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Invoice for trucking for corporations

hi guys welcome back to my channel today i want to talk about invoicing and receiving payments from brokers and shippers now this video was requested by several people so thank you guys for the idea i remember when i was starting out in this industry i had no idea how to invoice a broker receive payments or check a broker's credit score so hopefully this video will answer all of those questions ready let's go so before we get into the invoicing part of this video i want to talk about broker credit scores because this can make or break your business before you actually agree to a load it is important that you know what that particular broker's credit score is and what their days to pay is some trucking companies fall into this trap i just found a loan that pays 3 for 270 miles yes please the load gets delivered and after 30 days then 40 days go by are you serious then 60 days [Music] and you keep waiting and waiting for that check to come through and it never does now the good news is you can avoid this whole mess if you simply pay attention to the brokers you're working with most load boards today offer a paid service which allows you to see a broker's credit score and their days to pay so that you can make an informed decision about who to work with and who to avoid at all costs let's take a look at my load board okay so right here you will see a column titled cs which stands for credit score and then right next to it it's dtp which stands for days to pay but what do all of these numbers actually mean so think of a credit score number in this column right here as a grade in school the higher the number the better the credit score a credit score from 90 to 100 means the broker gets an a and that means that the broker is really good at paying for the transported loads a credit score of 80 to 89 which i'm going to find right here here we have an 85 right here this means that this broker is somewhat reliable for the most part at least but not as reliable as the broker with a 90 or above credit score now anything below an 80 is sketchy in my opinion so i would not recommend using brokers who have a credit score of 80 or less so if c plus or b minus is unacceptable to you i feel bad for your kids unlike the credit score the lower the days to pay is the better and just like the name suggests right here this number represents the average days it takes for the broker to pay a load once invoiced anything below 30 is great like this guy right here is awesome great credit score great days to pay between 30 and 40 days to pay is acceptable if you're willing to wait for your payment and as long as the credit score is good over 40 days is unacceptable at least for me now a word of warning before we move on currently as of january 5th 2022 i am dealing with 22 000 in late payments from brokers now the funny thing is i know for a fact that these brokers have a good credit score and a good days to pay sometimes even the best brokers will lose invoices overlook loads that are ready to be paid and so on and so forth i always say that where there are people involved mistakes are bound to happen it's just human nature so it is super important that you keep track of your invoices and their due dates so that when you see that an invoice has not been paid and is already overdue you can reach out to the broker and remind them about yourself and the fact that you haven't been paid yet the funny thing is it will happen more often than you think especially during the holidays okay moving on another super important thing that you will want to do is check the history of a broker's days to pay and their credit score and to show you this i'm going to be using the board okay so here we are at the board if you don't know what this is you're not alone so i will explain so these are the kind of graphs that you can see on d80 power for example if you click on a broker you will see their history of payment and how long it takes them to pay so what do we have here we have four graphs each one has the months january february march april may june july august and so on and then we have 10 20 30 40 50 60 to 100. now in the blue the blue lines are the credit scores and the red lines are the days to pay so let's look at the first broker right here so what can we see this broker has 30 days to pay and it has been consistent since january through november it's always 30 days and this broker has a pretty consistent credit score of 95 throughout the year so what does this kind of chart tell you if you see a broker with this kind of history it means the broker is stable see their days to pay doesn't change throughout the year their credit score doesn't change throughout the year so this is a reliable broker who is very likely to actually pay you after you deliver the load so this broker right here started out with a 100 credit score until about june so in june all of a sudden that credit score has been going down now in terms of days to pay same thing it was 30 days to pay until about july and then the days to pay started increasing so looking at this trajectory i would not be working with this broker because it looks like their credit score keeps going down while there are days to pay my marker is not working again keeps going up so i don't really have a guarantee that this broker will pay me it seems like this guy is in financial trouble it's taking him longer to pay and his credit score is going down so i would not use this guy so just to let's do it like this this guy yes this guy no so now let's look at this guy so as you can see the credit score was at zero until june and he didn't really have any days to pay zero days to pay so what in the world does this mean well this is a typical chart of a newer broker who just got into the market so until june he didn't have a credit score to report and that is why it's at zero there was just not enough data on this guy but since june you can see his credit score went up because the data started being reported and he has maintained a 100 credit score and well let's say 28 days to pay so i would definitely work with this guy he might be new but he knows what he's doing and he's doing pretty well finally let's look at this broker right here so as you can see from january until april the days to pay was 30 and the credit score was pretty much a hundred but from april until about let's say september the days to pay started going up and the credit score started going down so basically his credit he wasn't paying the carriers as often and he was taking longer to pay so this tells me that