Discover how AI, automation and advanced analytics are transforming freight bill post audits, leading to more efficient and cost-effective logistics.
Discover how AI, automation and advanced analytics are transforming freight bill post audits, leading to more efficient and cost-effective logistics.
If freight bills could talk, they'd probably apologize for all the headaches they have been causing your audit team. But the good thing is that digitalization and the AI revolution are transforming how companies manage the critical process of freight bill post-audit.
Each logistics operation stage is complex, and there is a growing need for a precise and efficient freight bill post-auditing process. As businesses scale and supply chains expand, stacks of freight bills pile up and the manual post-audit process struggles to keep up with this expansion. The traditional approach of post-audit is notoriously slow and labor-intensive. Since it relies heavily on human oversight, it is inevitable to avoid mistakes when dealing with large amounts of data.
The manual post-audit process poses an inherent risk of inaccurate data entries, overlooked details, and miscalculations. These seemingly minor errors can translate to significant financial losses and lead to costly overpayments, unclaimed refunds, or even possible compliance issues. The American Journal of Transportation reports that about 25% of freight bills contain some or the other form of error, resulting in businesses overpaying by at least 13% annually.
Fortunately, automation and advanced analytics are revolutionizing how freight bills are audited, leading to effective cost management while providing strategic insights for better decision-making.
The shift of manual post-audit processes towards AI and automation
The logistics and transport sector has realized the potential of digital transformation and embraced it for quite a while now. This commitment to innovation is evident in an industry survey that ranked logistics and transport fifth among 11 industries that expressed high confidence in digital transformation.
As the digital landscape evolves, the focus is now shifting towards advanced technologies like AI and automation. Logistics automation tools are proving to be enablers of smarter, faster, and more precise operations across several stages of freight management, including the segment of freight bill audits. Let’s understand how AI and automation can help businesses combat the limitations of the manual post-audit process.
1. Enhanced accuracy and error reduction
Audit technology advancements in AI and automation ensure a precision level that cannot be matched by traditional manual processes. Automated systems can analyze large amounts of data in real time and apply consistent audit rules across all invoices. Such systems reduce the risk of oversight, miscalculations, and misinterpreting data.
AI and ML can be leveraged to detect anomalies and flag even the smallest of discrepancies that can go unnoticed by human auditors. A similar approach is followed by Pando to eliminate manual mistakes, decrease financial risks of overpayments and provide recommendations for dispute resolution.
2. Scalability and efficiency
The supply chain grows more complex as the business scales, converting manageable manual tasks into overwhelming ones. This often leads to backlogs, delayed audits, and an overall hindrance to business operations. Automated freight audit and payment solutions allow you to handle high invoice volume with zero manual effort.
These systems can scale as your business expands while ensuring that audits are completed accurately and on time. Moreover, AI’s ability to learn and adapt over time further increases the efficiency of each cycle.
3. Real-time insights and strategic decision making
Many businesses have embraced digitalization and have access to large datasets. However, the competitive business landscape requires timely decisions based on real-time insights. It often takes a while to derive insights from the manual post-audit process, and to make decisions and implement them. This lag hinders timely decision-making and results in missed opportunities.
Corrective actions on autopilot: How automation and analytics drive smarter freight audits
Automation and advanced shipping data analytics are revolutionizing the way logistics companies manage corrective actions. They enable businesses to shift from reactive problem-solving ways to proactive, data-driven strategies. Let’s explore some real case examples where industries experienced a positive impact of automation and analytics in their logistics process.
1. Standardizing data streams to one platform
Nivea, a leading enterprise dealing in consumer products, relied heavily on manual methods to manage freight payments. The traditional paper-based system required lengthy processes to confirm deliveries and settle payments, with turnaround times stretching from 45 to 60 days. This often led to lost documents and a lack of transparency, leading to delays and inefficiencies.
Digitizing data emerged as a pivotal strategy to address these challenges. It helped them to achieve real-time visibility of shipment status. This further allowed both the company and its transport partners to track and verify billing details. Ultimately, the post-audit process became quicker and more accurate.
As Neha Parekh, Director of Supply Chain at Nivea, noted, “Our payment process became very very smooth because we now had the visibility (of payment process). Not just us, even our transport partners can generate the invoice in check and run a routine check to know the billing status.”
2. Identifying cost-saving opportunities
Accuride, an automotive company, faced significant challenges managing freight payments and audits. Invoice auditing was their major pain point, and the company often accepted incorrect charges. This primarily occurred due to the complexity of manual checks resulting in unnecessary expenditure and inefficiencies.
The company adopted Pando’s advanced 'Invoice Audit' solutions, enabling it to scrutinize charges, reject incorrect invoices, and avoid unnecessary costs. As highlighted by Jacob from Accuride, "This has generated significant cost savings as we can now reject invoices where we were billed incorrectly and send back to the provider to send the revised invoice with the correct charges."
3. Automated Dispute Resolution
Resolving discrepancies in traditional manual freight audits requires back-and-forth communication with stakeholders and lengthy documentation processes that delay resolutions. A global CPG organization was dealing with similar issues.
Pando helped the organization in automating carrier invoices, payments to carriers, audits, and reconciliation. They were able to achieve a 98% first-match rate, significantly reducing the time and effort required to process thousands of invoices. Additionally, it led to around 4% savings in procurement.
What's the Verdict?
Incorporating modern technology of AI, automation, and advanced analytics in freight bill auditing is no longer optional — it has become a need to stay competitive in the current dynamic business landscape. The manual approach of freight bill post audit is not equipped to handle the complexities of the supply chain for a scaling business.
Embracing these state-of-the-art technologies enhances the accuracy and efficiency of freight audits. It detects anomalies, trends, and patterns in large datasets and provides valuable insights that drive strategic decision-making. Pando’s automated freight audit and payment solutions can help you streamline your processes and boost your savings. Have a look at our client's success stories.
Book a demo to experience how Pando can help you secure long-term financial health and maintain a competitive advantage in the industry.
