Paying many carriers without a payment file
How a freight broker pays dozens of subcontracted carriers through its own bank when Achekam records supplier payments but makes no payment file.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A freight broker's payment run is unlike most businesses'. There may be forty owner-drivers and small fleets to pay in a week, each for a handful of loads, many of them on short terms because a one-truck operator cannot wait for diesel money. Miss a carrier and they stop answering your calls. Pay one twice and you may never see it back. Pay the right amount into the wrong account and the money is simply gone.
Achekam records supplier bills and payments, but it does not produce a bank payment file for suppliers: paying a supplier in Achekam only records the payment. The money itself moves through your own bank. This article sets out a routine that keeps those two halves in step, so every carrier is paid once, on time, into the right account.
Recording payments, not making them
Be clear about who does what:
| Step | Where it happens |
|---|---|
| Carrier invoice recorded and approved | Achekam |
| Payment list prepared | From the bills in Achekam |
| Payments captured and released | Your bank's own business banking |
| Payment recorded against each bill | Achekam |
| Bank statement matched | Achekam |
In Achekam, a business records supplier bills line by line with VAT. A bill raised without a purchase order waits for approval before it posts, which suits brokers who book carriers by phone rather than by formal order: the approval is the check that the load was real and the rate was the agreed one. A bill can then be paid in full or in parts from a chosen bank account.
Where you do use orders, posting a matched supplier invoice puts it in the ledger as expense, input VAT and trade payables, and the carrier's invoice number stops the same invoice being posted twice. For a broker, that duplicate guard matters: carriers often resend invoices when they are chasing payment, and the second copy should never become a second bill.
Building the payment list from bills due
Work from the bills recorded in Achekam, not from the carriers' WhatsApp messages. On a fixed day each week:
- List the approved bills due for payment, carrier by carrier.
- Leave out any bill still waiting for approval or for a signed proof of delivery.
- Group each carrier's bills into one payment, with the invoice numbers in the reference.
- Have someone other than the person who prepared the list check it against the bills.
That last step is the cheapest control you have. The person preparing payments should not be the only person who sees them before they go.
Loading payments in your bank's own system
South African, Nigerian and Kenyan business banking platforms generally let you capture a batch of beneficiary payments, or import one from a spreadsheet in the bank's own layout, and release it under dual authorisation. How that works is set by your bank, not by Achekam, so ask your relationship manager for the import layout and the approval rules on your profile.
A few habits help:
- Pay saved beneficiaries only. Load each carrier as a beneficiary once, after checking the details, rather than typing account numbers into each batch.
- Use the bank's two-person release. One person captures, another authorises.
- Use a clear reference. Your company name and the carrier's invoice numbers, so the carrier can allocate it and so your own bank lines are easy to match.
Once the bank confirms the batch has been released, record each payment in Achekam against the carrier's bill, from the bank account the money left.
Matching the bank lines back
The payment run is not finished until the bank statement agrees. Import the statement into Achekam as PDF, CSV, Excel, OFX, QIF, MT940 or CAMT.053; each import is checked so that the opening balance plus the movements equals the closing balance.
Bank lines are then matched by suggestion and a person accepts each match. A carrier payment you recorded against a bill should find its bank line. A line that is not yet in the books becomes a suggested journal for a person to approve, and a reconciliation completes only when there is no difference left or every leftover line is explained.
Pay attention to what is left over. A bank line with no recorded payment can mean a payment captured in the bank but never recorded, which leaves the bill showing as unpaid and invites a second payment next week. A recorded payment with no bank line can mean a batch that was never released. Both should be cleared before the next run.
One week's run, in words
On Thursday the accounts clerk lists the approved carrier bills due by Friday, leaves out two loads still missing their PODs, and groups the rest by carrier. The finance manager checks the list against the bills and approves it. The clerk captures the batch in internet banking from saved beneficiaries; the finance manager releases it. The clerk then records each payment against its bill in Achekam. On Monday, the statement import matches every payment line, and the two held loads roll into next week's list.
Controls on carrier bank details
The biggest risk in paying carriers is not the amount, it is the account. Fraudsters know brokers pay many small operators quickly, and a forged e-mail announcing "new banking details" is a well-worn trick. ICAEW's guide on how to identify and deal with fake invoices sets out the warning signs and the preventive controls, including segregating duties and verifying any change to bank details.
Turn that into a rule:
- Never change a carrier's bank details on the strength of an e-mail.
- Phone the carrier on the number you already hold, not the one in the e-mail.
- Ask for a bank confirmation letter, and have a second person approve the change.
- Watch the first payment to new details closely.
If you hold the procurement integrity review, sold as its own add-on, it raises questions about warning patterns such as competing quotes sharing contact or bank details, or a supplier paid into an employee's bank account. Treat its questions as prompts for a person to investigate.
Where to start
Agree the weekly payment day, write down who prepares, who checks and who releases, and load every regular carrier as a saved beneficiary after a call-back check. How carriers get onto your supplier list in the first place is covered in adding subcontracted carriers as suppliers, and how their invoices become postings in carrier invoices turned into suggested postings.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
