How Audit works

Explanation of how the 7bridges Audit product works

Types of Audit

There are 2 ways to run Audit with 7bridges: Prepay or Postpay. The choice between them is whether you want to make payment of logistic provider invoices dependent on whether they pass the Audit checks; this would be Prepay Audit. Alternatively, you can receive and pay the provider invoices separate from any Audit checks; this would be Postpay Audit.

Prepay Audit

Here is the standard process for Prepay Audit:

1. During onboarding the software will be setup for your provider accounts, to receive and ingest your provider invoices and to generate rate quotes from your provider rate cards. 
2. All the provider invoices are then delivered electronically to the software where they are ingested for viewing and exporting. This includes invoice data files (CSV etc.) and the Invoice PDF.
3. The 7bridges software cleans, translates and standardises all your invoice data ready for Audit
4. The 7bridges software generates rate quotes for the shipments in an invoice according to the appropriate rate card.
5. Tracking data for shipments is retrieved by the software via API (where an integration is possible)
6. The 7bridges software then runs a set of Audit checks (anomaly algorithms) to generate spend alerts detailing any anomalies in the invoices. The spend alert indicates the value in question and the Audit check type (e.g. Service Failure: Late, Incorrect Rate, Duplicate Charge, Unreasonable Charges and more).
7. These spend alerts appear in the Audit spend section of the 7bridges software to be triaged and actioned with the logistics service provider depending on the spend alert generated
8. A messaging system exists in the software to resolve these disputes and log the results in cost savings, contract improvements and operational changes that you can make internally. This messaging system is available for customer users of the software or by our team as a paid for service.
9. Once all Audit checks have been run and any resulting spend alerts disputed and resolved, the invoice is marked 'Ready to pay'. It is now regarded as passing Audit and so safe to pay.

See more information on the invoice statuses during processing here

Postpay Audit

Here is the standard process for Postpay Audit:

1. During onboarding the software will be setup for your provider accounts, to receive and ingest your provider invoices and to generate rate quotes from your provider rate cards. 
2. All the provider invoices are then delivered electronically to the software where they are ingested for viewing and exporting. This includes invoice data files (CSV etc.) and the Invoice PDF.
3. The 7bridges software cleans, translates and standardises all your invoice data ready for Audit
4. The 7bridges software generates rate quotes for the shipments in an invoice according to the appropriate rate card.
5. Tracking data for shipments is retrieved by the software via API (where an integration is possible)
6. At this point the invoice is free to export and do with according to your internal processes. The rest of this process has no set deadlines.
7. The 7bridges software then runs a set of Audit checks (anomaly algorithms) to generate spend alerts detailing any anomalies in the invoices. The spend alert indicates the value in question and the Audit check type (e.g. Service Failure: Late, Incorrect Rate, Duplicate Charge, Unreasonable Charges and more).
8. These spend alerts appear in the Audit spend section of the 7bridges software to be triaged and actioned with the logistics service provider depending on the spend alert generated
9. A messaging system exists in the software to resolve these disputes and log the results in cost savings, contract improvements and operational changes that you can make internally. This messaging system is available for customer users of the software or by our team as a paid for service.