Accounting Automation Rules
Baseline Data
When a shipment is booked, it is stamped with data to be used later to validate information as the shipment goes along.
Baseline Data Stored:
- Weight
- Average class
- Origin zip code
- Destination zip code
- Accessorials
- Buy
- Sell
- Tariff
- Linehaul Carrier
Along with the Baseline Data, when a shipment is set to the Ready status, we attach a PDF Rate Quote sheet with the same data to persevere the original quote as entered by the customer or your staff.
This is all in the interest of maintaining the documentation that will help you collect money from your customers.
Automatic Invoicing Safety
Before we get to Invoice Automation, we want to assure you that invoices are not just sent out. We have put guardrails in place to help you with your business. These invoices are combed through and compared to the original Baseline Data and industry-standard accounting practices.
Automatic invoicing will only take place if the shipment is in an appropriate status that Tai has developed.
How does Tai decide if a shipment is ready for invoicing?
- Is Sell rate greater than $0.00?
- Is there is a positive margin on the shipment?
- Is the margin within $0.50 +/- of the original margin at the time of booking?
- Is the tariff used the same tariff used at the time of booking?
- Has the Origin or Destination zip code changed since the time of booking?
- Is the average class within 1 Freight Class Code up or down of the average class at the time of booking?
- Is the total weight of the shipment within 20 kg/lbs. of the weight at the time of booking?
- Is the AR set to Variance?
Automatic Invoicing
You can set the customers' accounting settings to allow for an automatic invoice at certain statuses in the shipment lifecycle.
Again, in all cases for automation, this will only occur if Tai has checked the shipment.
Current available statuses are:
- Manually Invoice
- This is the standard setting where no invoice automation will take place and your staff will need to validate, approve, and send the invoice.
- Auto Invoice at Billing
- This will automatically invoice the customer when the carrier bill is approved
- Auto Invoice at Delivery
- This will automatically invoice the customer when the shipment status is set to delivered
- This includes automation, such as EDI or API, as well as manually setting the shipment status to delivered
- Auto Invoice at Booking
- This will automatically invoice the customer when the shipment is booked and the accounting settings set up as follows: Credit Status to Continual Credit Card (authorize.net) & Invoice Automation Method to Auto Invoice at Booking.
Invoice Sending
If the customer is set to receive invoices via email, the email will be queued and sent as soon as the automatic invoicing is successful.
Invoice Data Audit
The Baseline Data can be used to show the user what may have changed on the shipment to affect pricing on the current invoice.
Figure 1 - Valid Unchanged Shipment Invoice
Figure 2 - Invoice with shipment changes
In Closing
The goal of customer accounting automation is to automate and streamline 80% of your shipments without any user interaction, and allow your staff to focus on the 20% of the shipments that may need additional work.