Automating Cost & Vendor Payments: Solverminds’ Vendor Payment Automation

Automating Cost & Vendor Payments: Solverminds’ Vendor Payment Automation:

In today’s fiercely competitive shipping landscape, financial precision rivals’ operational excellence in importance. The payable side of financial transactions where cost leakages, invoice discrepancies, and vendor payment inefficiencies silently erode margins demands meticulous attention. Solverminds’ Cost and Vendor Payment (CVP) system revolutionizes financial management for liner, feeder, and NVOCC operators by automating cost invoicing, orchestrating streamlined approval workflows, and delivering comprehensive real-time visibility across all payable transactions. By implementing CVP, shipping companies dramatically reduce manual processing burdens, enhance cost forecasting accuracy, and achieve unprecedented financial precision ultimately strengthening their bottom line while maintaining tighter control over operations and expenditures.

For decades, liner, feeder, and NVOCC operators have struggled with inefficient cost management due to manual vendor payment processes. The traditional approach has led to numerous operational bottlenecks, including:

• Invoice Reconciliation: Shipping lines face a monumental challenge in invoice reconciliation, dedicating vast resources to verify thousands of complex invoices derived from complex contracts across global operations
• High-Velocity, High-Volume Operations: Each vessel generates hundreds of charges from ports, terminals, stevedores, agents, and service providers each operating with different formats, currencies, and terms. This makes reconciliation exceptionally labor-intensive.
• Invoice Discrepancies: Manually validating invoices against operational data often results in mismatches, leading to disputes and payment delays.
• High Administrative Overheads: Finance teams spend countless hours processing invoices, reconciling vendor payments, and managing contracts.
• Lack of Real-Time Visibility: The absence of an integrated system makes it difficult to track costs at a granular level, resulting in budgeting inefficiencies.
• Regulatory Compliance Issues: Managing multi-currency transactions and taxation (TDS, VAT, GST) manually increases the risk of non-compliance and financial penalties.
• Disjointed Vendor Management: Maintaining vendor contracts and performance evaluations across multiple geographies is cumbersome without a unified system.

Solverminds’ Cost and Vendor Payment (CVP) system is designed to eliminate these inefficiencies by offering an automated, activity-based cost management solution that seamlessly integrates with operational workflows. By creating Dynamic contract value parametrization, workflows, digital automation, CVP minimizes errors, accelerates processing times, and provides end-to-end cost visibility.

1. Dynamic Digital Contract Creation with parameters
   • Users can create contracts, with main activity and sub activity with detail for each equipment type, variables, special parameters, multiple currency and more.
   • Ability to create contracts template for use in other locations which has similar set of main and sub activity for Ports, terminals and stevedores.
2. Automated Operational activity
   • Based on the operational activity performed at the port, terminal, the system can automatically, or users can manually create Container activity report for each vessel voyage, and which can then be approved either automatically or manually.
3. Automated Cost Invoicing & Pre-Billing Validation
   • CVP automatically triggers cost calculations based on approved operational activities (Container Activity Report), ensuring cost accuracy before vendor invoices are even raised.
   • Pre-billing audits verify vendor charges against agreed contract rates, reducing invoice disputes by over 90%.
4. Seamless Integration with Operational & Financial Systems
   • Directly integrates with SAP, Oracle Fusion, and other financial systems through EDI and API-based data exchange.
   • Links with vessel schedules, port operations, and equipment management systems to automate cost approvals.
   • Clients have the flexibility to either adopt this system or seamlessly integrate CVP with their existing FA setup, ensuring ease of transition. The key advantage lies in automation approved expenses are directly posted to the accounting books, and once an invoice is submitted, the system automatically generates the necessary accounting entries. This significantly reduces manual effort, enabling a Liner Shipping Company to run its payable department with minimal resources.
5. AI-Powered Cost Forecasting & Budgeting
   • Predictive analytics allow shipping lines to forecast costs based on historical data, enabling better financial planning.
   • Provides a real-time cost vs. budget comparison, highlighting potential overspending areas before they occur.
6. Multi-Currency & Multi-Tax Compliance
   • Automated taxation compliance (TDS, GST, VAT) with customizable rules per country.
   • Supports multi-currency disbursement, ensuring smooth cross-border transactions.
7. Intelligent Cost Approval Workflows
   • Role-based approval hierarchies streamline vendor payments and enforce cost controls.
   • Configurable tolerance thresholds automatically approve invoices within pre-set deviation limits, minimizing manual interventions.
8. Vendor Performance & Rebate Management
9. • Real-time tracking of vendor performance metrics, ensuring adherence to SLAs and contractual obligations.
   • Automated rebate reconciliation, helping recover costs efficiently from inter-company agreements.

One of Solverminds’ clients, a leading liner company from the Middle East with annual revenue exceeding $1 billion, has revolutionized its cost and vendor payment operations using CVP.

For a shipping company of this scale, managing cost and vendor payments manually would have required at least 20 personnel. However, with Solverminds’ automated CVP system, they successfully run their entire financial process with just 6 people:

• 1 General Manager overseeing operations
• 2 Managers handling approvals and vendor relationships
• 3 Executives executing transactions and monitoring compliance

Key Benefits Achieved:

• 70% Reduction in Workforce: Without automation, at least 20 resources would have been needed for manual processing.
• System-Generated Cost Validation: All costs are generated and validated automatically, eliminating human errors and inefficiencies.
• Faster Processing & Compliance: Streamlined workflows ensure quick approvals while maintaining compliance with tax and regulatory requirements.

This success story highlights the sheer power of automation proving that even billion-dollar shipping lines can optimize cost operations with minimal human intervention, thanks to Solverminds’ CVP.

Shipping CEOs and CFOs are constantly seeking ways to improve profitability and operational efficiency. Here’s how CVP directly contributes to bottom-line improvement:

✔ Reduces Cost Processing Time by 70%: Automation eliminates manual data entry and invoice approvals, freeing up finance teams for strategic work.

✔ Enhances Cash Flow Management: Provides real-time visibility into payables, reducing financial bottlenecks.

✔ Mitigates Financial Risks: Auto-validation of invoices ensures only accurate, contract-compliant costs are processed.

✔ Enforces Cost Discipline Across Agencies: Agents cannot bypass cost approval workflows, preventing unauthorized vendor charges.

✔ Improves Compliance & Auditability: Every transaction is digitally logged, making audits seamless and reducing compliance risks.

The shipping industry is at an inflection point where digital transformation is no longer optional it’s a competitive necessity. CVP by Solverminds offers a future-proof, data-driven approach to cost and vendor payment management that not only improves efficiency but also ensures higher financial accuracy and strategic control.

For CEOs and decision-makers looking to drive cost efficiency and automate financial operations, CVP is not just a tool it’s a necessity. Adopt the future of cost management today.

Solverminds is a leading global technology company providing enterprise resource management solutions, consulting and data analytics services to a maritime industry where business meets the technology. 

We offer ERP solutions, optimisers and consultations for your company’s unique needs. Contact us for a quality assessment of your systems and innovative solutions to challenges. Learn more about going green today, and ensure that your company consistently meets the requirements set out by the IMO while streamlining operations and optimising profit margins.