For the video tutorial, click here
For the ideal AP Workflow, click here
Introduction
In the TMS you are able to approve carrier bills, pay carrier bills, assign check numbers, view approved bill summaries, and other account payable features. The accounts payable process begins when the freight is delivered. Once the shipment is delivered, the bill for the carrier vendor will be available for you to approve.
AP Dashboard
The AP Accounting Dashboard provides a high-level view of your entire accounts payable situation in the TMS. This dashboard will only appear if you have AP Access checked off in your staff profile.
Included Sections:
- Ready for Billing: Number of bills available to be approved
- AP Open Bill Count: Number of bills that have been approved but have not been paid yet
- AP Variance List: Number of bills in a variant status
- AP Open Amount: AP outstanding amount that has not been paid yet
Each section is a link to the respective page.
Approve Bills
To access, click Accounting on the top menu, the Approve Bills. This page will allow you to approve carrier bills or bills from vendors. On the top of the screen, either select Carriers or Organization. Carriers typically are your common customers and organizations are vendors that you're paying which could be a factoring company or another type of organization that owns the freight bill. Once you select your vendor, the page will display a list of open bills that are available for you to approve. To approve a bill, check off the bill on the left and fill in the Bill Number(usually the same as the PRO Number) and press Update Bill. If you click on the links under Bill Amount, an Edit Pricing modal will show allowing you to modify the pricing amounts. If there is a checkmark under the Auto-Validated column, it means that there is a positive margin on the shipment and the pricing has not been modified from the time the shipment was created. If you notice there is a variance between what you have in the TMS versus what the carrier sent you, you should review the shipment before you approve the bill. You can move the bill to the Billing Variance Report so that way you can keep it aside to review it as you are approving other bills. To move a bill to the Billing Variance Report, check off the bill on the left, fill in the Bill Number, check off Variance, and click update bills. You can also create the customer invoice on this page by checking off the bill on the left, checking Create Customer Invoice, and clicking Update Bills.
Unapproved Bills Summary
To access, click Accounting on the top menu, then Unapproved Bill Summary. The Unapproved Bill Summary is intended to give a high-level look of all of the Accounts Payable for you to approve. This page shows all of the carriers that you have open AP for, all the AP in variance, and all the AP that are ready to be approved. The Total Buy column shows the total AP that is there to be approved. The Total By Ready column shows how much of that AP is ready for you to approve. If an AP is not ready to be approved, it will be in the Total Buy in Variance column. If you click on the numbers within these three columns, it will lead you to the Approve Bills page. By clicking the headers of each column, you can organize the data is either ascending or descending order. You can also use the filter settings at the top of the page and Export this summary to Excel.
Billing Variance Report
To access, click Accounting on the top menu, then Billing Variance Report. The Billing Variance Report is for you to be able to move bills to a different page where you can do further research and auditing before approving the bill. To move the bill to this report from the Approve Bills page, check off the bill on the left, fill in the Bill Number, check off Variance, and click update bills. If you do move a bill to the Variance Report, you should leave an activity note as to why such as a price discrepancy or inaccurate information. From the Billing Variance Report page, you can see if anyone left an activity note and you can edit pricing by clicking on the icons on the far right. Once you have further researched the bill and the changes have been made, you can approve the bill by checking the ID on the left, filling in the bill number, and clicking on Approve Shipments. You can also create an invoice by checking the ID on the left, checking Create Customer Invoice, and clicking Approve Shipments.
Approved Bills Summary
To access, click Accounting on the top menu, then Approved Bills Summary. This page will display carriers of whom you've approved carrier bills for but have not paid yet. The numbers within the columns are links that will lead you to the Bill Search page where you can review the bills that you have approved. You can filter your summary by using the fields at the top of the page including Days Overdue, Summary as of, and Bill Type. You can also indicate whether or not you'd like to include a Tariff.
Bill Search
To access, click Accounting on the top menu, then Bill Search. This page will display the bills that you've been approved in the TMS. You can search these bills by Vendors, Pay Status, and Date Range. This page works in conjunction with the Approved Bills Summary.
Pay Bills
To access, click Accounting on the top menu, then Pay Bills. This page allows you to pay carriers, vendors, and sales representatives. To pay off a bill, check off the Shipment ID and select Register Payment. This will display a Register Payment modal where you can enter the check information. If you are synced to QuickBooks Online, you must make sure you have Print Check Later checked off. After you register the payment in the TMS, an actual check will sync over to QuickBooks Online. In QuickBooks Online, you will print that check and assign it a check number, which will then sync back into the TMS. To complete registering the payment, click the Register Payment button within the modal.
Assign Check Numbers
To access, click Accounting on the top menu, then Assign Check Numbers. This page will allow you to manually input check numbers that you might have used at another accounting system. You will use this page after you have made a payment to a carrier or vendor and have selected Print Check Later in the TMS. If you are using another accounting method and you are cutting track to the TMS but you are signing check numbers in your accounting system, you can assign those check numbers and come back to this page and put the check numbers in manually. If you are using QuickBooks Online, you should not need to use this feature because the integrations sync the check numbers back into the TMS. This page displays a list of different carrier payments where there is no check number assigned. To assign check numbers, fill in the Check Number field, check off the carriers you would like to update, and click Update Selected. If you want to assign a series of check numbers to these carrier payments, fill in the first check number at the top Populate Check Numbers field and select the button. On this page, you can also modify the check dates and check memos.
Bill Payment History
To access, click Accounting in the top menu, then Bill Payment History. This page will display a list of checks that you've cut to your carriers or vendors in the TMS. To look back further into your Payment History, change the Date Range and click Search. If you select a number within the Number Applied to Column, the system will lead you to the Bill Payment Details page and this page will display all of the Shipment ID numbers that this check was applied to. In the Alerts column in the Bill Payment History page, there will be a red icon if there is still an open balance for one of the shipments. You can also Export to Excel and modify the bill payments from there.
Delete or Modify Bill Payment
To access, click Accounting on the top menu, then Bill Payment History. This page will display all the checks that you have cut to a vendor or carrier. To modify or delete a payment, click the link under the Number Applied to column corresponding to the payment you'd like to correct. To edit Type, Check Date, Check Ref, or Deposit Ref Number, click the Edit Bill Payment button. To modify the amount, click the pencil icon on the right of the table below. If you would like to delete a bill, click the trash can icon on the right. If you are syncing with QuickBooks Online or another accounting integration, this deletion will not sync to QuickBooks so you will need to go into QuickBooks and delete the payment there as well.
Modify Invoice and Bill
To access, click Accounting on the top menu, then Invoice Search. From this page, find the invoice that you'd like to revise, and click the Modify Invoice Icon under the Actions column. Select the accessorial that the carrier is charging you for and check off Include Bill Revision. By checking this off, you will be creating an additional invoice for your customer and an additional bill to pay your carrier. You can also do multiple accessorial charges at a time by clicking Add Item.