Freight bill audit for building-supply dealers.
Lunica checks every carrier invoice against what was agreed, so your team pays the freight you owe and disputes the rest.
Accounts payableUpdated Oct 202620 ERPs
See it work.
Click through the steps. Fictional data; the real thing runs on your ERP.
Northeast Freight Lines · pro 588211 · BOL 44-20917 · Tamarack Forest Products to Main St · Received Oct 16
Linehaul · 14,200 lb · $1,420.00
Fuel surcharge · 22% · $312.40
Liftgate · $85.00
Reweigh · 14,600 lb · $40.00
Total · $1,857.40
Read overnight: pro number, BOL, weight, linehaul, fuel, accessorials.
The problem.
A carrier invoice comes in for a flatbed of lumber and the AP desk pays it, because who has time to find the PO in your ERP, check whether the freight was prepaid or collect, pull the bill of lading from your document archive for the weight, and remember what the carrier quoted. The invoice says $1,840 and it’s from a carrier you use, so it gets coded to freight.
What nobody sees: the liftgate fee on a yard delivery that has a forklift, the reweigh that added four hundred pounds, the second invoice for the same BOL a month later, the collect bill on a PO whose terms were prepaid by the vendor. Freight is a few percent of cost of goods, and the errors are a few percent of that, every month, nobody’s job.
How it works.
- 1
The carrier invoice is read
Each carrier invoice from the AP mailbox is read: carrier, pro number, BOL, origin, weight, linehaul, fuel, accessorials, total. Figures your ERP can’t confirm are read twice.
- 2
Matched to the PO and the BOL
The pro number and BOL are matched to the receipt and the PO in your ERP. The PO’s freight terms say who pays. The BOL says what shipped and how much it weighed. The quote, if you logged one, says the rate.
- 3
Each charge is tested
Terms: was this bill yours to pay? Weight: does the bill match the BOL? Rate: does it match the quote or the carrier’s tariff on file? Accessorials: were they on the PO or agreed in writing? Duplicate: has this BOL been billed before?
- 4
The dispute is drafted, a person decides
A clean bill goes to the AP board as an import file where your ERP takes one at the amount owed. A bill with a problem shows the line, the reason and the amount, with a dispute drafted to the carrier. Purchasing or AP decides: pay, short-pay or dispute. Nothing is sent or posted on its own.
How it connects to your ERP.
Lunica reads your ERP’s purchase orders with their freight terms, receipts, the vendor file and the AP subledger through its database or data warehouse, under an account that can only read, and the carrier invoices and bills of lading from the AP mailbox and your document archive. Carrier quotes and tariffs, where you keep them, are read from the folder you point it at.
Nothing is written to your ERP by Lunica and nothing goes to the carrier on its own. A bill at the right amount goes back as an import file where your ERP takes one, imported or keyed by your team. A short-pay or a dispute is a person’s decision, and the note to the carrier is a draft until that person sends it.
What a week looks like.
- Every carrier bill checked against the PO’s terms before it’s paid.
- Accessorials that weren’t agreed are flagged with the reason.
- A second bill for the same BOL never gets paid twice.
- The dispute to the carrier is drafted with the BOL and the quote behind it.
Questions
Does Lunica pay or short-pay the carrier?
No. It prepares the bill at the amount it believes is owed as an import file where your ERP takes one, with the reason for any difference. A person decides what to pay, and your team enters it in your ERP.
Where do the freight terms come from?
From the PO in your ERP: prepaid, collect, prepaid and add, FOB origin or destination, as your buyers entered them. A PO with no terms is flagged rather than guessed.
What counts as an agreed accessorial?
One on the PO, in the quote, or in a carrier agreement you keep on file. Anything else is flagged, with the charge and the usual reason it shouldn’t apply, for a person to accept or dispute.
What about freight on the vendor’s own invoice?
A freight line on a vendor invoice is checked in the accounts payable workflow against the same PO terms. A prepaid-and-add charge on a PO that says prepaid is flagged there.
Does the dispute go to the carrier automatically?
No. It is drafted with the BOL, the PO terms and the quote attached. A person reads it and sends it.
Does it handle outbound freight too?
Yes. A carrier bill for a delivery to a customer is checked the same way, against an order in your ERP and its BOL.
Available for.
Each version is written in that system’s own terms: its screens, its files, its codes.
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