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      Pre-Bill: Billing Customers Before Carrier Invoice Approval

      Pre-Bill will have a huge impact on cash flow! This feature allows users to send documents like PODs to your TMS immediately after a load delivers — so you can start the receivables clock ticking long before the payables.

      This guide walks you through:

      • 🚀 Benefits of Pre-Bill

      • ✅ When Pre-Bill is appropriate (and when it’s not)

      • 🎥 Watch: How Pre-Bill Works

      • 🪜 How to use Pre-Bill step by step

      • 💡 Best practices

      • 🆕 Pairing with the TextLocate Integration

      • 📑 Frequently Asked Questions

      🚀 Benefits of Pre-Bill

      Traditionally, billing customers required waiting until a vendor invoice was received and approved. That delay could stretch days past delivery, which slows cash flow. Pre-Bill eliminates that dependency.

      With Pre-Bill, Navix can:
      ✅ Collect and validate PODs, BOLs, lumper receipts, rate confirmations, and other supporting documents at any time

      ✅ Validate and match those docs
      ✅ Apply Navix Business Rules to Pre-Bill Orders — ensuring you only release an order if all billing requirements are met

      ✅ Send those documents to your TMS
      ✅ Trigger your TMS to generate the customer invoice, before receiving the vendor invoice

      This workflow will greatly reduce Days-to-Invoice (DTI) and improve cash flow without disrupting your vendor audit/pay process. Any documents sent to the TMS wait for the vendor invoice and AP audit to occur in Navix.

      ✅ When to Use Pre-Bill

      Pre-Bill is ideal when:

      • You have clean freight with few billing variances (ask us how you can identify these using our Reports)

      • Rebills or balance-due disputes are not a major concern with this customer

      • You want to reduce DTI and speed up cash flow (everyone's hand should be raised)

      • You need to dispute an invoice with the carrier/vendor, but have all requirements met to bill the customer

      ⚠️ When Not to Use Pre-Bill

      Here are cases where Pre-Bill should not be used:

      Scenario Use Pre-Bill?
      Customer requires vendor invoice copy to process payment ❌ No
      You frequently have rebills/variances with this customer ❌ No
      Customer scores you on balance dues and rebills ❌ No
      Order has unresolved exceptions or missing docs ❌ No
      Order is complex/multi-vendor ❌ No

      🎥 Watch: How Pre-Bill Works

      👉 Click to watch the video in another tab

      Navix TechClips - PreBill

      🪜 Follow-Along Instructions

      Order Approval (Pre-Bill)

      Here’s how to use Pre-Bill in Navix:

      1. Go to Customer Billing in Navix.

        1. This tab shows Orders that have Documents matched to them

      2. Select an Order 

      3. Resolve any exceptions(if applicable) or upload additional documents as needed.

      4. Once requirements are met, mark the order Approved

      5. Navix automatically sends the Order + Documents to your TMS, marking the load ready to bill

        *Best Practice: your TMS should generate and send the customer invoice at this time

      That’s it — your customer invoice is sent, often minutes after delivery.

      Individual Document Approval

      Do you need your docs, but aren't ready to bill the customer yet? For example, do you have a Shipper that requires Proof of Delivery within 24 hours?

      1. Go to the Documents tab in the Customer Billing screen
      2. Find the document you want to send to your TMS
      3. Click the "Approve" icon to the far right
      4. Navix sends this document to your TMS but does NOT bill the customer
        1. NOTE: When you are ready to approve the Order or Invoice, Navix will only send unapproved documents. Navix won't send the same document twice.

      💡 Best Practices

      • Trust your Business Rules. Use exceptions and work instructions to ensure all customer-specific requirements are met before Order approval.

      • Automate with TextLocate. Let drivers submit PODs at delivery and bill customers the same day.

      • Remember: Vendor invoice auditing remains unchanged. Pre-Bill only accelerates the customer billing side. You may need to re-evaluate and reduce your Invoice rules.

      🆕 Pairing with the TextLocate Integration

      Navix also integrates directly with TextLocate to streamline Pre-Bill:

      • Drivers can upload PODs via TextLocate right after delivery

      • Navix’s IDP automatically validates the POD (checking it’s complete, legible, and truly a POD)

      • If the order passes your Pre-Bill Business Rules, Navix sends the docs directly to your TMS for customer invoicing

      This makes it possible to bill your customer the same day — within minutes of delivery.  For more information on the TextLocate integration, follow this link.

      📑 Frequently Asked Questions

      Will this lead to Duplicate Documents?

      Navix will flag previously approved documents to ensure the same file isn't sent to the TMS twice.  However, it’s common for the same document to arrive more than once in the lifecycle of an order. For example:

      • A driver may send a photo of the signed BOL immediately after delivery via TextLocate

      • Days later, the carrier’s invoice may include a cleaner, scanned image of the same BOL

      Navix will not remove or overwrite the new version. Both copies remain attached to the order so you have the full document history.  This could lead to a 'duplicate document' as the files are unique.

      What happens when I receive Additional Documents?

      If an Order has already been approved for Pre-Bill, any additional documents received will be added to the Order to wait for final Invoice Approval.

      Do I have to approve the Order and the Invoice now?  Aka, am I doubling my workload?

      No.  If the invoice is ready for approval, these are flagged in Navix so users can simply approve everything at once.  Approving the Order (Pre-Bill) is completely optional.  We also expect to have auto-approvals available for Orders in the coming weeks!

      What happens if we approve an Invoice before we approve the Order?

      If a user approves an invoice before the Order is approved, Navix will:

      • Approve the Order automatically

      • Remove it from the Pre-Bill queue

      • Attach any new documents from the invoice

      This avoids duplicating approval efforts and ensures your customer billing isn’t disrupted, while still maintaining a complete document trail for auditing.

      Can I approve the Invoice without approving the Order?  Aka, can I approve AP without approving AR?

      No.  Currently you can either approve both the AP and AR with an Invoice Approval -OR- approve the AR only with Pre-Bill/Order Approval.

      🙋 Need Help?

      If you’d like help enabling Pre-Bill or configuring customer-specific rules:

      👉 Next Steps: Explore Using Pre-Bill with TextLocate Integration