Enterprise supply chains process millions of freight invoices annually, each requiring verification against complex rate agreements, regulatory compliance checks, and cost allocation rules. Traditional freight audit systems struggle with this volume, creating bottlenecks that delay payments, strain carrier relationships, and obscure critical financial data. The next generation of freight audit technology addresses these challenges through artificial intelligence that doesn't just process transactions—it understands them.
Prizma AI represents a fundamental shift in how enterprises approach freight audit and transportation spend management. Built on cloud-native architecture and powered by AI capabilities, the platform transforms freight audit from a tactical necessity into a strategic advantage. Companies managing complex global supply chains gain capabilities that were previously impossible with legacy systems, from automated exception resolution to predictive analytics that inform network optimization decisions.
Intelligent Exception Management Accelerates Invoice Processing
Every freight audit program encounters exceptions—invoices that fail validation checks due to missing data, duplicate submissions, rate discrepancies, or allocation issues. Traditional systems flag these exceptions and route them to manual review queues, where auditors spend hours investigating issues, contacting carriers, and making correction decisions. With thousands of invoices processed daily, exception management consumes substantial operational resources.
The AI Audit Optimizer within Prizma AI analyzes exception patterns across the entire invoice population, identifying recurring issues and recommending appropriate resolutions. Machine learning models recognize when specific exception types consistently receive the same resolution, enabling the system to auto-apply approved actions without human intervention. An auditor who has approved a particular carrier's accessorial charge discrepancy 10,000 times no longer needs to review each instance—the system handles it automatically.
This intelligent automation extends beyond simple rule-based processing. The AI evaluates context, considers historical handling patterns, and quantifies potential impacts before recommending actions. When the system identifies that a specific exception type affects 22% of invoices from a particular carrier, it not only flags the issue but suggests systemic corrections that address the root cause rather than treating symptoms.
For internal audit teams, this capability means focusing analytical efforts on genuine anomalies and strategic issues rather than repetitive validation tasks. Processing velocity increases dramatically while maintaining—and often improving—audit accuracy. Companies report significant reductions in time-to-payment while strengthening their carrier relationships through consistent, timely invoice resolution.
Comprehensive Data Visibility Enables Strategic Decision-Making
Legacy freight audit systems treat invoice processing as an isolated function, capturing payment data but providing limited visibility into broader transportation patterns. Prizma AI transforms every processed invoice into structured data that feeds comprehensive analytics capabilities, giving supply chain leaders unprecedented insight into their transportation networks.
The platform delivers over 30 dashboard views with drill-through capability, allowing users to analyze freight spend from multiple perspectives—by carrier, lane, mode, service level, cost center, or any combination of relevant dimensions. Program dashboards provide executive-level overviews alongside operational details, ensuring stakeholders at every level access information appropriate to their decision-making needs.
Custom report builders give users direct access to over 300 database fields, enabling ad-hoc analysis without IT intervention. Supply chain analysts can explore specific questions as they arise, testing hypotheses and uncovering insights that standardized reports might miss. This analytical flexibility proves particularly valuable when investigating cost trends, evaluating carrier performance, or assessing the impact of network changes.
Performance analytics extend beyond historical reporting to include comparative analysis capabilities. Month-over-month and year-over-year comparisons reveal trends that inform strategic planning, while benchmarking features help companies understand their performance relative to industry standards. These insights enable data-driven decisions about carrier selection, mode optimization, and network design that directly impact both cost and service quality.
Advanced Data Quality Supports Accurate Financial Reporting
Data quality challenges plague traditional freight audit operations. Inconsistent charge codes, unstandardized service descriptions, and varying address formats across carriers create analytical nightmares. Companies struggle to aggregate spend accurately, compare carrier performance reliably, or allocate costs consistently across their operations.
Prizma AI addresses these challenges through comprehensive data normalization capabilities. The platform enforces standardized charge codes and service codes across all carriers, ensuring reporting consistency regardless of how individual carriers format their invoices. Address standardization using Clean Address technology converts varied location formats into consistent, validated data that supports accurate lane analysis and geographic reporting.
The AI Extractor component handles paper-based invoices and PDFs with document intelligence that understands content contextually rather than merely extracting text mechanically. This capability proves essential given that 52% of carriers still submit documentation through paper processes. Rather than requiring extensive manual data entry, the system processes these documents automatically, feeding normalized data into the same analytical framework as electronic submissions.
Advanced data tools provide configurable validation, normalization, and correction capabilities that allow companies to tailor data quality rules to their specific business requirements. These tools ensure that extracted data meets enterprise standards before entering financial systems, preventing downstream errors that would require costly correction and reconciliation efforts.
Seamless Integration Supports Enterprise Technology Ecosystems
Modern enterprises operate complex technology environments with multiple ERP systems, transportation management platforms, procurement tools, and financial applications. Freight audit solutions must integrate smoothly with these existing systems rather than creating additional data silos that fragment operational visibility.
Prizma's open architecture approach enables connectivity with enterprise systems through standard integration methods. The platform ingests data from multiple sources—carrier EDI feeds, email submissions, web portals, and API connections—processing diverse formats into a unified data model. This flexibility accommodates the reality of global supply chains where different regions, carriers, and business units may use varying submission methods.
Cost allocation capabilities support complex organizational structures without artificial limits on allocation dimensions. Companies can allocate freight costs by general ledger codes, cost centers, departments, product lines, SKUs, or any combination of attributes relevant to their financial reporting requirements. The platform's trace functionality provides full visibility into allocation logic, enabling finance teams to validate calculations and maintain confidence in reported results.
Single sign-on integration streamlines user access management, allowing IT departments to control platform access through existing identity management systems. This security feature reduces administrative overhead while ensuring that access controls remain synchronized with broader enterprise policies. NIST certification and SOC Type 2 audit compliance demonstrate the platform's commitment to data security standards required by enterprise organizations.
Building Transportation Spend Management Maturity
Freight audit represents the foundation of transportation spend management, but true maturity requires moving beyond transaction processing toward strategic cost optimization. Prizma enables this progression by transforming freight audit from an isolated compliance function into an integrated capability that informs supply chain strategy.
The normalized, enriched data that flows through Prizma supports advanced use cases including predictive analytics, network optimization, carrier performance management, and sustainability reporting. Companies gain visibility into not just what they spent but why, enabling root cause analysis of cost drivers and identification of improvement opportunities.
Ready to advance your freight audit capabilities beyond legacy limitations? Contact the Trax team today to learn how Prizma AI can transform your transportation spend management program with intelligent automation, comprehensive visibility, and enterprise-grade data quality.