Internal invoice review and validation can be a minefield of errors, each more costly than the last. Clerical errors, classification mistakes, missing information, and more all add up to dollars lost for companies lacking the time, energy, or resources to approach freight audit and payment with a mind for thorough resolution. Thankfully, there’s an easy solution.
Partnering with a company like nVision Global allows businesses to leave freight bill processing to experts with the technology and know-how to simplify the process and ensure every line item is accurate. The question is, how do you distinguish a great freight audit and payment provider from all the others?
Freight Audit and Payment Services are Essential
Freight audit and payment are foundational services. Without them, your transportation providers won’t get paid accurately or promptly. Underpayments on incorrect invoices result in late fees and service stoppage. Conversely, overpayments mean your partners are shouldering the loss. Getting it right is important for both parties, and it’s the key to maintaining healthy shipper-carrier relationships.
Many companies see implementing an internal freight bill audit and payment (FBAP) system as a way to contend with complex day-to-day processes. But while this option seems like a simple solution, it’s often costly. Not only is there the expense of licensing or using the software, but there’s also staffing and training to consider.
In most cases, the simpler, more affordable option is to outsource freight audit and payment to a partner who can achieve the same results with a higher ROI.
What to Look for in a Freight Audit and Payment Expert
For many businesses, balancing the books is often more challenging than moving the freight itself. This is why partnering with a freight audit and payment provider can be so valuable. Here’s what to look for in a freight audit and payment expert capable of ensuring your credits and debits match up accordingly:
- Validations and business rules. A freight audit and payment provider should easily integrate and automate a company’s business logic and requirements into the freight bill audit process. This is key in protecting against duplicate invoices and verifying validations to protect your business.
- Exception management. Look for a solution to provide transparency and visibility for all parties, ensuring payments are issued as expeditiously as possible. It’s not just about filling in the gaps — it’s about working with a partner who can track down and input the correct data to process an invoice.
- Custom cost allocation. Your provider should make it easy to analyze any ambiguity you’ll often encounter on invoices, merging this information with client-provided data to create an automated system for accurate and efficient cost allocations.
- Enhanced data capture. Your provider should normalize data to make it comparable and help your company gather important information from charge codes, origin and destination pairing, and more.
- Business intelligence. Seek a provider who applies actionable data insights — including past business data — to make strategic recommendations and help you improve the efficiency of your freight billing operations.
Turn Headaches into Revenue
Lost revenue is one of the biggest pitfalls of freight billing and payment. Companies without a reliable, experienced freight bill auditing partner are losing money. Not only does a strategic partner restore revenues, but they can also provide increased visibility to enable better decision-making.
When businesses can see where, how, and with whom they’re spending their money, they get a broad look at service levels, routes, providers, surcharges, and more. With all this information, it’s possible to make better decisions in the future and drive even more savings.
There’s too much money on the line not to put freight audit and payment in the hands of a capable partner like nVision Global.