What Is a Freight Bill Pre-Audit & Why Would A Shipper Need One?

Common transportation practices of paying invoices as they are often hiding avoidable costs.. Shippers that wish to limit expenses and secure more savings should pre-audit their shipping invoices. Auditing the freight invoice allows shippers to quickly validate and analyze what the carriers are charging for. In addition to this, shippers can gain better insight into what practices directly affect shipping rate invoices. The increase in freight bill transparency makes for a valuable resource for any shipper within the shipping industry.

Defining a Freight Bill Pre-Audit

A freight bill audit provides shippers with increased transparency into the individual costs of a freight or parcel invoice. A pre-audit is a way for shippers to ensure the carriers are charging you correctly based on your contractual agreement before the invoice is due. Pre Audit will uncover any incorrectly billed rates, accessorials, fuel, and duty and taxes. Having a pre-audit, shippers reduce transportation costs and increase profitability. Freight bill pre-audits outline, in detail, all the individual contributors to pricing. The pre-audit even considers the complexity of routes. In short, shipping bill pre-auditing provides shippers with incredibly valuable information. Information that increases transparency and profitability for shippers.

Why Pre-Auditing Conserves Resources

Pre-emptive auditing of freight bills conserves valuable company resources. Conservation of valuable resources and assets makes for a major improvement opportunity within the industry. Shippers that use pre-emptive auditing can enter billing negotiations with a better understanding of what to expect. This allows shippers to ensure accuracy of rates, as well as ensuring that they receive the best deals possible. Once a shipper has the information provided from the pre-audit, they can simply match the expected costs to their invoice details. The shipping data obtained from pre-emptive auditing ensures that shippers can better manage resources. This means shippers can save more time and money with less hassle than waiting for invoices to come into the back office. Additionally, it eliminates the wasted resources used for manual validation of shipping costs, GL codes, and report generation. That makes your employees more efficient.

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Additional Reasons to Use a Pre-Audit Process in Your Operation

Pre-auditing of the freight bill possesses several other benefits. One benefit comes in the form of reduced processing costs. According to JOC.com, "Large shippers — i.e., those with $1 billion or more in annual revenue — reported processing costs 70 percent lower than their small shipper counterparts." And part of that comes from the ability to pre-audit the freight bill in real time and avoid overpayment." In addition, pre-auditing also speeds up scheduling and booking of shipments too. Thus, knowledgeable shippers use pre-audits to prepare for negotiations better. These benefits are even more accessible through partnering with an external auditing servicer that begins auditing as soon as the load is tendered.

Additionally, external invoice auditors offer improved accuracy of shipping rates, improved throughput, and can better hold carriers to compliance with contract obligations. The final and greatest benefit of external auditing services is simple: it is all automated for the shipper. This means that shippers can even further improve their operations without worrying about taking this task upon themselves.

Streamline Auditing in Your Enterprise With the Right Solutions Provider

Shippers can greatly benefit from pre-auditing of the freight bill. Previously, the process of shipment invoicing appeared as a nearly one-sided affair. Shippers can now use analytics to pre-audit all freight bills to improve operations, boost profitability, and ensure that contract partners meet their contractual obligations. Streamline auditing and prepare for the future with the right solutions provider. Connect with Intelligent Audit to get started today.