audit practice will be worth it, once you will see the result.
