Despite the global turmoil, consumer spending has not waned. E-commerce businesses are rising as fewer people are visiting physical stores. According to experts, the e-commerce market will be over $7.9 trillion by 2027. Many customers (70%) expect free shipping from e-commerce retailers. These retailers adopt shipping strategies to entice consumers to shop more to qualify for free shipping. Further, companies need to grow their business by evaluating the amount spent on shipping.
Shipping software with advanced technology tools gives businesses greater visibility and control over their shipping operations. AI and Machine learning help evaluate business spending data and analyze shipping expenses. Shipping reports provide such information to organizations. Our earlier blogs on shipping reports were on the importance and types of shipping reports. This article will focus on shipping reports and how to track and analyze shipping spend.
Shipping Reports
These are reports that provide shipping information to shippers. They ensure that companies have the latest shipping data. Shipping reports will bring efficiency to shippers’ transportation spend management systems. Companies have vast volumes of data. Shipping reports can filter that data by date, service levels, quantity of goods, etc.
Many shippers have customized shipping reports that cater to their business needs. It helps them make informed decisions regarding the type of shipping carriers to choose. In addition, payments to shipping carriers and refunds for service failures are visible in the shipping reports.
Track Shipping Spend
Tracking last-mile delivery of goods is necessary for every shipping software. Shippers can choose the service levels of the shipping carriers based on the items shipped, delivery speed, and cost-effectiveness. Shipping rates can be calculated based on the shipping zones of carriers like FedEx, UPS, DHL, and USPS. Further, the weight of packages, dimensions, and delivery time can estimate the shipping costs.
Additional expenses like remote area surcharges, fuel surcharges, and address correction fees need tracking during shipment deliveries. Every shipping carrier has different additional fees for shipment-related surcharges. Understanding these shipment surcharges will help track the shipping spend. Automated tracking tools can track shipments quickly and save time. Reporting inefficiencies and invoice errors allows companies to keep a check on their shipping expenses.
Shipping Spend Analysis
Spend analysis examines the data involving shipping expenses. Spend data is collected from various sources and consolidated. Further, data inaccuracies and redundancies require removal to get accurate data. Standardizing the shipping spend data and classifying it into diverse groups is the next stage of spend analysis. Shipping reports help in categorizing the spend data for effective transportation spend management.
Organizations can identify trends and saving opportunities by visualizing data as bars, charts, pie diagrams, etc. Further, dashboards give a broad overview of the shipping spend performance. For example, it highlights the invoices with discrepancies. It will also show the areas where refunds from the shipping carriers are available.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools with predictive analytics allow organizations to study their historical spending patterns. Moreover, these tools can predict future spending patterns and supply risks and identify market trends. Companies can optimize inventory levels and reduce shipping costs by analyzing data from customers and distributors. Further automated tools decrease manual labor and expedite processes in warehouses and fulfillment centers.
Real-time shipment updates with AI-powered tools provide shippers peace of mind and enhance supply chain operations. In addition, AI-powered chatbots improve customer experience and free up agents for complex issues. Spend analytics provides visibility in managing expenses at every stage of the shipment process.
Parcel Spend Analysis
Evaluation of the amount spent on shipping parcels is possible through spend analytics. Parcel audit services provide insights into each parcel shipped, its charges, and service levels. For example, the fees for parcel delivery overnight by FedEx and UPS vary. Understanding the cheaper and faster mode of parcel delivery helps shippers save money.
Shippers can negotiate favorable rates and services from parcel carriers. Further, one can streamline the processes through consolidated shipping and optimizing packaging. Shipping reports generate data that can identify errors and provide solutions to shippers.
Freight Spend Analysis
Companies receive ample cost-saving opportunities with freight spend analysis. It involves an examination of freight invoices in a specific time frame. Shippers can spot hidden costs and overpayments by looking at features such as freight class, routes, modes, etc. For instance, freight data regarding the cheaper shipping lane can reduce costs and transit times.
Further, shippers can comprehend their shipping logistics costs with spend analytics. Information regarding trucking spot freight rates, bill of lading, customs, etc., is possible with descriptive analytics. Shipping reports generate meaningful data that are easy to understand and implement.
Transportation Spend Reporting by Audintel
Our Business Intelligence (BI) powered tools analyze shipping spend data and give valuable insights to shippers. Audintel’s cloud-based platform provides a 360-degree real-time overview of the shipping spend data. We provide customizable shipping reports for our clients with details at the item level. Audintel aids in reporting on transportation expenses.
Shippers get many benefits from choosing our Transportation Spend Management resources. Our shipping reports help businesses understand their shipping spend. The shipping data of each package contains in-depth information. We also offer shipping calculator services to clients. For example, we calculate the best possible rates for each package based on weight, size, or dimensions.
What do shipping reports of Audintel contain?
The shipping reports of Audintel include
- Summary of all the package charges for a specific service
- Total expenses and refunds for each package
- Shipping charges by service level and discounts
- All the services used by shippers at a glance
- Consolidated report regarding payments to shipping carriers
- Details of credits from the shipping carriers
- Tracks late-delivered packages
- Details of lost and damaged packages
- Surcharges incurred on each package (for example, Saturday delivery)
- Details of the exception packages and reasons for each packages
- Reports that displays the GL codes available for each invoices and respective charges
- Details of the Address correction packages.
- Reports that displays the spend and recovery along with the percentage for yearly, quarterly and monthly date ranges.
- Week over week(WoW) or Month over month (MoM) performance trends reports.
Shipping reports provided by Audintel provide better visibility about shipping costs and processes. Our intelligent, intuitive dashboards monitors carrier performance and provides comprehensive reports. It allows shippers to have meaningful discussions with shipping carriers regarding delivery timeframes.
Further, Audintel’s parcel and freight audit services can identify service failures, duplicate invoices, incorrect surcharges, etc. We help customers recognize the complexities of shipping rates and surcharges of each shipping carrier. It helps them choose the best ways to ship their goods economically.
Conclusion
The global freight market is facing many challenges. The world shipping industry is evolving at a fast pace. With the approaching holiday season, companies with vast shipping volumes need to reduce their shipping expenses In addition, customer satisfaction with on-time delivery of packages is critical for shippers. Partnering with shipping intelligence experts can help shippers lower their shipping costs.
Audintel’s robust intelligence tools can track, analyze, and reduce shipping expenses. Our comprehensive shipping reports give an overview of each company’s shipping operations. The shipping reports contain the shipping spend and delivery data. It could be late package deliveries, shipping rate calculations, or improper surcharges. Businesses have all the shipping information at their fingertips.
Further, shippers can track their shipping spend for a particular timeframe with one click. Companies can gauge the performance of a shipping carrier when shipping their goods. And so they can choose the best carrier for their shipping needs. Our shipping reports are easy to understand and self-explanatory. We help shippers save money with our intelligent software and customized transportation spend reports.
For more information on our shipping reports, contact us at +1 (619) 354 8539. Further, learn more about our comprehensive audit services by visiting the Audintel website.