freight audit services

Freight audit services for greater transparency

A freight audit is essential for checking incorrect freight billing errors. Outsourcing freight audits and payment helps eliminate overcharges and save money.

Companies that transport freight have to deal with overwhelming volumes of transactions daily. The amount of paperwork and complexity of freight rates is challenging for many organizations. In addition, payment to freight carriers has to be on time to avoid souring  carrier-shipper relationships. Companies must perform a freight audit to identify freight billing errors and improve productivity. Hence, outsourcing freight audit and payment services to a third party maximizes a company’s bottom line. This blog discusses outsourcing freight audit and payment services to freight audit companies.

Freight audit

Earlier companies used manual freight audits that were time-consuming. The process was prone to mistakes. Now, freight audits are a combination of automation and manual processes. So, freight audits can give reliable freight rates and ensure invoices are not duplicated or overcharged. Freight payment involves the amount payable for transportation or freight invoices. Further, freight audit and payment processes improve logistics efficiency and monitor shipping carriers’ performance.

The importance of freight audit

A freight audit is necessary for all freight shippers. Freight rates are negotiated with shipping carriers before contracts are signed. However, many companies end up paying more than the agreed quote. Freight audits help companies gain better visibility on their overall shipping expenses. In addition, freight audits optimize invoice management and payment. Freight audit includes both pre-audit and post-audit services.

Pre-audit helps shippers understand if the shipping carriers are correctly charged based on the contractual agreement.

Freight post-audit services aid companies decide whether shipping carriers have overbilled them.

How does outsourcing freight audit work?

In the U.S., many companies outsource to freight audit and payment companies. Ideally, freight audit companies act as facilitators between shippers and shipping carriers. Freight auditors receive invoices from shipping carriers or for in-depth analysis. The analyzed data offers good insights into shippers’ operations. Duplicate invoices are verified, and only outstanding bills are processed. Finally, only confirmed invoices are paid by wire transfer or check for payment. In addition, any unpaid invoices and due balances are taken care of during the freight audit process.

Advantages of outsourcing freight audit

Conducting a freight audit in-house may seem the best option for many companies. But outsourcing freight audits identify the mistakes that internal teams cannot. Some of the significant advantages of outsourcing include

  • Reducing labor costs

Outsourcing freight audit helps in cutting labor costs with accurate freight billing. Manual verification of freight payments before invoice approval requires labor. Outsourcing reduces these labor costs and increases productivity.

  • Saving time

Companies need not waste their valuable time tracking each shipment, filing for claims, requesting refunds, and more. Outsourcing saves time for companies by streamlining the freight audit process. Further on-time accurate freight payment to shipping carriers improves the shipper-carrier relationship.

  • Increase in financial returns

Freight audit companies aid shippers in recovering lost charges. Based on carrier contracts, accessorial surcharges or late delivery charges are verified, reduced, or waived. Outsourcing helps in identifying wrong detention invoice rates. In addition, freight audits help in reducing inventory costs and improve productivity.

  • Greater visibility

Dashboards give shipper the capability to become pro-active instead of reactive by anticipating problems before they become a crisis. They allow shippers to easily view their transportation data in easy to read and interpret tables and graphs. Perfect Dashboards , customizable reports helps shipper to enhance decision-making. Dashboards and reports provide transparency and real-time visibility to a shipper’s freight spend.

The above advantages give a competitive edge to shippers. Freight audits provide new opportunities for companies to streamline their processes.

Save more with Audintel

Freight audits can transform businesses. Audintel’s customized, intuitive dashboards and shipping reports help our clients understand their freight shipping expenses. We uncover potential freight bill errors and provide accurate freight billing across each carrier agreement. Audintel has a dedicated, professionally trained staff at our Call Center that negotiates with shipping carriers periodically for claims and refunds. Our state-of-the-art technology tracks freight invoices and saves money for companies. In addition, we handle complex contracts and rates for our clients. Audintel‘s team has optimized the freight shipping processes of our clients, saving them millions of dollars in shipping costs.

The bottom line

Businesses can save a substantial amount of their freight costs by adopting a good freight auditing process. Freight audits help in identifying freight billing errors and resolve freight payment issues. Skilled and qualified auditors at Audintel identify freight billing errors. In addition, we resolve payment issues and follow clients’ precise business rules. Audintel has saved millions of dollars for our clients with our efficient freight audits. Would you like to learn more about freight audits and our services? For further information, you can contact us at +1 (619) 354 8539 or visit our Audintel website.

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