Freight Invoice Processing in General

What are the benefits of using the Certuspact freight bill automation system?

The main benefit is to gain efficiencies with freight bill processing. Your organization might be able to get by with an inefficient process for a while. However, as your organization grows and becomes more successful, it will have to process an increasing number of freight bills. At some point, you will have challenges paying your trade partners on time. An automated system will improve efficiency and accuracy in your freight bill payment cycle, the time it takes to receive the invoice, rate it, resolve issues, approve it, perform general ledger allocation, then prepare payment and review reports. A lot of people get caught up in the rating part of the process. While this is a critical part of the process, the other components should not be ignored.

How much does it cost to process a freight invoice internally?

It can be difficult to quantify the cost to process an invoice. The Aberdeen Group is a research company that analyzes this type of process and they published a report titled "E-Payables Benchmark 2009" in September 2009. They interviewed 150 companies with regards to cost and time it takes them to process an invoice and here's what they identified: For the top 20% of this group it costs on average $3.53 to process an invoice and it takes them on average 4 days. The next 50% of the group is considered to be the average and it costs them $11.19 to process an invoice in an average time of 16 days. For the bottom 30% of the group, it costs $35.56 to process an invoice and it takes 27 days to process the invoice. By looking at these numbers you can get an idea of the challenges you may face with regards to possible costs and time to process an invoice.

What makes up the cost to process a freight invoice manually?

There are many factors to consider, including direct labor costs, indirect labor costs, equipment, postage and supplies, administrative costs, communications, etc. Just consider how many people are involved, all the costs to receive the invoice, making sure that it is not a duplicate, rate the charges, making sure the correct rates are used, resolving any discrepancies on the invoice with the trade partner, getting the invoice approved by the responsible person, performing general ledger allocation and then paying it. Certuspact has compiled a full list of manual freight invoice processing cost components 39K

What are some of the common methods used to bill for freight bill automation services?

Some freight bill processors charge for a percentage of the errors they find during the audit. Others take possession of your funds for a period of time prior to paying the trade partners in order to collect interest. Setup fees may be charged during implementation. Invariably there is always a transaction fee. The transaction fee can vary depending on the other services offered.