The logistics industry requires a lot of paperwork, which means that a huge number of records are kept. Poor payment practices are causing friction in the supply chains of US businesses. The average business in the United States loses $171,340 per year.
This means that almost 6,500 hours were spent looking for purchase order numbers, dealing with paper invoices, and answering questions from suppliers.
Found by Friction Index report, Tungsten Network
Papers should be turned into digital files, and intelligent document processing should be used to pull out important data points.
Core systems should also be linked so that documents can be easily accessed until the items are delivered and the case is closed.
The Possibilities of Digitization are Endless
1. Administration of Bills of Lading
Intelligent document processing can get information from bills of lading, integrate that information with core systems, and help send emails to those who need to know.
2. Customs Documents Management
When it comes to international trade, every transaction comes with a lot of paperwork. By pulling out relevant data points using intelligent document processing, the results can be added to the specific excel sheet in accounts so they are easy to find.
3. Packaging Lists Management
Each and every shipment in the logistics industry is accompanied by extensive packaging lists. Using intelligent document processing, take the packed items from the paper packaging forms, convert them to a list in email, and add them to the digital consignment case folder, managed by cloud tech like Graip.AI, so that the information can be accessed whenever and wherever it is needed.
4. Fuel Consumption Statement
After you get the monthly fuel consumption information from the vendor in PDF format, IDP can read all of the records from the PDF and turn them into a structured format, integrating it into the system that handles accounting for the customers so that it may be processed.
5. Billing for Leased Vehicles
The contract for the leased vehicle could be read by IDP, and the data for the payment can be changed as needed, taking into account the credit score for arriving early and the penalty for arriving late.
This will be helpful throughout the duration of the lease.
6. Transaction Recording and Posting
After IDP gets the journal vouchers, it can automatically import the data and send an email to the reviewers with the structured data it has collected. This makes it easy for data to be put into the general ledgers of the business system in the right categories.
7. Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Invoices
By using intelligent document processing to automatically import the bills, you can make sure that the reasons for repairs listed on the invoices are in line with the contract.
If the bill doesn’t match the contract, the auto-rejection trigger can kick in and send the bill back to be looked at by hand.
An online tool like Graip.AI can make an Excel sheet with one record for each invoice. You can use the data that was automatically pulled from the different invoices to make payments in bulk through the Accounts Payable department.
8. Investigating Vehicles Via the Internet
Clients may ask questions and request information about the vehicle used for logistics transportation. This information can be turned into a digital file, which will let your company use smart document processing to find answers in an Excel sheet.
9. Driver Payment
Get information about the driver, such as the pick-up and drop-off locations, the number of miles driven, the car number, the driver’s account information, and other relevant details. Extract these details as needed using IDP.
ERP is used to connect the data to the accounting systems and release payments after the data has been auto-validated and approved by a supervisor.
10. Call Centre Management
Intelligent document processing lets you get information about client freight, like the name of the customer, the status of the shipment, information about the terminal, and an estimate of when the freight will arrive.
11. Overnight Report Management
Using IDP makes it possible to read PDFs that were attached to emails. Integrate the data into the business application and validate the information automatically based on the business rules that were already set.
12. Shipment Management
You can speed up the shipping process by the paperwork for shipments that come in via fax, email, and online forms. Utilizing sophisticated document processing to retrieve important data points and integrating this information with the ERP system
Takeaways
Data powers every business. It aids growth, company operations, and sales.
But the need to cut costs, follow rules, and meet rising customer demand is putting pressure on data-intensive corporate operations.
Unstructured data like documents, photos, PDFs, and emails is especially problematic.
How can you make sure that your staff doesn’t get too busy and make mistakes while collecting, sorting, and using this data?