Freight Payment

Special Report

Payment technology adapting to account for smaller invoice inaccuracies

By Eric Johnson

Freight audit and payment has traditionally been about searching for the “ big bang ” invoice inaccuracies , as opposed to correcting the litany of “ small potatoes ” errors . But as audit and payment technology has evolved to make scrutiny of all invoices more feasible from a cost and human resources perspective , so has the attitude toward taking a granular look at even small variances from a contracted rate and the invoices associated with it .

“ Most of the savings we help generate comes on invoices where there is a $ 3 to $ 5 variance , which is within the tolerance of most audit programs ,” said Shannon Vaillancourt , CEO of RateLinx , which provides auditing software as well as a transportation management system and procurement tool .

“ Most of the savings we help generate comes on invoices where there is a $ 3 to $ 5 variance .”

That tolerance has historically existed because chasing such small dollar amounts on a per invoice basis wasn ’ t worth it for a shipper or a carrier due to the time it takes to resolve such disputes . But if an auditing platform can be set to zero tolerance , shippers can , in a relatively efficient way , claw back amounts as small as , for example , $ 3 per invoice . Spread over tens of thousands of invoices , that adds up . www . joc . com November 18 , 2024 | Journal of Commerce 33