Billing by hand
- Rate cards in a spreadsheet, one version per person
- Fuel surcharge recalculated by hand, when there is time
- Waiting time and extras absorbed rather than billed
- Invoices at month end, then rekeyed into the accounts
Back Office
The half of the job that pays for the trucks.
Planning moves the freight. The back office is what turns it into money: rate matrices instead of a spreadsheet, a fuel surcharge that recalculates itself, extras that reach the invoice, and billing that goes out the week the work was done.
- Rates that date themselves, an April uplift entered in February
- A fuel escalator that works out its own percentage
- Posted to Xero or Sage, never rekeyed
Trusted by UK haulage operators
The problem
The rates are in a spreadsheet, and the billing waits for month end.
The rate card lives on someone’s desktop, the fuel escalator is recalculated by hand when there is time, the waiting time nobody logged is never charged, and the invoice goes out weeks after the POD came back. None of it is anyone’s fault. It is what happens when the commercial half of the operation runs outside the system doing the work.
Billing in HaulierMagic
- A live rate matrix per customer, dated and versioned
- A fuel escalator that works out its own percentage
- Extras priced on the job as the day happens
- Invoiced from approved PODs and posted to your accounts
How it works
Five stages, from the rate you quoted to the money in the bank.
Each stage is a screen your office already works in. Open any stage for the flow it follows, or the full list behind it.
Hold your rates where the work is
A rate matrix per customer, and a separate buy rate per subcontractor, both versioned so a price rise is scheduled rather than retyped.
- Versioned Expired tariffs stay read-only, so last quarter still prices as sold
- 5 rate types Per order, per run, per mile, and two custom keys
Charge for everything the day threw at you
Fuel, waiting time and the extras a day throws up, priced on the job as it happens instead of remembered at billing.
- Self-calculating Base price, current price and fuel share become the percentage
- Per customer A client fuel surcharge overrides the group rate
Get the invoice out the week the work was done
Approved proof releases the job, accounts check it, and the invoice goes out the week the work was done rather than at month end.
- 6 statuses Proforma through to invoiced, with editing closing at issue
- Checked first Nothing bills until somebody approves the batch
Post it, do not retype it
Invoices and credit notes post into Xero, Sage 50 or Sage 200, with the customer created as they go and each document showing where it got to.
- Xero, Sage 50, Sage 200 Invoices and credit notes posted, never rekeyed
- Tracked Awaiting, integrated or failed, on every document
Know which work actually paid
Sixty-plus standard reports covering the commercial, operational and compliance questions, filtered, exported, and emailed out on a schedule.
- 56 reports Filtered, exported to CSV, or emailed on a schedule
- After costs Revenue set against fuel, wages and total operating cost
Works with what you run
One accounts package, mapped once.
Invoices and credit notes cross over with the customer created or updated as they go, and each document shows whether it landed.
The outcome
Bill sooner. Bill everything. Know what earned.
A Cumbrian haulier, seventeen vehicles, measured over five months against the same period the year before. No new customers won to get there, just everything moved actually charged for.
Customer spotlight
Wannop billed £2.29m without adding an accounts clerk.
The rate card was a spreadsheet, the tickets were paper, and the billing waited for month end. Eighteen months after the rates moved into HaulierMagic, the same office is invoicing nearly three times as much.
£2.29m Invoiced through HaulierMagic in 18 months live
6,615 Customer rates held
2,593 Invoices raised
Questions
What the office asks before moving off spreadsheets.
Can it hold our rate cards the way we actually price?
Yes. A tariff is a grid: bands down the side, from pallet count, spaces, weight, volume or miles, and your own postcode zones across the top. It can price per order, per run or per mile, with multi-drop and multi-collect rates, service tiers and per-skill uplifts, and separate buy rates for subcontractors.
How do we put a rate increase through?
Rates are effective-dated. Enter the new version with its start date and it applies itself on the day, while expired versions stay read-only so last quarter still prices the way it was sold. An increase can be pushed across many tariffs in one action.
How does the fuel surcharge work?
Set a base fuel price, the current price and the proportion of your cost that is fuel, and the surcharge works out its own percentage from the movement. You can enter a percentage or a flat rate instead, and different customers can sit on different surcharge groups.
Does it post into Xero or Sage?
Yes. Invoices and credit notes post into Xero, Sage 50 and Sage 200, creating or updating the customer as they go, with your nominal codes and VAT types mapped so lines land on the right accounts. Each document shows whether it is awaiting, integrated or failed.
Can we invoice our subcontractors from it too?
Yes. Subcontracted legs are listed ready to pay, grouped by haulier, with the agreed rate editable before you raise it. Because buy rates and sell rates run through the same engine, you can see what a job earned after the cost of subbing it out.
What happens when an invoice is wrong?
You raise a credit note, approve it and apply it against the invoice. It posts to your accounts package alongside invoices, so the correction is on the record rather than made by editing a document that has already gone out.
Do we get reporting without a separate BI tool?
Yes. More than sixty standard reports cover operations, commercial, subcontracting, fleet, HR and audit, each filtered and exported to CSV. The ones you read every morning can be set to email out on a schedule.
Explore the product
The back office is one part of the platform.
Take the next step
Bring a week of your own billing.
Book a demo and we will price a real week from your operation, put the extras on it, and post the invoice into a test accounts company so you can see what the office would actually do.
- No sales pitch
- 30 minutes
- We will price a real week of your work
Thank you
Your request has been received.