Carrier invoices turned into suggested postings
How a freight business uploads carrier invoices to Financial Intake, gets a proposed journal for each, and has a person approve and post it.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A freight business runs on other people's invoices. Subcontracted hauliers, cross-border carriers, clearing agents, warehouses, fuel stations and toll operators all send paper or PDFs, and every one of them has to reach the books. In many offices that means a clerk with a stack of invoices on one side of the desk, the accounting screen on the other, and a week's backlog that never quite clears.
Retyping is slow, and it is where mistakes creep in: a carrier's invoice number keyed twice, VAT entered on an invoice that had none, a cost posted to the wrong vehicle or lane. Achekam's Financial Intake takes the first pass of that work off the clerk's desk, while keeping a person in charge of what reaches the ledger.
Uploading the invoices
Supplier invoices and receipts are uploaded to Financial Intake. Each uploaded document becomes a suggested posting: a proposed journal that waits for a person to look at it.
For a freight business, the upload can happen wherever the paper arrives. Drivers' fuel and toll receipts, carrier invoices e-mailed to the accounts address and the clearing agent's monthly statement can all go into the same place, rather than into separate folders that someone has to remember to check.
What is read, and the journal it proposes
Achekam reads supplier invoices and receipts into their fields and proposes a journal for each one. These are the kind of details a clerk would otherwise type by hand from each page.
One detail matters for freight. VAT that is not printed on the document stays empty. Achekam does not invent a VAT figure that the carrier did not show. If a cross-border carrier's invoice carries no VAT, the suggestion carries none either, and whoever reviews it can see that at a glance.
A person approves and posts
Here is the principle that governs the whole process: AI can suggest, but only a person approves and posts. Journals proposed from documents are only candidates. Achekam refuses to let AI take either step.
The candidates wait under Financial Intake, in Posting Candidates. Fields read with low confidence, and documents that may be duplicates, wait in the Intake Review Queue for a person to decide. A carrier who sends the same invoice by e-mail and again with the driver is exactly the case the duplicate check exists for.
A sensible review, for each candidate:
- Does the supplier match the carrier or agent you actually used?
- Do the invoice number and date match the document?
- Is the amount right, and is VAT present only where the invoice shows it?
- Is the expense going to the right account for this kind of cost: subcontracted freight, fuel, tolls, clearing fees?
- Is this a duplicate of something already posted?
Only when those questions are answered does the reviewer approve and post. ICAEW's guide on how to identify and deal with fake invoices lists warning signs, such as mismatches with purchase orders and delivery notes, and preventive controls like segregation of duties and verifying bank-detail changes.
One invoice, start to finish
A subcontracted haulier e-mails an invoice for a load moved last week. The accounts clerk saves the PDF into Financial Intake. Achekam reads it and proposes a journal: subcontracted freight against the haulier, with VAT as printed. The clerk opens the candidate, checks the invoice number and amount against the PDF, confirms the expense account is the one the business uses for subcontracted freight, and only then approves and posts. Nothing reached the ledger before that moment. The clerk reviewed rather than retyped, and the clerk's judgement was still the last word.
A journal suggestion, not a bill to pay
There is a limit to understand before you rely on Financial Intake for creditors. At the time of writing, an uploaded supplier invoice becomes a journal suggestion, not a bill on the Bills list to pay.
Achekam's bills work differently. A business records supplier bills line by line with VAT; a bill without a purchase order waits for approval before it posts; and a bill can be paid in full or in parts from a chosen bank account. So the route depends on what you need:
| If you need to | Use |
|---|---|
| Get many small receipts, such as fuel and tolls, into the books quickly | Financial Intake and its suggested postings |
| Track what you owe a carrier and pay it, perhaps in parts | A supplier bill on the Bills list |
| Control a purchase from order to payment | A purchase order, then a bill against it |
You may well use both: Intake for the steady flow of driver receipts and small invoices, and bills for the main subcontractors they pay on terms.
Scans and photos need a reading service
Achekam reads scans and photographs of invoices only when an outside OCR service, or an image-reading AI key, has been set up for the workspace. Without one, Achekam does not guess: it raises a review item saying the reading engine is not configured, and a person has to enter the details.
Drivers tend to photograph receipts on their phones, so this matters. Before rolling Intake out to the fleet, ask whoever runs your workspace settings whether a reading service is set up. If it is not, keep the routine to digital PDFs from carriers until it is.
A weekly rhythm for the accounts office
- Upload everything as it arrives, not at month end.
- Clear the Intake Review Queue at least weekly, starting with possible duplicates.
- Approve and post reviewed candidates in batches by supplier type.
- For anything that belongs on the Bills list, record the bill instead.
Some carrier costs arrive after the month they relate to; those need an accrual, covered in accruing carrier costs at month end. Vehicle costs that are capital rather than running costs belong in the fixed-asset register; see depreciating trucks and trailers each month.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
