AI is the ultimate solution for processing trade documents. Here’s why.

The shipping and logistics industries process an enormous amount of paperwork. As companies embrace digital transformation, digitizing paperwork becomes crucial. Data entry is incredibly time-consuming and highly susceptible to human errors that result in mistakes, lost revenue, financial penalties, shipment delays, and lawsuits, amongst many other possible negative consequences.  

At times, no matter how careful your employees are or how many times you review your paperwork, a mistake slips through, and your business could be penalized. Additionally, globalization, the rising cost of local labor, and the relatively low skill requirements for data entry often leads to firms outsourcing this work, further increasing the likelihood of costly mistakes. 

But errors aren’t the only issue with manually entering data. Professionals spend the bulk of their time filling out these necessary documents, which decreases productivity and reduces profits and even morale. 

With Mely.ai’s AI-powered cloud solution, data is intelligently extracted and processed from documents in seconds.

This efficiency increases document creation and processing by no longer relying on manual data entry. This will liberate the shipper’s time, instead allowing them to focus on business matters that add more value. Our document processing software powered by artificial intelligence overall increases productivity while reducing costs and errors. 

How does Mely.ai help your business? 

To better understand the benefits of Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), it’s essential to be aware of the challenges of the four primary freight documents that businesses may face. 

Bill of lading 

The Bill of Lading (BOL) is a legally binding agreement between the shipper and the transportation provider. The Shipper’s Letter of Instruction is created by the shipper for the carrier. In contrast, the BOL is issued by the carrier to the shipper. 

What information is typically required for a Bill of Lading? It requires the piece count, weight, description of the goods, and addresses. 

Much of the information in a Bill of Lading is the same in many freight documents. If there are mistakes in the BOL, then the inaccuracies will carry over in all documentation, causing many penalties, such as loss of cargo ownership. Given the number of documents your business processes, Mely.ai offers access to all your data across multiple departments for better business intelligence. 

Commercial invoice 

A Commercial Invoice is a vital freight document, allowing the shipment to pass through customs. It is the proof of sale between the seller and purchaser and determines the amount of duty and taxes due. 

The difficulty with filling out this type of document is that there is no standardized format, and it requires almost up to twelve points of information, varying from addresses to tax information. 

With this large amount of information, it’s easy to miss an important point. An error in the Commercial Invoice could potentially lead to under or overpaying duties and taxes and delays in shipment.  

Fortunately, Mely.ai holds no restrictions for templates and formats. The information is automatically structured for your business and then communicated to your systems and partners.  

Certificate of Origin 

The Certificate of Origin is an important international shipping document depending on the destination. It details and certifies the country of origin where the goods were manufactured or processed. 

What information is typically required for a Certificate of Origin? It requires the name and contact information for the exporter, producer, and receiver (if all different), a clear description of goods, HS code, the quantity and weight, the country of origin, the air waybill number, the means of transport, and the commercial invoice number. 

 This freight document requires precise information. With Mely.ai, you no longer need to rely on manual data entry. Plus, you can turn all your documents into retrievable business-ready data to make the best decision for your company. 

Carrier Manifest 

The Carrier Manifest, also known as the Shipping Manifest, is a crucial transport document for any international e-commerce that makes or receives shipments. It requires detailed information that the carrier needs to create an invoice for the shipment. This type of manifest aids in tracking shipment and knowing the delivery method used. 

What information is typically required for a Carrier Manifest? It requires the operator’s name and details, the shipper’s and receiver’s information, the Bill of Lading number, a clear description of goods, quantity, and weight. And the means of transport and its route. 

 Businesses use multiple freight documents with carried-over information, which is timely and risky. Thankfully, technology has evolved enough to help companies process these documents while saving time and money and avoiding mistakes. Intelligent Document Processing pulls data from other documents, such as the Bill of Lading, and correctly applies its number to the Carrier Manifest. 

The additional benefits of Mely.ai 

Mely.ai’s state-of-the-art Intelligent Document Processing platform uses machine learning and natural language processing. Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) technology extracts lengthy commercial invoices quickly and accurately, page after page. The extracted data will be structured for you to use in our platform or to send to your current Customs Management System (CMS) for final touches before submitting to CBP/CBSA for processing Customs Clearance. 

We created the platform with the seller and buyer in mind, tailoring it to adhere to any document their business requires. There are three applications for this platform: 

• Transportation: This area requires an enormous amount of paperwork. Mely.ai can help streamline all the necessary documentation. 

• Compliance: The government holds specific industries to a higher standard, like the food industry. If there is ever a health crisis, proper shipment documentation will be necessary for traceability throughout the supply chain & logistics process. 

• Customs: Experienced customs clearance professionals spend more than half of their time manually processing documents. 

The platform’s data validation and enrichment capabilities allow businesses to be confident that the information being inputted is accurate, ultimately reducing the number of steps in their workflows. 

Getting started with Mely.ai is fast and straightforward.  

Book a demo today to see how our platform can help.  

Our team understands the requirements in the consultation process. It supports the project in all phases, including business analysis, planning, proof of concepts, business rules, solution architecture, and deployment. Once implemented, our solution extracts data from documents automatically, validates data, merges with other data sources, and provides final results for you to use as business intelligence.