Logistics operator recovers 1.8 FTE from manual invoice disputes
A DFW logistics company was burning two full-time employees on manual invoice disputes. The Snapshot found ten times its own fee in the first week.
The challenge
High volume of manual invoice disputes consuming 2+ FTE and creating cash-flow delays.
Where the money was going
The dispute queue was invisible in the P&L. Invoices that did not match the rate agreement were routed to a shared mailbox, worked by whoever had capacity, and resolved by hand across three systems that did not talk to each other. Nobody owned the queue, so nobody could say what it cost.
Value Stream Mapping put a number on it inside the first week: two full-time employees of effort, and an average of eight days added to the cash conversion cycle on every disputed invoice.
What we changed
Three things, in order of return:
- Classification before automation. Roughly 60% of disputes came from four recurring causes. Those four were solved with rules, not machine learning.
- Straight-through matching. The remaining exceptions were routed to a single owner with the source data already assembled, cutting handling time rather than eliminating the step.
- Measurement. A weekly figure for queue volume, ageing, and cost per dispute — so the recovered capacity stayed recovered.
The result
$420K in annual savings identified and captured, 1.8 FTE of capacity returned to the business within 11 weeks, and a dispute queue that now reports its own cost every week.
The engagement started as a $4,500 Process Health Snapshot.