Making invoice presentment and payments frictionless

Invoicing and payment processing inherently come with a certain amount of friction and hassle, specifically between carriers and brokers. Payments platform TriumphPay is focusing on providing frictionless presentment, settlement and payment experiences for brokers, carriers, shippers and factors so they have the freedom to grow their businesses.

Haley Evans, senior vice president of client delivery for TriumphPay, sat down with FreightWaves’ Timothy Dooner on the What the Truck?!? Podcast to discuss what kinds of automation and simplification TriumphPay is using to further expand the limits of payment optimization. 

“We’ve used AI machine learning for several years to create our payments network, and we’re continuing to invest in that to bring auditing and payments together,” Evans said. “We are completely automating the invoice presentment, audit and payment life cycle for brokers, shippers, carriers and factors,” she said.

Ultimately, TriumphPay is working to remove friction from invoicing and payments processing for both carriers and brokers.

“We’re focusing on trying to optimize how easy it can be for our customers,” Evans said. “A big part of that comes in what kind of transparency and visibility they have into the process of tracking their invoice. Has it been approved? Am I going to get paid, and when? Speed to payment has always been really important to TriumphPay.”  

Invoice payment processing is only one step of the equation, however. Another major time and money saver that TriumphPay has been able to optimize is the audit workflow. In 2024, TriumphPay launched NextGen Audit, an update to its existing invoice auditing platform that revolutionizes back office performance.

“We’re continuing to iterate on NextGen Audit,” Evans said. “Our customers can get up to 80% no-touch invoice auditing and payment processing. From when the carrier presents the invoice all the way through to approval and payment, we’re using our AI machine learning to read off of that invoice to make sure that what the carrier is billing matches with what the TMS says the carrier should be paid for, identifying PODs and detecting damages, so our customers can focus on growing their business.”

NextGen Audit verifies whether or not an invoice can be approved and paid by cross-referencing all of the data. “If for some reason an invoice can’t be approved, we can account for why and list any exceptions,” Evans said. 

Traditionally, notifications for these types of exceptions are provided via email. Now, TriumphPay is rolling out new features on the carrier portal to give visibility into where an invoice is, whether it’s been approved and any exception details that can be provided to the carrier. 

“We’ve previously given visibility on the payment side once the invoice is approved, but we’re leaning into what our customers want and providing more action-oriented detail that helps clear exceptions,” Evans said.

One major problem with relying on emails, according to Evans, is that many carriers are not typically spending as much time monitoring those inboxes as they are delivering loads. “They’re busy moving freight, so we’ve found better ways to make necessary notifications more apparent to carriers,” she said.

“In an app that they have with them on the road, they can remove the exceptions much more quickly and get paid faster,” Evans said. “When the broker has what they need, they can bill their shipper sooner, reducing their DSO.”

TriumphPay’s payments feature is a powerful tool that eliminates the broker’s responsibility to  manage remittance information. “Brokers have visibility to whether carriers or factors should be paid for each load, and don’t have the liability for managing who should be paid,” Evans said.

TriumphPay handles notices of assignment (NOAs), letters of release (LORs) and updates to carrier bank accounts. If TriumphPay gets it wrong and misdirects funds, it’s TriumphPay’s responsibility to recover and write off. “The broker gets to eliminate this work and liability from their responsibilities,” Evans said.

“We’re driving automation up more and more for brokers so that they don’t have to manually touch those invoices, and they’re comfortable knowing that we’re handling that for them,” Evans said. “It’s vital that brokers can focus on their core business of customer service, moving freight and maintaining strong carrier relationships.”

Over the past year, TriumphPay has put significant effort into understanding customers’ pain points. “Many customers told us that they really needed our help on LTL, drayage and intermodal invoice auditing,” Evans said. “They consistently asked us to bring our efficiencies into these other modes of transportation. We have clients with our LTL beta live now, and we’re excited to talk about that at the upcoming TIA 2025 Conference.” 

“If you’re a broker and you have issues with LTL auditing, we’d love to talk with you at our booth during TIA and hear your input,” Evans said.

The Transportation Intermediaries Association conference will be held April 9-12, 2025, in San Antonio, Texas.

Click here to learn more about TriumphPay.