during this period from april to august this guy was in some sort of financial trouble but then since september through november his credit score went back up and his days to pay went down which means now he is paying his carriers like he's supposed to and he's not taking too much time to actually pay them now the question is would i work with this guy and the answer is a big no as i was saying the answer is a big no and i promise it's not because i'm one of those crazy people who doesn't allow others to make mistakes no not at all i understand that things happen however for me personally this broker has been doing well only for the past three months and that is just not enough time for me to be able to decide whether i trust this broker to pay me what if tomorrow he again goes up and days to pay and his credit score goes down and i end up booking a load somewhere right here and then i don't get paid if i don't know this broker this is something i should have mentioned if i have never worked with this broker before and this is what their chart looks like and it has only improved in the last two to three months i would not book a load through them now let's talk about the topic of invoicing which is actually much simpler than it sounds when you book a load you will receive a rate confirmation showing all the load details now usually at the bottom or towards the bottom of the rate confirmation you will see an email and next to that email it will say that this is the email you have to use to invoice the broker now something important to note in order to actually invoice the broker and get paid you will need several documents number one your invoice now i use quickbooks to create my invoices but you can also use a regular template that you download from the internet and just keep filling it out for each load you do now there are several important things to include on your invoice number one your invoice number which will help you track your invoices in the future then of course there is the invoice date which shows when you are sending this invoice then super super important you have to have your load number somewhere on your invoice and that load number has to match the load number on the rate confirmation usually in the top right corner finally you will need the amount due and the due date of the invoice now i'm sure some of you have the question of how will a broker know where to actually pay me the thing is when you're getting set up with a broker they will usually ask you to fill out your remittance address for paper checks or your bank information for direct deposits sometimes you get to choose whether you want a paper check or you want a direct deposit that being said you can always include a remit to address on your invoice just to be safe the next document you will need in order to invoice the broker is the rate confirmation now the rate confirmation if you don't know it serves as a contract for that particular load that you just transported and it will have all the information that relates to that load finally and the most important document you need to have is a bill of lading or a proof of delivery showing that you actually delivered this load to a receiver now there are times when you book a load and there are other expenses associated with that load for example for reefers it is very common for a broker to ask for a trailer washout specifically for the load that you just booked which means the broker now has to pay for that washout as long as you have a receipt you will get reimbursed a more common occurrence is lumper fees when you come to deliver a load sometimes the receiver asks you to pay out of pocket for your trailer to get unloaded is it strange yes in my opinion it's insane illogical and it doesn't make sense in any universe but it is what it is so as long as you have a receipt that you paid for that lumper fee you will get reimbursed by the broker so make sure to include any receipts related to the load with all that paperwork and make sure to include those amounts also in your invoice so basically just to recap step one deliver the load step two get your documents together step three find that email on the raid confirmation where you're supposed to send your paperwork step four attach all those documents to the email step five put your load number in the subject line step six click send easy peasy now the big question what happens if the broker you worked with fails to pay you do you just choke on the losses and cry bitter tears the answer is no no one needs to cry let's say broker x fails to pay you you decide to call him and you hear oh yeah you're gonna get your money in the way don't worry a week goes by no payment you try emailing no response what in the world are you supposed to do well here's a trick for you if the broker hasn't paid you and it's been already one or two weeks past the due date and the broker doesn't respond to any communication write them another email and include this sentence unfortunately i will have to file on your bond if i do not receive payment for this load thank you so much for your understanding by law every broker has to have a 75 000 surety bond in order to be able to obtain an mc number to operate as a broker which means what a bond acts as insurance for the carrier against non-payment from the broker so if a broker doesn't pay you and doesn't give you any valid excuse as to why you have every right to call their bond company and file a claim now sometimes if a broker is extra sketchy you will call the bond company and you will hear oh no we are so sorry but there is actually no money left on this bond which basically means that so many carriers have already filed against that 75 000 bond and received their payment for the loads they did that there is just not enough money left to pay you can we choke on our losses and cry now uh no your next step would be to call the shipper on that load and try to collect from them since they are the ones who is actually paying the broker now realistically this doesn't always work so your last step would be to involve a collection agency like afs freight collections and they will collect on your behalf now you have to remember usually it will not come to that as long as you're doing your homework on the broker and checking those credit scores and days to pay now in a future video i will talk about what to do in case a broker underpays you which unfortunately happens a lot in this industry so i hope you guys enjoyed this video and hopefully this information will help you get your hard-earned money from the broker's pocket into your pocket i'll see you guys in the next video