Navigating the Future: 3PL Billing Automation Solution Impact on 3PL Billing Operations

Introduction

In the ever-evolving logistics landscape, third-party logistics (3PL) providers are on a continuous quest to enhance operational efficiency while ensuring billing processes remain accurate and transparent. Automation has emerged as a game-changer in this pursuit, reshaping the way 3PLs handle billing. This article delves into the transformative impact of automation on 3PL billing, specifically highlighting the benefits of Avantiico’s 3PL Billing Automation ISV solution, an extension to Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain. We explore the advantages, challenges, and the promising future this technological evolution brings to the logistics industry.

The Challenges of Billing within the 3PL Industry

Before we dive into the transformative solutions, it’s crucial to understand the challenges that 3PL providers face when it comes to billing. Traditionally, 3PL billing involved laborious manual tasks like data entry and reconciliation. This manual approach, once the norm, proved time-consuming, error-prone, and ill-suited for the and data volumes of modern logistics.

Evolution of 3PL Billing: A Paradigm Shift

The 3PL industry has witnessed a significant paradigm shift from manual to automated billing processes. Manual approaches, while once the industry standard, are now considered inefficient, error-prone, and incompatible with the growing complexities of modern logistics.

Key Challenges

Manual Inefficiencies: Conventional 3PL billing procedures suffer from manual inefficiencies, causing both delays and errors. The reliance on manual billing processes and the creation of invoices through spreadsheets results in delayed invoice generation and payments, adversely affecting cash flow. Furthermore, this approach can introduce invoicing errors, potentially sparking disputes that can harm the relationships 3PL has with its customers.

Diverse Contracts & Rate Structures: Contract terms and rate structures vary by customer, introducing complexities that are challenging to maintain and apply manually.

Value-Added Services: 3PL clients often perform additional value-added services such as kitting, bundling, or adding special packaging during the holiday season. Value-added services are charged at different rates. It’s imperative for 3PL companies to accurately capture and track such services.

Manual Freight Reconciliation: This process entails manually reviewing thousands of shipment documents against detailed freight carrier invoices in multiple formats and comparing them to the budget to identify discrepancies, leading to either invoices or reimbursements for the client. This leads to the loss of thousands of dollars per month in incorrect charges.

Integration with Other Systems: 3PL billing systems often need to integrate with other systems, such as WMS, TMS, Expense Management, Procurement, Fulfillment, Customer Service and Support Lack of integration with other systems prevents 3PL customers from accurately capturing billable activities that can be invoiced to their customers, impacting revenue streams.

Revolutionizing 3PL Billing:
The Transformative Power of Avantiico’s 3PL Billing Automation Solution

The 3PL Billing Automation ISV solution isn’t just a tool; it catalyzes substantial efficiency gains. By automating and invoice processing it enables 3PL providers to allocate resources strategically, resulting in tangible cost savings, improving cash flow, and empowering staff to focus on value-added activities.

The 3PL Billing Automation ISV solution serves as a centralized hub for efficient contract management and maintenance. It allows 3PL Company to set up 3PL contracts defining billable activities, billing periods, related calculations, monthly minimums, and rate escalators. Additionally, define contract dates, statuses, lifecycle, and more.

The ISV solution is tailored to adapt to the diverse rate structures prevalent in the logistics industry. It intelligently interprets and applies contract terms and rate matrices, ensuring accurate billing across various 3PL clients and their unique invoicing methods. The solution enables the capture of value-added services and the incorporation of other billing activities that may not have been billed previously.

The 3PL Billing Automation ISV solution stands out with its dynamic billing precision, achieved through a robust real-time billing activities capture. This ensures that billing processes seamlessly update billable sales orders in real time, providing an up-to-date picture of revenue. The solution streamlines billing and invoicing functions and shortens billing cycles.

