No More Freight Bills

What do freight-bill auditing and payment firms do for their clients? Basically, these companies simplify the shipper's task of paying carriers. They take over the processing and paying of freight bills and collecting the data so that, in essence, the shipper has nothing to do with freight bills.

Typically, a freight bill payment company performs the following activities: Professional transportation auditors check the bills submitted by the carrier before approving payment. This pre-payment audit ensures that the carrier has applied the correct rate and discount to the invoice, as well as the proper classification.

It also double-checks to make sure that the invoice has not already been paid. Where an overcharge is determined, the audit company either collects the bill and pays short or contacts the carrier for a corrected invoice.

Because current regualtions only give shippers six months to recover overpayments, pre-auditing of freight bills and elimination of overpayments is now more advantageous than ever to the shipper. In addition to handling all data entry related to the invoice transaction, the service assigns the account numbers that the client wants in its general accounting ledger.

The actual arrangements vary from company to company, but in a typical case the freight-bill service notifies the shipper of the amount needed to pay its carriers. The client then wires the necessary funds to cover the freight bill payments to the service provided, which in turn issues checks for payment to carriers.

The provider issues reports on freight activity to allow shipper executives to get a better handle on shipping needs and demands. On top of that, many providers now have software that allows clients to load data into their computers for further analysis. The cost of this service depends on the specific requirements of each shipper, with many possible variations. However, charges are usually levied on a "per bill" basis, with specialized accounting or reporting requirements usually adding to the basic price.

In general, however, the reductions in the freight bills made by discovering and eliminating overcharges before they are paid usually exceeds the cost of the services. As a result, a professional pre-audit of the freight bills will normally save the shipper much more than the total monthly cost of the service.