eCargo

Welcome to the December issue! With Christmas just around the corner, it's a naturally busy time of the year for our customers, so we have been hard at work over the last few weeks to release a number of new features in time for the New Year, along with some exciting enhancements to existing services...

New design for eCargo

The 1st of December was a milestone for us as we launched a redesign of the eCargo web application.

As well as the visual enhancements to complement the new website, there have been a number of structural changes to simplify navigation and improve reporting.

For a more comprehensive rundown on the new features, read the article on the latest release notes.

Support Desk Hours over the Christmas period

The support desk will operate as usual during business hours over Christmas and the New Year.

Phone support is available for urgent issues at any time on 0800 322 746 (NZ) or 1800 113 775 (Aus).

For non-urgent issues or queries, please email support@ecargo.co.nz.

New Reports available

The Reporting module has been given an upgrade - DIFOT reports are now available for manufacturers to measure the performance of their carriers.

In January, we will also be introducing 'Freight Spend' reports, which will give our customers the ability to view total freight costs by destination and delivery customer.

The new reports provide additional visibility over your freight spend and KPIs. We will contine adding new reports to eCargo, if you have any specific reporting requirements, please contact us.

Electronic buyer created invoicing enables buyers to gain greater control over their accounts payable processes; saving on invoice processing costs, eliminating overpayments and providing real time access to invoices and cost accruals.

Using eCargo to generate buyer created invoices for freight and logistics costs buyers can achieve the following benefits:

• No manual data entry: Buyer created invoices are created instantly, generating the invoice in PDF format and integrating with buyer and supplier finance systems. There is no need for manual keying of data.

• Single point invoice access: Both buyers and suppliers can search for and view current and archived invoice documentation and status.

• Real time cost accruals: All non-invoiced freight and logistics costs are available for real time accrual reports, providing finance teams with accurate end of month information. A measurable reduction in accruals is also achieved through more regular invoicing.

• Streamlined dispute process: Users can log a dispute against an invoice line online, requesting a credit or POD. An integrated credit and re-issue process then follows, providing single standard and visible process, replacing lengthy email and telephone conversations.

• Reduced processing costs: Forrester Research reports that by automating their accounts payable processes companies can save up to 75% of their per invoice processing costs.

• Eliminating overpayments and invoice errors: Not all businesses have the resources to reconcile supplier invoices line by line, particularly with complicated freight cost rate tables. eCargo gives the buyer control and ownership over their freight data and rate tables, and the necessary tools to attain 100% certainly in the calculation of their freight costs.

eCargo’s customers recognise the benefits electronic invoicing provides:

“The reality of reverse billing has hugely reduced effort required by the finance team, freight costs are more accurate and the freight supplier relationship has strengthened markedly. Costs are largely accepted as there’s nothing to question and invoice negotiation is a thing of the past”, says Peter Levett, Sanitarium’s NZ Distribution Manager.

Woodproducts’ Assistant Accountant, Tania Teddy, explains “eCargo now does the hard work of checking invoices for us. Where processing weekly invoices from a single supplier used to take around a day and half effort, we’re now completing that in an hour and we trust the results”.

See our earlier post on eCargo's new Buyer Created Invoicing Dashboard, with screenshots.

Please contact us to discuss how we can assist with your electronic invoicing requirements.

eCargo now provides users with a simple and intuitive real time dashboard for creating buyer created invoices and managing exceptions. As freight movements are executed within eCargo, the freight costs are calculated based on freight rates and business rules configured in the system.

Using the Invoice Dashboard a user can view all freight costs that are ready to be invoiced, or have errored during calculation - due to missing freight rates or incomplete consignment data.

From the dashboard the user can drill down to resolve the calculation errors or create an invoice for all calculated costs in a one-step process. The user has control over cutoff dates for invoicing and the invoice date itself.

 

eCargo caters for multiple suppliers and multiple logistics activities, such as Roadfreight, Rail, Sea Freight, Port Logistics - any activity that incurs costs and can be measured.

Once created eCargo will generate the legal invoice document as a PDF file, immediately sending the invoice electronically to all integrated buyer and supplier finance systems. Users can optionally manually export the invoice into their finance system.

 

Reporting Module - DIFOT

The Reporting module has recently been given a feature upgrade - and now has the ability to generate customer DIFOT reports against any of the contracted transport providers used for goods delivery.

Simply enter the date range, a business unit (if applicable), and one or more transport carriers - and submit. eCargo will then generate both graphical and statistic results on a per-month basis over the date range specified.

The new DIFOT tools now add extra visibility to your reporting needs over our existing Accurals and Freight Cost report tools.