Once you’ve signed in (see Signing in to ShipHawk Audit ), you’re ready to start exploring ShipHawk Audit’s features and capabilities.
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Parcel
Exploring Parcel Dashboards
A good place to start is the parcel dashboards.
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In the left navigation, select Parcel > Dashboards.
Initially, the Activity Summary dashboard displays.
Note that there are many other dashboards available (see Parcel Dashboards ).The Activity Summary dashboard includes several panels, starting with the Overview panel.
In the Overview panel, use the Service drop-down, to select All Services (the default), or select some specific service level or carrier service.
On the Activity Summary dashboard, from the Rolling period drop-down, select a time period of interest, such as YTD.
You can now see all kinds of metrics for your selected carrier service and rolling period.
Next, the panel below Overview is the Services Summary panel.
In the Services Summary panel, from the Rolling period drop-down, select a time period such as YTD.
You can now see the data grid populate with information about the Carrier And Service, Total Volume, Total Cost, and much more.
All of the tables and charts are interactive. For example, on the Spend By Service (Time) panel, you can zoom in on a particular month, and then a week within that month, and drill into a particular day to view an overlay panel that lists all the cost data for the carrier services for that day.
On a panel with exportable data, you can export data to a spreadsheet by clicking the Export As XLSX button.
What is your average spend with each carrier so far this year? On the Average Cost Per Package By Carrier panel, from the Rolling period drop-down, select YTD. Here you can see each tile populate with the average spend (year to date) for each carrier you use.
Here’s an example of how you can drill-down on pie charts. On the Activity Summary dashboard, scroll down to the Total Spend By Carrier (PIE) panel, and from the Rolling period drop-down, select YTD. You can see the total spend by carrier in a convenient pie chart. For a given slice, click on it to drill down further to see a pie chart that shows cost breakdown by the specific services of that carrier. You can view this by quarter, month, and so on.
Can you edit a dashboard? In the lower left corner of the dashboard page, click Edit Layout.
(Note: only admin-level users will have the Edit Layout button.)
From the Page drop-down, you can select which dashboard you want to edit. You can change the order of appearance of panels, remove panels, and add panels. Further, note that there can be additional dashboards not displayed by default.At this point, you might wonder if new custom dashboards, or new custom panels for existing dashboards, can be created for your unique business requirements.
The answer is yes: please contact the ShipHawk support team for more information.
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In the left navigation, select Recon > Dashboards.
The dashboards display, which include Ship Date Effect, Reconciliation, and Match With Delta Reconciliation.
Click on Reconciliation.
In the Sum of Total Cost Manifest row, you can see the costs over time (e.g., per month) of all the shipments that ShipHawk booked on your behalf. And in the next row, Sum of Total Carrier Cost, you can see the actual shipping costs (from the carrier invoices) over that same time (e.g., per month) for those shipments. At a glance, you can directly compare the expected manifest cost with the invoiced carrier cost for a given time period.
In Sum of Total Carrier Cost, for a column where the carrier cost is unexpectedly higher compared to the cell above it in the Sum of Total Cost Manifestrow, click on the number in the cell. A pop-up window opens, providing a Reconciliation report for the time period, showing the cost of each shipment, listing the Carrier ID, Order ID, and more.
Note that while there are many columns initially, in a header row cell, you can add or remove the displayed columns from a dropdown listing each column with a checkbox. Close the pop-up window.
In the Sum of Total Cost Manifest row, click on the number in the cell of interest.
In the Ship Date Effect pop-up window, scroll over to the Delta column. From the column header’s filter icon
, select the drop-down, and choose Greater than. You want the system to show you all the shipments you’ve made where the actual charge from the carrier is 20 dollars more than what you expected from the manifest, so in the field under Greater than, enter 20.Now the window updates so you can review all the shipments where the variance is greater than 20 dollars.
Note that along the bottom, you can change the Page Size, so you can see more rows at a time. By increasing the page size to a larger number such as 100, you can more easily review the data all in one place.
As you review, you can see which carriers seem to stand out as costing more than expected, and by row, which specific shipments cost more than expected.
Click on a row you want to investigate further--one where the carrier cost is unexpectedly higher. A pop-up window displays for the given Tracking Number. This pop-up window displays all kinds of details about the shipment, comparing the carrier data with the manifest data. It shows the information from the invoice, including base rate, what accessorials were added, what your surcharges were, and so on. With this information you can identify possible reasons for the cost variance.
As a ShipHawk-connected merchant, you can have the option to have ShipHawk submit on your behalf reconciliation requests to carriers.
For example, if the carrier charged you a residential accessorial charge but the delivery address was a commercial address, you can have the reconciliation request submitted.
The most common delta (variance) for parcel delivery typically involves guaranteed service recovery. For example, you booked 2 day delivery but it actually arrived in 3 days, so you should get a refund for that.
Another delta of interest could pertain to dimensions and weight. In the Reconciliation dashboard, note the checkbox options for Cubic Value Match and Weight Match.
Not surprisingly, most carriers don’t let you know about their failing to meet a guaranteed service--as a merchant, you have identify it and “call them on it.” And many only give you a limited time, such as two weeks, to identify the problem and request a refund. With ShipHawk Audit, you have the ability to find variances and submit the cost recovery request in a timely manner. You can submit the cost recovery request manually (per your business processes, such as having your accounting team call the carrier) or you can have ShipHawk do it for you.When you receive the reconciliation (recovery costs) from the carrier for a given tracking number (shipment), ShipHawk Audit recognizes this accordingly. You will see a credit on the invoice associated with the given tracking number. Typically, this enters the system in the subsequent month timeframe (depending on the carrier).
Freight
Freight offers similar functionality to Parcel, with Reports, Dashboards, Invoice Search, and Recon. The way that it looks is slightly different compared to Parcel, but the interaction patterns is very similar to Parcel.
Freight includes Dashboards Freight, Freight Maps/Locations, and Ocean. Note that the data display initially is based on the default time range, so for a given panel, you will want to adjust the time range depending on what you want to review.
Advanced Analytics
Advanced Analytics provides tools for doing further detailed analysis beyond reconciliation, including:
Spend Analysis
Refund Analysis
Carrier Score
Accessorial Analysis
Weight Analysis
Network Map
Comparison View