A distinctive value proposition of the 3PL Billing Automation ISV solution is its WMS agnostic nature. It streamlines and simplifies the integration process, allowing you to connect your external WMS as well as Dynamics 365 WMS with ease.

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The solution provides the flexibility for external non-WMS systems to push billable activities directly into the solution billing engine, enhancing flexibility and ensuring invoice accuracy. This feature allows for rapid integration with new and acquired warehouses, enabling 3PL company expansion.

The 3PL Billing Automation ISV solution presents a significant advantage with its Freight Reconciliation module. Built to allow for importing carrier invoices aligned to several file formats such as Excel, CSV, or X12 (EDI format), which are leveraged by major carriers such as DHL, UPS, and FedEx. Additionally, it enables importing freight charges from internal TMS. The solution automatically performs intelligent matching and transforms discrepancies into either positive or negative billable activities, ensuring accurate billing for customers.

Avantiico's 3PL ISV Solution:
A Comprehensive Automation Approach

The 3PL Billing Automation ISV solution stands out as a comprehensive billing automation platform addressing the unique needs of 3PL companies:

The solution automates data collection from various sources, eliminating manual entry and ensuring data consistency – a fundamental aspect in the quest for billing accuracy.

The solution enables the capturing of various billing activity types, allowing 3PL companies to accurately invoice their customers for value-added services and other billing activities and charges that may not have been billed previously, providing new revenue streams.

Billable Sales Orders are dynamically generated according to configured rules. The solution captures billing activities in real time, updating sales orders and offering real-time visibility into revenue and invoicing.

Configurable billing rules ensure that invoices accurately reflect the specific services provided.

Recognizing and flagging errors in real timethe solution facilitates swift error handling by providing clear and user-friendly correction instructions. This allows resources to efficiently rectify errors without disrupting the billing process. Once errors are corrected, they seamlessly integrate back into the current open billable sales order.

The solution streamlines the entire billing cycle, reducing the time it takes to generate invoices and receive payments, improving cash flow, and shortening billing cycles.

Integrated within Dynamics 365 Finance, the solution ensures a unified view of financial data, enhancing financial reporting and analysis capabilities.

The 3PL Billing Automation ISV solution introduces a customer portal, allowing for enhanced customer services, better communications, and insights. This portal enhances the overall customer experience, providing clients with real-time information and fostering improved communication channels.

The solution comes with pre-defined reports, providing visibility into billing data. With real-time visibility, customers can track their spending, identify discrepancies, and resolve issues quickly.

Integrated 3PL Billing Solution within D365 Ecosystem

Native Functionality: The 3PL Billing Automation ISV solution leverages Dynamics 365 native functionalities, reducing the need for extensive customizations. This native integration ensures a smoother implementation process and enhanced functionality.

Seamless Integration: Built on the Dynamics 365 technology stack, the ISV solution allows seamless integration with various Dynamics 365 modules. This integration streamlines operations, creating a cohesive ecosystem within the Dynamics 365 environment.

Unified User Experience: A one-system approach means a unified and consistent user experience within the Dynamics 365 ecosystem. The ISV solution ensures that users navigate through a seamless and cohesive interface, enhancing overall usability.

Centralized Data Management: Data is centralized within the Dynamics 365 platform, leading to improved data consistency and easier management. This centralized approach simplifies data handling, ensuring a single source of truth for billing operations.

The Road Ahead:
Embracing a Tech-Driven Future with Avantiico

As 3PL providers navigate the impact of automation on billing operations, a clear trajectory emerges – a shift toward a tech-driven future.

The 3PL Billing Automation ISV solution stands at the forefront of this evolution. It is not merely an automated billing tool; it is a comprehensive solution that empowers 3PL providers to streamline processes, reduce errors, improve profitability, gain valuable insights, and gain a competitive edge in the dynamic world of logistics.

The road ahead is undoubtedly tech-driven, and the 3PL Billing Automation ISV solution is paving the way for a future where automation is not just a convenience but a strategic imperative.