Once you’ve signed in (see Signing in to ShipHawk Audit ), you’re ready to start exploring ShipHawk Audit’s features and capabilities.
A good place to start is the parcel dashboards.
Exploring Parcel Dashboards
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.
Exploring Parcel Reports
In the left navigation, select Parcel > Reports.
ShipHawk Audit offers many reports right out of the box you can use (see Parcel Reports for details.)
As an example, under Report Criteria, from the Select a Report drop-down, select Exception and Reason.
The Select a client or search by name/code and Select a Carrier fields populate. You can change the carrier or add additional carriers as desired by selecting from the drop-down.
The file name field, which specifies the name of the file you can export (typically .xlsx), automatically populates with “Exception and Reason”, followed by some variables that specify the date ranges ($DATE_RANGES), client names ($CLIENT_NAMES), and carrier names ($CARRIER_NAMES) for the full report name. You can modify the file name as needed.
Note that from the Add Details to File Name drop-down, you can add additional variables.Next, if you wish, you can customize the columns, special criteria, and subtotal options in the report. Click the Customize Columns button (or Add Special Criteria, or Subtotal Options) to get a Customizations pop-up window.
On the Customizations pop-up, click Columns Included to adjust the order of appearance, inclusion, and exclusion of columns. All the columns are typically included by default, so you will likely want to exclude any columns that are not of interest.
Next, click Criteria to filter the report data based on criteria such as Tracking #, Account #, Invoice #, Invoice Date, Service, Sender Postal Code, and more.
When ready, click Done to save the changes and the Customization pop-up closes.
Next, click on Invoice date: … and from the pop-up, choose Rolling Date, select a date range such as YTD, and click Apply.
Now, click the Generate Report button.
In Reports in Queue, you can see the report is being generated. When it’s ready, it will be listed under Completed Reports. To check the most recent status of the server, be sure to click Refresh.
After a moment, your report will be listed under Completed Reports. You’ll see the filename of the report (which you can download) and various details about the report (format, file size, when completed, when it will be deleted from the server).
Suppose this is a report you would like to run on a regular, scheduled basis. You can easily do that by clicking the Schedule Report button.
On the Schedule Criteria pop-up, enter the settings, including Schedule By (Monthly, Weekly, Triggered By), Next Run Date, Recipients, and Non User Recipients (additional email addresses of people to get the report).
If for Schedule By you select Triggered By, you get a pop-up where you can specify exactly when the report is run (such as which day of every month, and so on), recipients, and more.
Emails will go out with the report based on the schedule you’ve specified.
(Note that you can also choose Disable if you wish to discontinue using the report.)Click Schedule to schedule the report.
Exploring Parcel Invoice Search
In the left navigation, select Parcel > Invoice Search.
(See also Parcel Invoice Search.)In Search Criteria, Select a Client, and then the Carrier (for example, UPS) whose invoices you want to find, and optionally select the Account.
If you are looking for a specific invoice number, tracking number, or control number, you can specify these in the Invoice Numbers, Tracking Number(s), and Control Number fields.
In Additional Criteria, you can select a Delivery Status and specify Date Criteria such as the bill date (click the pencil icon 📝 to edit the date criteria).
Now, click Search.
The results are listed under Search Results. The columns include Invoice Number, Account Number, Invoice Amount, Control Number, and Bill Date. Each invoice is listed so that you can view and download them. Note that the column headings include filter options so you can further refine your search, and then clear the filters (click Clear Filter(s)).
When you click on a particular invoice number, a pop-up displays the details, including Tracking Number, Reference Number 1, Reference Number 2, Scheduled Data, Delivery Date, Delivery Status (such as on time, return to sender, various exceptions, and so on), Service, Charges, Actions, and Messages. Note that each column has a text field and filter option, so that you can filter on specific areas of interest. For example, in the Service column, you can enter the term “Ground” and filter for services that provide ground delivery (have “Ground” in their name). From the filter icon
, you can specify whether the term should be an exact match, or should just be contained in the service name, and so on.
Exploring Parcel Recon
With Parcel Recon, you can compare what your freight quote (manifest) was side-by-side with your actual bill from the carrier so that you reconcile them. You can compare your invoice data with what you expected you were going to be paying for shipping
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 Manifest row, 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).