Overview

How much revenue is trapped in your billing process right now?

Most harbor towage operators know their revenue per job. But ask them "How long does it take to get paid after the trip ends?" and you'll get vague answers. Ask "Which customers take 3x longer to approve invoices?" or "How much time are your billing clerks spending manually fixing invoices?" and you'll get blank stares.

That's money walking out the door.

The Billing Dashboard makes the invisible visible. It transforms your billing process from a black box into a transparent, measurable, optimizable system. Within seconds of opening this dashboard, executives can see:

• Cash flow bottlenecks → That $4M in outstanding invoices? 60% of it is stuck in approval at just 3 customers

• Contract analysis & gaps → Your team added 847 manual line items last month to the same 5 contracts (that shouldn't be manual)

• Division performance disparities → Vancouver invoices in 5 days; Houston takes 14 days doing the exact same work

• Pricing discipline breakdowns → One division is giving out 15% discounts while others average 8% — leaving $200K+ on the table annually

This isn't a reporting tool. It's a profit recovery system.

Companies that actively manage their billing cycle using this dashboard typically see:

• 20-40% reduction in days to invoice (faster cash conversion)

• 30-50% reduction in manual billing work (reallocate staff to higher-value work)

• 5-10% improvement in margin through better discount control and pricing consistency

The dashboard pays for itself in the first quarter — and that's a conservative estimate.

Key Features

1. Invoice Cycle Timeline (The Main Visual)

The centerpiece of this dashboard is a timeline breakdown showing the average number of days spent in each stage of your billing process:

Standard billing stages:

• Avg Trip Duration: How long the job itself takes (trip start to trip end)

• Avg Days to Calculate: Time between trip end and clicking "Calculate Draft"

• Avg Days to Approve: Time between draft creation and invoice approval

• Avg Days to Invoice: Time between approval and sending the final invoice

• Avg Days to Payment (if configured): Time between invoice and payment received*

*Requires a custom "Payment Date" field to be configured and synced via integration

This gives you an end-to-end view of your billing velocity. If your company average shows 8 days to approve but one division takes 15 days, you've immediately identified a training or staffing issue.

Break By:

• Division: Compare how quickly different regional teams process invoices

• Customer: Identify which customers cause delays (or pay fastest)

• Contract: See if specific contract types slow down approval

• Area: Understand if geographic factors affect billing speed

Select Specific Stages: You can also isolate specific parts of the cycle. For example, filter to show only "Days to Approve" across customers to see who's causing approval bottlenecks.

Example Use Case: You select:

• Break By: Customer

• Stage: Days to Approve

Result: You see Grimaldi takes an average of 8 days to approve invoices while other customers average 3-4 days. This tells you Grimaldi's internal approval process is slower — you can now address this directly with them or adjust your workflow.

3. Manual Transaction Analysis

One of the most valuable insights for billing efficiency is tracking how often you're manually adjusting invoices:

Manual Transaction Lines

Shows how many times users are going into an invoice and adding manual line items after the draft is generated.

Why this matters: If you're constantly adding the same type of charge to the same customer or contract, it means your contract configuration is incomplete. The billing should be automatic.

Example: You notice you're adding "waiting time" charges manually to every Grimaldi invoice. This indicates your Grimaldi contract should include an automatic waiting time calculation rule.

Manual Transactions

Tracks entirely manual invoices (not generated from jobs). High volumes here indicate processes that should be automated or better integrated into Helm.

4. Discount Analysis

The dashboard shows where discounts are being applied across your billing:

• Which customers are receiving the most discounts

• Which divisions are giving out the most discounts

• How much in total discounts are being applied

• Trends over time — are discounts increasing or decreasing?

Use Case: You discover one division is applying 15% more discounts than others. This could indicate:

• Different pricing authority levels

• Different customer mix (more contract customers vs. spot)

• Inconsistent pricing discipline that needs management attention

5. Reversal Tracking

Track cancelled or reversed jobs:

• Number of reversals: How many jobs get cancelled after creation

• Reversal amounts: Total revenue lost to cancellations

• Reversal reasons (coming in release 1.35): Why jobs are being reversed

Why this matters: High reversal rates indicate operational problems — jobs being entered incorrectly, pricing disputes, or service issues. If one customer has a 10% reversal rate while others have 2%, that's a relationship problem worth investigating.

Common Use Cases

Use Case 1: Identify Billing Bottlenecks

Goal: Find out why invoices are taking 15 days to finalize when company target is 7 days

Steps:

1. Review the timeline to see which stage takes longest (e.g., "Days to Approve" is 8 days)

2. Set Break By: Division

3. Set Stage: Days to Approve

4. Review the breakdown chart

Result: You discover the Houston division averages 12 days to approve while Vancouver averages 3 days. You can now investigate Houston's approval workflow — perhaps they're short-staffed, or certain approvers are slow to respond.

Use Case 2: Contract Configuration Audit

Goal: Reduce manual work by improving contract automation

Steps:

1. Navigate to Manual Transaction Lines section

2. Sort by Customer and Count

3. Identify customers with high manual line counts

4. Review the specific line items being added

Result: You find that 40% of manual lines are "waiting time charges" for container vessel customers. You realize these customers should have waiting time rules configured in their contracts. After updating contracts, manual work drops 40%.

Use Case 3: Customer Pricing Review

Goal: Prepare for contract renewal negotiation with a major customer

Steps:

1. Filter dashboard to single customer (e.g., Grimaldi)

2. Review discount analysis for this customer

3. Review days to payment (if configured)

4. Review reversal rate

Result: You discover Grimaldi receives 12% average discounts (vs 8% company average), takes 8 days to approve invoices (vs 4 day average), and has a 6% reversal rate (vs 2% average). This data informs your renewal negotiation — you can justify pricing adjustments based on the extra administrative burden they create.

Use Case 4: Payment Collection Strategy

Goal: Improve cash flow by identifying slow-paying customers

Steps:

1. Ensure "Payment Date" field is configured

2. Set Break By: Customer

3. Set Stage: Days to Payment

4. Sort by highest days

Result: You identify that 3 customers consistently take 45+ days to pay while most pay within 30 days. You can now implement payment terms enforcement or require deposits for these customers.

Use Case 5: Division Performance Benchmarking

Goal: Understand which divisions have the most efficient billing processes

Steps:

1. Set Break By: Division

2. Review all stages of the timeline

3. Compare total cycle time across divisions

Result: You discover the Vancouver division has a 5-day average invoice cycle while Houston has 14 days. You investigate what Vancouver is doing differently — perhaps they have dedicated billing staff or better software training — and replicate those practices in Houston.