Freight Audit & Payment FAQ

Can TranzAct process bills for and report on all modes of transportation?

Yes. TranzAct’s freight audit and payment system, StarPay, has the ability to pay, and has paid, all modes of transportation; Truckload, Less than Truckload, Rail, Intermodal, Air, Parcel, Courier, Ocean, Private Fleet, and Dedicated. Additionally, TranzAct can capture and report on multiple modes for the same carrier.

What reporting is available as a freight payment customer?

TranzAct provides analysis and reporting to its customers that assist in identifying and quantifying cost savings and service improvement opportunities. These applications have been identified as Best In Class by our clients and the industry at large. The quality and consistency of the actionable data that our systems capture and measure allow our customers to manage their processes and make decisions that directly effect their bottom line.

TranzAct can report on any data captured, and can capture any and all data required. We provide multiple options for clients to receive reports.

Can TranzAct’s freight payment application interface with our existing ERP system?

Yes. Our systems integrate seamlessly with virtually any system. Many of our clients use SAP (multiple versions), PeopleSoft, Oracle, JD Edwards, and others.

Does your company use the same banking institution/accounts for both its freight funds and cash for the company’s normal operations?

No. TranzAct uses a large multi-national bank for freight funds, and a smaller bank domiciled in Illinois to handle operational accounts.

Does TranzAct “float freight funds?”

No. From the beginning of TranzAct in 1984, we have maintained a business model that does not rely on the float of a client’s money to support our operation. We continue to employ a “No Float” policy. To that end, we are just as comfortable sending a file to the client with the funding that should be paid to a carrier at a given time, or cutting checks on a client’s check stock.

What is the availability of accessing processed data online via the Internet?

Processed data is available 24/7 through myTranzact.com, our secure client website accessible with a login and password.

What is TranzAct’s ability to marry U.S. domestic and international data together in a unique database for efficient analysis from global sites?

StarPay is designed to be a comprehensive, integrated global freight payment system. No matter what currency you wish to pay in, TranzAct is ready and able to audit and pay your freight bills, as well as report in any currency you would like. StarPay has the flexibility to normalize different currencies into one for reporting.

Does TranzAct image paper invoices for online viewing?

Yes. Upon receipt, all paper documents are scanned into our system. Each freight invoice is individually scanned on both sides, eliminating the out-dated practice of ‘batching’ (manually moving a group of invoices from one work step to another).

Scanned images are accessible through myTranzact.com. Additionally, clients have the option to receive the images on a CD which has a built in application that facilitates locating individual images via multiple search criteria, and then printing or copying the images as you direct.

How does TranzAct provide support for carriers?

TranzAct’s operating philosophy recognizes the importance of a client’s carrier base, and we have focused on a triangular relationship between TranzAct, the client and the client’s carriers. Our carrier inquiry department is dedicated to supporting carrier communications and freight bill inquiries, including web support and login registration for MyTranzActCarrier.com.

MyTranzActCarrier.com is TranzAct’s web-based carrier resolution tool. This provides carriers with access to payment and billing information, which fosters timely exception processing. Through this tool, carriers are able to access records that offer outstanding detail, attach missing documents directly to the site, research data in real time, create detailed aging reports and more.

What would be the structure of our support team?

Each client has a team of individuals supporting their account. A Team Lead and an Account Relationship Analyst (ARA) will be assigned with additional associates consisting of Implementation, IT, EDI, and Logistics support. The designated ARA will serve as an account-familiar point of contact to provide a common interface for ease of communication.

What is the time frame for a typical transition/implementation?

Depending on the complexity of your account, TranzAct can be accurately processing your freight bills within 30-60 days.

What is your process for coding and allocation of charges?

There are multiple approaches that clients use for general ledger coding. We have not encountered one that we could not handle. In most cases we provide suggestions to our client on the benefits and pitfalls of various alternatives. 100% of our allocation is done electronically and not by an individual.

We use our system's artificial intelligence to define the business rules to generate a GL code based on the shipment and product characteristics. We use this logic for all accounts from the single GL code to those that have thousands of GL codes, such as W.W. Grainger, Wal-Mart and K- Mart.

Each of these clients had extensive coding and allocation requirements which we were able to easily accommodate. For a number of our clients, we were also able to identify conflicting patterns in their cost allocation logic that they were not aware of prior to engaging our services. A key attribute of StarPay is that we are able to take this logic and build artificial intelligence into the application, thus eliminating the requirements of having individual customer service personnel annually code a given transaction.

Freight invoices can also handle the line haul and accessorial amount split in various ways – to a specific product on the BOL or by a stop if it is a multi stop bill with a master invoice. There is great flexibility on how the split and allocation process can be defined to meet your individual business needs.

What are the freight audit and payment EDI specifications?

TranzAct has the following EDI specifications available for download: 110 (Air Freight Invoice); 210 (Motor Freight Invoice) and 310 (Ocean Freight Invoice).

Included:
Automatic — Our report library has over 250 standard report designs. We can also customize any report to a client’s specification. These reports may be programmed to be produced by an “event trigger”, and automatically sent to the client. Each report is delivered electronically in a format of your choosing (PDF, Excel, CVS, XML, Text).

Custom — Clients have access to 10 to 15 different web-based reports at “MyTranzact.com”. These reports provide comprehensive payment data and also information regarding carriers, lanes of traffic, and dollar/tonnage information at a detail/summary level.

Optional:
Ad Hoc — For more analytical reporting needs our clients have the option to utilize TranzAct’s web-based ad hoc reporting application, StarBrite, or our client based StarLite reporting application.