A large percentage of freight bills contain an error that could potentially affect your company’s well-being in one way or another. In fact, almost 25% of freight bills contain an error, and even though those errors aren’t significant or intentionally made, you still shouldn’t ignore them.
But, as you know, manually going over every single invoice, fishing for mistakes would be time-consuming to a point where it would affect your business. And, even if you could afford additional administrative staff to go over all the invoices – you shouldn’t. It would be a waste of the company’s time and resources, and that’s just not a good way to run a business.
However, there is a solution.
By outsourcing freight auditing, freight companies could save a lot of time and money compared to if they were to handle the auditing process themselves. And, if that’s enough for you to consider outsourcing, allow us to present you with additional benefits, as well as explain the whole process to you.
What’s Freight Auditing?
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So, what exactly is freight auditing, and why would you want to outsource these services?
A freight audit is a process in which the company’s freight bills are analysed, verified for accuracy, and adjusted if needed. Basically, it is a process of proving the accuracy of the invoice. It is a pretty straightforward yet somewhat complex process. It involves going over the eight essential points of a freight bill. The points checked and verified are shipper and carrier information, bill of lading, mileage, cargo weight, tracking number, discount, and price. If every single point is in order, the freight bill or an invoice is verified.
If any of the eight points isn’t correct and an error is found, the audit company will reach out to their employer and inform them of the error so that the error can be corrected and another verifiable invoice can be issued.
Which Errors Are Most Likely To Be Avoided?
According to www.ctglobal-freightaudit.com, our expert advisor on this topic, the most common errors that end up costing companies their money are the ones made on the shipper’s end. These mistakes usually end up being quite costly, and to further explain why – we’ll give you an example shortly.
One of the most common errors happens to be with the cargo weight, but other information could be wrong, too. For example, let’s imagine that someone orders 10.000 bricks. An average brick weighs around 5 pounds, so that would be a 50,000-pound cargo.
Let’s now assume that the brick manufacturer/seller (shipper in the following text) makes a mistake and lists cargo weight at 40,000 pounds and charges the buyer $4000 for shipping. The buyer then pays $4000 for shipping, and the shipper ships the cargo through a carrier. Then, the carrier weighs the cargo and notices that the cargo weights 50, instead of 40 thousand pounds, and they charge an additional $1000 for shipping: Only this time, instead of a buyer, it’s the shipper that pays for shipping, which leaves them with a total $2000 of pure loss – a $1000 they didn’t charge the buyer, and a $1000 they had to pay the carrier.
Apart from this one, you could also deal with a detention penalty charge, an incorrect tracking number, and so on.
What Are The Benefits Of Outsourcing Freight Audit?
Now that we know what freight audit is and what kinds of problems could arise from these seemingly insignificant mistakes – let’s talk a little bit about the benefits you’d enjoy if you outsource freight auditing services.
1. Eliminate Liability
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Allowing someone else to deal with this freight auditing will set you free from any liability associated with it. Basically, this is a polite way of saying you’re going to let someone else carry the burden associated with it. You will be completely free. Also, in case some mistakes escape the trained eye of freight auditors you outsource, you won’t be the one held accountable for the outcome – the auditing company will.
2. Saves Time
Another great benefit to outsourcing freight benefit is all the time you’re going to save. As we’ve said in the beginning, auditing is a time-consuming feat, and unless you want the other portions of your business to suffer, you’re going to want to hand this task off to someone else. You can use all this extra time to improve other aspects of your business – whatever they might be. Or, you could just take the extra time to enjoy yourself – that’s up to you.
3. Saves Money
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We think we’ve made it pretty obvious in that example how a single-digit mistake could cost you quite a lot of money, but that’s the only way outsourcing freight auditing will save you money. As we’ve said in the beginning, you could easily hire more people to audit the invoices and bills manually, but that would require a lot more money than simply outsourcing someone else to do it for you.
4. Quick ROI
Return on investment is the backbone of every successful business, and when it comes to outsourcing freight auditing, the ROI is not only guaranteed – it is very quick. Sure, these services won’t be free, but you will receive the return on your investment almost immediately. All it takes is a single slightly larger bill mistake to cover the costs of outsourcing for a month or even a year. Basically, you’ll start profiting from this decision sooner rather than later.
5. Improved Efficiency And Productivity
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Apart from being a time-consuming task, manual freight auditing is also quite labour-intensive. It’s not quick and easy, and it does require a lot of manpower, and on top of that – it’s tedious. It’s safe to say that dropping this workload on your administrative office will kill both efficiency and productivity in the department, therefore, outsourcing it will most definitely help with efficiency and productivity in the workplace.
Conclusion:
Outsourcing is generally known to be a great way to save time and money, and we certainly hope we’ve managed to show you how outsourcing freight auditing can benefit your business apart from saving you time and money.
