New freight audit tools for Haven

The global transportation management software provider’s new tools automate the auditing process, detecting and flagging any discrepancies between the original quote and freight invoice, and the shipping instructions and bill of lading.    The global transportation management software (TMS) provider Haven said Tuesday it has added new tools to its platform to automate freight payment and bills of lading compliance.
   The new tools automate the auditing process, Haven said, detecting and flagging any discrepancies between the original quote and freight invoice, and the shipping instructions and bill of lading.
   “Incorrect bills of lading and invoices were a consistent problem that we noticed across customers,” Haven CEO Matt Tillman said. “The result is a costly reconciliation process for both the shipper and their providers.”
   For instance, if a bill of lading does not match the shipping instructions, Haven TMS automatically requests corrections from the carrier, the company said.
   It should be noted that most domestic and international TMS providers have a freight payment feature of some kind. Some are purely payment tools, while others (like Haven’s) handle the audit and payment functions. In addition, there are pure play freight payment software vendors, third party consultants that help shippers audit their bills (either pre- or post-payment), and 3PLs that offer this service to shipper customers.
   For all these solutions, the goal is typically to resolve the monetary discrepancies that emerge in the billing process across modes. A secondary goal is to improve the data associated with the process, or to leverage the data from the freight bill to inform future procurement cycles.
   A less stated goal is often the reduction in human resources typically dedicated to resolve invoice discrepancies. Haven’s TMS is predicated primarily on doing the same throughout the shipment procurement and execution cycles for shippers. The company’s customers are predominantly commodity traders, food producers and shippers, all seeking to drastically reduce the hours it takes to manually manage an individual shipment.
   American Shipper profiled Haven’s transformation to a TMS provider in 2017.