The logistics industry is known for its volatility, with markets shifting in response to everything from natural disasters to consumer mindset changes. This inherent changeability, coupled with the ongoing capacity crunch, makes invoice auditing more important – and more challenging – than ever for shippers. This is especially true in international shipping.
Companies rely on a wide variety of partners to handle their invoice auditing, including brokers and third-party freight pay companies. This approach can be risky, as these folks are not typically auditing experts, increasing the chance that inconsistencies and other issues will slip through the cracks.
Acuitive Solutions has set out to comprehensively audit each shipment and eliminate those inaccuracies when they first occur. This ultimately benefits the shipper and carrier alike, making large issues less likely down the road.
“If there is any difference between what the carrier understands as the truth and what the customer understands as the truth, that is going to bubble up to the surface right away,” Acuitive Owner and Founder Phil Marlowe said. “It is much easier to have a tough conversation about one shipment than it is to have the same conversation about 100 shipments nine months or a year later.”
Acuitive is a specialty software provider for international logistics based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Acuitive also provides dynamic routing for air freight and small packages, helping companies decide when to change modes, as well as what providers and services are best for each shipment. Likewise, Acuitive does ship-from-store ecommerce fulfillment, cutting edge inbound samples management and visibility. Customers include Home Depot, PVH, Hasbro, JoAnn Stores, Ralph Lauren, BJs and others. Acuitive is celebrating its 20th anniversary in April.
At the core of Acuitive’s two decades of success is its patented product for prepayment invoice audit. The product is called AcuAudit, and it answers the fundamental question that every shipper needs to ask: “How do I know if I am paying what I agreed to pay?”
Most shippers truly don’t know the answer to this question because they aren’t catching the data discrepancies that prevent the clean comparison of carrier invoices with what the shipper agreed to pay. AcuAudit’s highly specialized and expert process and technology helps global shippers confidently answer this question.
As ocean, air and drayage freight rates continue at historical highs, carrier invoice accuracy has never been more important to global shippers’ financial certainty and control.