Vector.ai (Vector), the productivity platform for freight forwarders, today announced the introduction of payment integrations; an industry-first, furthering freight forwarders’ ability to automate their operations and free up their human workforce. These integrations bring together Vector’s AI workflows, financial payments, automated accrual reconciliation and sleek workflow interface to empower freight forwarders with an ability to pay the creditors much faster, reducing goods clearing times.

Vector customers will have a live view of which payments need to be made and will be able to simply press a button to clear them all from the Vector application, automating every step of the payment process. Users will be able to select which financing solution is right for their circumstances or set up custom rules from a variety of financial partners to automate much of the decision-making. When it comes to paying back financiers, these accruals will be reconciled against the original invoice, maintaining a holistic view of payments at all times and providing a deeper visibility into a forwarder’s financial health as well as actionable insights applicable to future bookings.

“Having ‘robots’ pay the bills is a concept that has been adopted on a personal level, but in the business world it’s something that we have largely shied away from,” said James Coombes, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vector.ai. “Through these integrations, we are bringing a sophisticated and well-rounded AI finance tool that will not only allow forwarders to lessen the burden on their physical labor and provide actionable data into freight spends, but also automate payments.”

Customers will have access to an advanced ecosystem of payment partners that can be configured at the creditor level, enabling the user to simply click the ‘pay’ button. Automatic reconciliation will transfer accruals to ‘posted’ and then ‘paid’ when the user presses the ‘pay’ button. Vector’s platform will scan documents and automatically add any accruals for transaction fees into CargoWise TMS against the shipment with the correct creditor code. Users can keep track of their payments through Vector’s sleek and easy-to-use workflow interface that manages your finances via an inbox with all pending payments, payment statuses and tracking, and cash flow monitoring at a company or shipment level.  

“Insights into your finances are critical for smooth operation,” added Coombes. “In the past, our customers have struggled with an ability to pay quickly and manage their cash flow as it was impossible for them to reconcile their transactions and they were forced to repeat data entries. VectorPay eliminates time spent on data entries and speeds up the time to payment, facilitating quicker release of goods and reducing the risk of taking on unnecessary fines.”

The 360 degree payment capabilities will work seamlessly with Vector’s existing suite of financial capabilities such as AP invoice sortation, instant payments and centralized finance communication.

“Shippers require elastic freight forwarders,” concluded Coombes. “Vector’s payment integrations are another step for forwarders to become fully automated, totally digitally-transparent partners for their customers.”