An uncertain economy and market volatility have driven marketers to seek new ways to improve their efficiencies and profitability. One of the first ways to do this is by streamlining and automating transactions that lead to faster, more accurate billing of customers. The bill of lading document necessary to invoice customers has traditionally been slow to issue, and even when an electronic version is available, it comes from a variety of sources that requires the management and cross-referencing of multiple inputs. Schneider Electric’s DTN Fuel Admin has the ability to combine these data sources, standardize the electronic bills of lading (eBOLS), and integrate them directly into your back office system. The result is more accurate and faster billing, as well as huge operational savings.
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Faster, more accurate billing with DTN Fuel Admin™
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2014 Schneider Electric. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used, reproduced, photocopied, transmitted,
or stored in any retrieval system of any nature, without the written permission of the copyright owner. www.schneider-electric.com Rev 2014--0
Abstract
An uncertain economy and market volatility have driven marketers to seek new ways to improve their
efficiencies and profitability. One of the first ways to do this is by streamlining and automating
transactions that lead to faster, more accurate billing of customers. The bill of lading document necessary
to invoice customers has traditionally been slow to issue, and even when an electronic version is
available, it comes from a variety of sources that requires the management and cross-referencing of
multiple inputs. Schneider Electric’s DTN Fuel Admin has the ability to combine these data sources,
standardize the electronic bills of lading (eBOLS), and integrate them directly into your back office
system. The result is more accurate and faster billing, as well as huge operational savings.
Introduction
The availability of eBOLS has more than tripled in the last few years and helped streamline and automate
transactions. But there is enormous room for more improvement: You may struggle with inputting the
documents into your back office system in a consistent format that doesn’t take hours of (error-prone)
manual keying. Or you are dealing with eBOLs that have different sources, formats, and codes, putting
the time-consuming task of importing the information at an even greater risk for mistakes and lost profits.
The good news is that standardizing eBOLs can alleviate and eliminate these problems entirely.
Schneider Electric’s DTN Fuel Admin
DTN Fuel Admin can stream eBOLS directly to your back office for faster, more accurate customer
invoicing. Just as important, it translates the captured eBOLS into any office-friendly format and delivers
them via FTP to your back office system. Now, your eBOLs can be viewed in a dashboard that allows
you to find BOL documents with search and filter features, as well as manage your custom back office
mapping codes for suppliers, terminal, products and carriers.
By Amy Heimann
APPLICATION NOTE
Faster, more accurate billing with
DTN Fuel Admin™
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___________________________________________________________________________________________________
2014 Schneider Electric. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used, reproduced, photocopied, transmitted,
or stored in any retrieval system of any nature, without the written permission of the copyright owner. www.schneider-electric.com Rev 2014-0
APPLICATION NOTE
Accurate billing, no matter the source
By standardizing eBOLS, DTN Fuel Admin provides coding consistency across a variety of sources and
different formats, including supplier, terminal, product and carrier codes. The eBOL can be cross-
referenced to match back-office codes leveraging the user’s cross-reference set-up for price exports to
jump-start back office integration and speed up implementation. No matter the source, DTN Fuel Admin
can create electronic, easy-to-read smart text eBOLs that significantly reduce billing mistakes.
The most comprehensive source of eBOLs to automate and streamline your back-office
processes for faster, more accurate invoicing
A unique dashboard provides cross-referencing of complex product and terminal
codes, industry standard definitions like TCN numbers, and business rules to manage
exception situations
Faster billing, faster payment
Once accuracy is ensured, speed is of the essence: DTN Fuel Admin delivers the fastest eBOLS,
with most ready within just minutes of load completion. No more waiting hours or even days for
carriers to supply bills of lading. Faster billing leads to faster payment for you and healthier profits for
the bottom line.
Accurately invoice customers more quickly
Speed collection time of receivables
Cut the time it takes for the ongoing maintenance of data mapping
A central hub for collecting your data
DTN Fuel Admin is the hub for all of your data: Even with the endless combinations of suppliers and
terminals, it can scale to your needs and work with your unique configurations. As seasonal product
changes hit the market or new suppliers come on board, DTN Fuel Admin can manage the mapping
codes quickly and easily.
Marketers can process a bill in near real-time, avoid the need for deciphering codes and save hours of
manual labor. These savings, along with drastically slashing the risk of rebilling, have an enormous
impact on your operations and significantly transform them into a more profitable enterprise.
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___________________________________________________________________________________________________
2014 Schneider Electric. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used, reproduced, photocopied, transmitted,
or stored in any retrieval system of any nature, without the written permission of the copyright owner. www.schneider-electric.com Rev 2014-0
APPLICATION NOTE
DTN Fuel Admin at Work
As a wholesaler hiring common carriers to move product, Georgia-based Indigo Energy Partners relied
on those carriers to supply BOLs in a timely manner so it could bill its own customers. Indigo continually
faced situations where it took the carriers many days, sometimes more than a week, to supply the
paperwork for delivered loads.
To speed up billing and ensure greater accuracy, Indigo chose DTN Fuel Admin from Schneider Electric
to streamline reconciliation processes by supplying automated eBOLs. The eBOLS are streamed directly
into the company’s back office for faster, more accurate invoicing and are consistently coded from a
variety of sources and in different formats, including supplier, terminal, product and carrier codes. DTN
Fuel Admin also provides a smart text version of each eBOL that includes original, standard Schneider
Electric and customer cross-referenced codes. Indigo users can customize cross-reference codes and
build specific exception-based business rules.
Indigo now receives almost all of its eBOLs the same day that the loads are pulled and can bill customers
within its preferred 24-hour window. Staff no longer spend hours each day calling carriers to track down
BOLs. Instead, they can focus on timely billing of customers, which is a much better use of their time and
enhances the company’s cash management function.
About the Author:
Amy Heimann is responsible for the product direction of our DTN Fuel Buyer, DTN Fuel Seller, DTN
Exchange, and DTN Fuel Admin solutions. Prior to joining Schneider Electric, Amy was in a global
product management role at Motorola. She holds a bachelor's degree in Administration Information
Systems from Eastern Illinois University.