What to Expect When Onboarding a New Freight Bill Auditor

Shipment invoicing errors often lead to disastrous losses to a shipper's bottom line. They commonly occur from errors on invoices, double invoicing, payment extensions, and disputes. Many companies utilize a freight bill auditor to identify, resolve, and recoup monies. Controlling costs is important, no matter the size of the business. And there's evidence to support outsourcing all freight bill auditor needs. As reported by Eric Johnson of JOC.com, "shippers using a third-party vendor for invoice auditing, payment, or both had average invoice processing costs that were one-third of those that manage the entire process in-house." And preventing invoicing errors that lead to needless shipping spend increases is even more important. Let's take a closer at why this is so.

Challenges of Finding the Right Shipping Invoice Auditor

Shippers are diverse; so too are freight bill auditors. Many offer a multi-faceted menu, from post-audit providers to self-service and automated solutions that may include several hundred reports of various details and specifications. Others might include checking a single data point and overlooking everything else. That's the difference, and even worse, the challenges of finding the right freight audit provider amount to recognizing the wrong providers. So, it's important to think about how the following issues contribute to worse freight auditing outcomes.

• Lack of expertise or knowledge of auditor service providers.
• Diversity and difference in carrier contract language, terms and standards.
• Inability to track auditing service provider performance.
• Communication problems relating to either identifying what's wrong, finding the best solution and even sharing audit results with shippers.
• Internal pushback or fear of further logistics automation among workers.

The Right Freight Bill Auditor Will Work as an Extension of Your Business

Finding the perfect fit when shopping around for the right freight bill auditor can be a challenge. There are many philosophies on what's better—in-house vs. outsourcing. And the choice might be easier than meets the eye. There are many choices in auditing services, and they all offer solutions to root out and correct shipping spend problems. For instance, most freight bill auditors have different levels of advanced shipping analytics, and what's needed will also vary per shipper. Understanding the simple variances in data or terminology can be a challenge, and some shippers and auditors will refer to the same processes with different terms. In other cases, data exists in different forms, making use difficult for in-house programs. Getting on the same-understanding page goes a long way in making the right choice.

Also, shipment auditing systems work in the capacity of a consultant. They help identify insights with analytic tools, optimize contracts, reduce costs and improve operations through like logistics key performance indicators (KPIs) not to mention automate shipment audit and recovery.

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Additional Tips to Hasten Auditing Provider Onboarding

Proper research of all analytics in transportation will assist in a timely selection of a freight bill auditor. Undeniably, it helps to have a few tips to streamline auditor onboarding. These include:

• Choose a cloud-based, global auditing solutions provider.
• Be sure the provider can audit all modes of transportation i.e. Parcel, TL, LTL, Courrier, Air, Ocean, etc.  
• Use API, EDI and other connecting technologies to give auditors access to all applicable data.
• Ensure the provider cleanses and normalizes data before analysis.
• Follow up with questions regarding insights or how the system works and conduct training exercises among the team.
• Centralize and maintain clear, concise communications to stay informed.
• Review auditor performance at set intervals.

Streamline Freight Bill Auditing  With the Right Partner

The challenges of choosing the right freight bill auditor can be overcome by being informed, identifying specific needs, and comparing what's out there. It doesn't have to be daunting. If shippers take the time to vet service providers and know what to expect, a well-informed choice can ensure a smooth transition. Connect with Intelligent Audit to get started.