How to get from proof of delivery to invoice without the wait

You shorten the time from proof of delivery to invoice by treating every delivered job as one of three things by the next morning: matched and ready to invoice, matched with a note that needs a decision, or missing its POD with a named person who owes it. The delay is rarely in raising the invoice. It is in the paper still in the cab, the subcontractor who has not sent theirs and the POD with "two pallets damaged" written across it that nobody has read.

From tip to the accounts office

The job starts when the driver tips. From there it passes through three sets of hands: the driver, who gets the proof of delivery; the traffic office, which knows what was agreed for the job; and an accounts administrator, who pairs the POD with the job and raises the invoice.

The steps, from tip to paid

1. The POD is captured. The driver gets a name, a signature, a date and time, and any remarks. On paper it comes home in the cab. On an electronic system such as Podfather it reaches the office when the driver completes the job. On an international run one copy of the CMR note travels with the goods.

2. It reaches the office. Paper is handed in, scanned and named. Subcontractors email theirs, or do not until asked.

3. It is paired with the job. The administrator finds the job in the transport system and checks the POD against it: right consignment, right delivery point, the quantity delivered against the quantity booked, a legible name.

4. Remarks are read. "Short one pallet", "damaged", "refused", "driver waited two hours". Each is either a possible claim against you or a possible extra charge.

5. The invoice is raised. From the agreed rate, with the customer's order or reference number and whatever that customer insists on before paying: often the POD itself, attached.

6. Copies are asked for. Customers' accounts teams ask for copy PODs for weeks afterwards, usually when the invoice is already overdue.

7. Payment is chased. If you agreed no payment date, the law treats payment as late 30 days after the customer gets the invoice, or 30 days after you deliver the goods or provide the service, if this is later. The clock cannot start on an invoice you have not sent.

How to invoice faster after delivery, before any software

• Keep a list of delivered jobs with no POD, by driver and by subcontractor, and work it daily.

• Write down each customer's invoice requirements once: their order number format, whether the POD must be attached, where invoices are sent, and whether the customer self-bills.

• Decide who rules on remarks. Waiting time and a second delivery attempt are chargeable only if somebody says so that day. A remark about damage should reach whoever handles claims before the customer raises it.

• Check each invoice says what the law asks of any invoice: a unique number, your name, address and contact details, the customer's name and address, a clear description, the date of supply, the invoice date, the amount, the VAT and the total. If you and your customer are VAT registered, GOV.UK says you must use a VAT invoice, which carries more.

The rest of a transport office's paperwork is set out on our logistics, freight and removals page.

Which steps an AI worker can take on

An AI worker can take on the reading, pairing and chasing. The worker has a written job and a named person it reports to. It can read each POD as it arrives, whether a scan, an emailed PDF or a record from an electronic POD system whose maker publishes a way in, and pair it with its job. It can compare the delivered quantity and the delivery point with the booking, and read the remarks. It can produce the morning list in three parts: ready to invoice, held for a decision, POD missing and who owes it. It can email subcontractors for the PODs they have not sent, at the intervals you set, and tell the office which drivers still have paper outstanding. It can draft the invoice from the agreed rate with the customer's reference and the POD attached, and answer a written request for a copy POD from the file. Once invoices are out, reminders on your schedule are the invoice and payment chasing role; the same pattern of request, reminder and check is set out in the role for chasing clients for documents.

What waits for a person, and why

• Any POD with a remark about shortage, damage or refusal. It may become a claim. A person reads it and decides.

• Extra charges. Waiting time, a failed delivery or a diversion is a commercial decision about that customer, made by the planner or the manager.

• The invoice itself. A person approves it before it is sent.

• Disputes and credit notes. They go to accounts with the job, the POD and the messages attached.

• Phone calls. The driver who needs ringing about a missing POD and the customer who needs ringing about an old debt are a person's calls. The agent works in writing.

What to have ready

• Your rate agreements in one place.

• Each customer's invoice requirements.

• A naming rule for scanned PODs, so that each can be found by job number.

• The list of subcontractors, with the address their PODs come from.

• Two numbers from last month: the average days from delivery to invoice, and how many jobs were invoiced late because the POD was missing.

For a firm that also moves households, the wait that limits growth sits between survey and quote, as how to scale a removals business without hiring more staff sets out.

Every morning an AI worker in a haulier's accounts office would pair each POD with its job and draft the invoices for approval, and your people would keep the claims, the extra charges and the calls. Delivered work sitting uninvoiced is money the customer has not yet been asked for. Talk to our agent.