AuditManager Delivers Savings, Quick Resolution and Audit of all Invoices with Little or No Shipper Involvement
Acuitive’s freight bill AuditManager is a highly transparent, granular and automated prepayment process that audits 100% of all freight bills, requires carrier self correction prior to payment and reduces administrative costs and time for shippers. Actual audit savings are reported on a monthly basis.
Data generated from AuditManager also provides shippers and carriers insights to into transportation processes and performance metrics which otherwise would not exist. AuditManager delivers continuous financial and operational benefits, especially during periods of highly volatile rates and surcharges that can wreak havoc on accurate invoicing and timely payment.
The audit begins with transparency and inputs from stakeholder carriers, 3PL’s and forwarders. This puts everyone on the same page. AuditManager then takes the data in EDI format (856 and 310) and conducts the audit in three steps.
- 1 Discrepancy identification and isolation of error with information returned to the issuer who works directly with the Acuitive team.
- The result: 100% audit with minimal shipper involvement (as low as 0.25% of total invoices).
- 2 A personal dashboard created by Acuitive provides all possible discrepancies
- The result: quick carrier feedback and response creates an integrated approach by all parties to reach resolution. Carriers are forced to resolve discrepancies before payment is made. A corrected invoice is re-submitted to AuditManager for approval
- 3 Final step..EDI 810/Approval to Pay on receipt of EDI 310 (Invoice) with a communication to all parties.
- The result: no payments are made until all parties agree on resolution.
Here’s what makes AuditManager work
- The process is automated, scalable and not prone to manual human error.
- Automatically matches the carrier invoices (EDI 310) to the corresponding container manifest (EDI 856) to validate the invoice, container numbers and sizes, rates, and commodities.
- Automatic rating and Approval processes. Human interaction is the exception rather than the rule.
- Automatic screening and detection of duplicate and missing invoices.
- Automatic consolidation of multiple bills per ocean container to handle pro rata invoicing.
- Equipment substitutions are validated and accounted for.
- Proactive issue resolution ... the Acuitive team personally reviews all discrepant invoices to determine the issue/cause so the carrier doesn't have to research to resolve.
- High carrier participation/satisfaction due to the transparancy, fairness, and pre-payment issue resolution.
- Cost allocations and payment scheduling.
- Custom approved to pay data integration (to you, your broker, or your outside freight payer as applicable) based on each customers requirements.
- MQC compliance reporting.
- We've already integrated most of the world's major carriers including K-Line, OOCL, Hapag Lloyd, MOL, Maersk, CMA CGM, APL, Crowley, WAN HAI, U.S. Lines, Hyundai, Evergreen, COSCO, NYK, ZIM and China Shipping.
Acuitive averages $1.4 mil in discovered discrepancies per month. For one customer this was 18% of total invoicing. AuditManager also delivers added value and benefits beyond reported audit savings which includes:
- Indirect savings (fewer people needed for auditing). At one shipper a single administrative person manages over $400M in annual audits.
- Saved time. Fast over/under resolution eliminates the need for short pays and months of phone calls and emails to reach final agreement.
- Management of credit terms and payment scheduling based on shipper business rules
- Cost allocation to individual purchase orders can provide better tracking, trend analysis and no black hole for spend metrics.
- Custom reports produced from simple point and click querying including:
- Per cent of invoice accuracy by carrier
- Inaccuracies reported by fault such as a change in container size and the shipment priced at the original equipment rate…this is not the fault of the carrier and not held against them
- Errors by carrier location
- Detailed spend by carrier, equipment used, lanes, service types and commodities
Why are we better?
Because our audits benefit both the carrier and the shipper. Acuitive is the only audit provider that treats over and underpayments equally. We have no skin in the game because we are not paid on a per invoice basis but as part of an agreed-upon fee. Currently AuditManager identifies 60% overs and the remaining 40% is under billing. This approach creates a high level of carrier cooperation and participation in the audit process which benefits everyone. Acuitive’s average bill approval time is 9 days before container arrival but depends on when the carrier submits the invoice. A trained and motivated carrier can receive invoice approval well before container arrival.