Small Parcel Audit helps businesses save money by identifying and recovering overcharges, optimizing shipping routes and methods, and reducing carrier costs. Choosing the right service provider is key to maximizing savings opportunities.
Manually reviewing invoices can be time-consuming and prone to human error. To avoid costly mistakes, implementing best practices, negotiating better rates, and leveraging technology are essential. Keep reading the article below to learn more about Small Parcel Audit.
Small parcel audits are a necessary part of every shipper’s shipping process. These processes help to lower shipping costs and improve the bottom line by identifying billing errors, recovering overcharges, and maximizing savings opportunities. However, the most effective parcel audits are based on data, and that requires real-time access to shipment information from carriers. This enables the best auditors to scan invoices for discrepancies and identify opportunities to get refunds or save money, without spending a lot of time on manual checks.
As a result, it’s essential that companies prioritize choosing an auditing provider who can provide this type of data access. Whether it’s through software or a comprehensive parcel audit service, this type of access to data enables shippers to make smarter decisions about their carrier contracts and shipping strategies.
How Does Small Parcel Audit Work?
While the specifics of small parcel audit vary slightly (parcels max out at 70 pounds, whereas freight is anything over 150 pounds and incurs surcharges), the core process remains the same. It involves a thorough examination of shipping invoices, bills, and transactions to ensure that negotiated rates are applied correctly. Errors in shipping invoicing can add up quickly, putting a strain on margins and profitability.
This can be due to a variety of reasons, such as inaccurate shipping rates, miscalculated taxes or duties, erroneous surcharges, and duplicate charges. By utilizing an automated shipping invoice auditing tool, you can rest assured that you’re paying only for what you actually need, and that your profit margins are as healthy as possible.
Frequent rate audits are the most effective way to manage carrier contract negotiations and shipping costs. Using parcel auditing tools that conduct weekly rate reviews can help you stay ahead of changes and ensure that your negotiated rates are applied accurately. It also helps you identify potential overcharges before they happen, allowing for a proactive approach to addressing carrier contract issues and achieving the maximum savings from your shipping spend.
Whether you’re looking to improve customer satisfaction, streamline your shipping operations, or negotiate better rates, the right parcel audit services can have an immense impact on your business. So, make sure to prioritize a partner that offers real-time data access, frequent rate audits, strategic account management, and more.
Frequent Rate Audits
Small parcel auditing is the process of reviewing and verifying shipping invoices to ensure that you’re only paying for what you need. This often reveals overcharges or inaccurate billing, resulting in cost savings and better control of shipping costs. Choosing the right small parcel auditing provider is essential to maximizing these benefits. Look for one that offers real-time data access, conducts frequent rate audits, and provides strategic account management. This approach maximizes the effectiveness of your auditing efforts and helps you achieve significant returns on your investment.
Manually checking a large number of shipping invoices manually can be extremely time-consuming and difficult to keep up with. A better option is to partner with an auditing solution that automatically scans invoices and identifies opportunities for refunds. This can save you thousands of dollars in the long run, while ensuring that your shipping costs are accurate and consistent.
A good auditing service will check all the charges on your shipping invoices, analyzing each against the agreed terms in your carrier contract and identifying any erroneous surcharges or duplicated charges. These errors can include rates charged that don’t match the agreed-to rates in your carrier contracts, incorrect dimensional weights, and additional fees that should not be applied to your shipments.
Frequent rate audits can also identify and resolve ratings errors quickly, which can be important during periods of contract renewal or when a new carrier is onboarded. In addition, weekly rate audits can help identify inefficiencies in your shipping routes and recommend improvements that can further reduce shipping costs.
The accuracy and efficiency of your parcel auditing process will have a major impact on the success of your shipping operations. Partnering with an auditing provider that offers the right technology solutions and best practices will optimize your shipping processes, maximize savings opportunities, and enhance your bottom line. A company that partnered with Zero Down and implemented our advanced logistics platform, FreightOptics(tm), found 18% more savings than it was previously able to achieve through manual auditing and contract negotiations. The monetary value of these gains is enormous and can make all the difference in your competitiveness in today’s highly challenging marketplace.
Automated Solutions
Shipping costs represent a significant portion of most business’ operating budgets, consuming anywhere from 5-10% of total revenue. This explains why it’s so important for companies to make sure they are getting the most value out of their parcel carrier services. That’s where parcel invoice auditing comes in. A quality audit provider can identify cost-saving opportunities and eliminate costly mistakes that can go unnoticed in an manual process.
A good audit provider will have access to real-time transaction data directly from carriers, which allows for a more comprehensive, efficient and accurate audit process. This data is used to compare shipment details against pricing and surcharges to identify potential billing errors, track cost trends and optimize a business’ shipping strategy.
Using an automated process, like the one offered by Betachon Freight Auditing, can save time and energy that would be wasted in a manual process. This allows businesses to focus on other aspects of their business, and reinvest that saved time into other areas of their operations. A quality audit provider will also use predictive insights to forecast future shipping expenses and support rate negotiation with carriers.
The benefits of small parcel invoice auditing are numerous and can be incredibly impactful on a business’ bottom line. By identifying and claiming refunds for overcharges, streamlining shipping processes and optimizing rates with carriers, a solid parcel invoice audit can unlock savings and help grow a business.
When evaluating potential audit partners, it’s important to look for a company with a proven track record and client testimonials. Choosing an auditor that uses a predictive analytics engine to identify savings opportunities and automate the auditing process will also be a valuable asset. The right audit partner can provide substantial returns on investment for businesses looking to improve their profitability and maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace.
A strong parcel shipping strategy is an essential component of any successful business. With proper oversight, automation technology, and regular invoice audits, a business can improve its overall operational efficiency and boost profits. By partnering with the experts at Betachon Freight Auditing, businesses can unlock substantial savings, streamline shipping processes, and optimize their bottom lines.
Strategic Account Management
Shipping is a significant expense for most businesses, and it can be easy to overlook billing errors that can quickly add up. With small parcel auditing, these mistakes can be corrected, and companies can save money and ensure that they are only paying for what they are actually using.
As the business world shifts toward more online orders, and consumers demand fast and reliable service, companies need to be able to cut costs while maintaining their ability to ship goods to customers in a timely manner. That’s why it’s important for business owners to invest in a solution that can help them optimize their shipping processes and save money.
Parcel Auditing is an essential process that can identify and recover overcharges, saving companies valuable time and money. In addition to recovering overcharges, a thorough audit can also highlight opportunities for businesses to save on shipping costs by consolidating shipments or leveraging discounts and promotional codes. By implementing best practices in their parcel auditing process, companies can maximize the benefits of this critical business function.
There are several different ways to perform a parcel audit, and it is important to choose a method that is appropriate for the size of your company and the resources you have available. Manual audits involve you or a team member going through invoices and information by hand, which can be expensive and time consuming. Automated solutions involve a third-party software application that can manage all of your data and streamline the auditing process. However, this option requires a significant investment in the software and may not be ideal for smaller companies that want to minimize upfront costs.
Choosing the right carrier and parcel audit services provider can have a substantial impact on your business’s operational efficiency, and your bottom line. Look for a partner with a solid reputation, experience, and expertise in the industry, along with innovative technology and customer support that can deliver results. By prioritizing a provider that offers real-time data access, frequent rate audits, and comprehensive support for lost or damaged packages, you can maximize the effectiveness of your parcel auditing efforts.