Know the margin on every load, not just the quarter

A logistics business runs thousands of loads across hundreds of lanes and carriers, with fuel prices moving weekly and margins measured in single-digit percentages per load. Generic accounting software has no load or lane dimension, so margin gets estimated in aggregate - hiding the lanes that are actually losing money.

• Per-load margin: revenue and direct cost - driver pay, fuel, tolls - must be tied to each load to know if it was profitable.
• Fuel cost allocation: fuel surcharges and actual fuel spend need to be allocated to the loads and lanes that consumed them.
• High AP/AR volume: hundreds of carrier settlements and shipper invoices a week overwhelm manual AP/AR processes.
• Lane-level margin: aggregating loads by lane reveals which lanes are structurally thin or unprofitable.

• AI accounting keeps a load- and lane-dimensional GL, so revenue and direct cost tie together at the load level, then roll up by lane.
• Bill pay handles high-volume carrier settlements and fuel invoices, with 3-way match tying costs to the load or dispatch that generated them.
• AR manages high-volume shipper invoicing, AR aging, and dunning/collections so DSO doesn’t creep as volume grows.
• Expense management and corporate cards capture driver and dispatcher spend - fuel, tolls, per diem - coded back to the load.
• Cash flow forecasting and working capital reporting handle the timing gap between paying carriers quickly and collecting from shippers slower.