Shipper Example — Streamlining Payment Process in the Retail Industry
Retailer Improves Freight Payment Process & Increases Business Intelligence

Situation
A major Retailer processes 6,000-8,000 invoices weekly. The company had outsourced their freight payment process for a number of years but had become dissatisfied with the service levels and limited capabilities of their provider.

Service issues included slow turn-around times for imaging and data entry as well as missing documentation. Often times their current freight payer took up to a week to image their documents. By the time the Retailer had a chance to review the bills and approve them, payments to the Carriers were late - which resulted in strained relationships between the Carriers and the Retailer.

In addition to service issues, their current outsourcing provider’s reporting tools were inadequate. The Retailer was unable to analyze their freight spend in order to improve internal processes and help manage their costs effectively.

The Retailer also wanted to reduce the risk associated with paying a third-party for their transportation expenses. Their provider’s payment process operated on a float system. Since the company’s freight spend totaled millions of dollars each year, paying their vendor prior to the Carriers getting paid left them vulnerable to losing significant funds due to a third-party bankruptcy or fraud issue. Also, payment options did not include ACH or Pcard, which delayed payment by 2-3 days.

As the Retailer’s Logistics Department assessed their current situation, they decided that it was time to evaluate other freight payment options.

Proven Experience
API has proven expertise in transforming freight payment processes for Shippers. API offers additional business functionality that the Retailer and their Carriers would find extremely valuable. Also, because API offers specific process improvements not realized with their current vendor, the decision to work with API was made even easier.

Enhanced Services
With API’s 24-48 hour processing commitment, service issues facing such a Retailer are eliminated. The new solution provides additional functionality that creates a more efficient and effective process at a competitive cost.

Enhancements include:

• Retailer Portal — ability to review consolidated bills and see individual carrier invoice and support documents online. Disputes can be resolved quickly and invoices can be rejected or revised online if there are errors. Retailers receive a better understanding of their transportation costs which allows them to allocate those costs to individual cost centers.
• Carrier Portal — automates exception processing by notifying carrier within 48 hours if support documents are missing. Carrier views documentation online through a client branded Web site and can also see the anticipated date they will get paid. This portal serves to ensure that Carriers receive timely and accurate payments. Effective payments can result in Shippers receiving as much as 3% savings on their freight rate. Carriers can also obtain their remittance information and post their open receivables electronically.
• Business Intelligence — better reporting allows better decision making capabilities. Reports include both standard and ad-hoc search capabilities.
• Automatic Pre-payment Audit — validates carrier invoices against contracts and agreed upon pricing schedules. All adjustments are documented in the file for reference and a complete transaction history is maintained.
• Automated Workflow — electronic invoice processing includes general ledger coding for Retailer.
• Payments — built-in duplicate payment protection. Expanded capabilities for payment processing including ACH, Pcard and handling of international currencies. Electronic payment made from Retailer account goes directly to Carriers instead of third-party payor to avoid risk of loss of funds.
• EDI Capability — EDI information is converted to an image for easier online viewing of all Carrier invoices.

Client Satisfaction
Clients switch to API for the significant impact on their freight payment process. This high quality freight payment service not only has streamlined freight payment processes and facilitated improved Carrier relations, but has provided enhanced quality control.

The stringent controls and SOX compliant processes provide Shippers with peace of mind in a business world that now demands total accountability.

This is representative of actual client experiences .

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