Phase 5 — Cash Application & Reconciliation

This phase covers everything from payment receipt through reconciliation — matching dollars to loads, investigating short-pays, identifying and resolving chargebacks, and reconciling HaulPay’s reserve movements monthly. Phase 5 begins when money arrives at Forza (or at HaulPay on Forza’s behalf) and ends when every dollar is reconciled against its source load.

Total steps: 6 (Steps 5.1–5.5 including 5.1a) Primary owner: Concetta (Accounting) for all steps

flowchart TD
    A([Phase 4 Complete:\nInvoice Submitted to HaulPay]) --> B{Path A/Factored\nor Path B?}
    B -- Path A / Factored --> C[5.1 HaulPay Remittance Receipt\nEmail + portal + ACH to Fifth Third]
    B -- Path B --> D[5.1a Shipper Direct Payment Receipt\nACH/wire/check to Fifth Third]
    C --> E[5.2 Payment Matching\nSame-day standard\nSuspense tracking]
    D --> E
    E --> F{Full pay\nor Short-pay?}
    F -- Short-pay --> G[5.3 Short-Pay Investigation\n8 causes + resolution paths\n14-day escalation SLA]
    G --> H{Recovered?}
    H -- No --> I[Write-Off\nNick approval required]
    H -- Yes --> J
    F -- Full pay --> J[Load Closed in QBO]
    J --> K([✅ Phase 6 Begins:\nCarrier Payment])
    L[Weekly: 5.4 Chargeback Review\nHaulPay portal — NO auto-notification\nSingle highest-value control] --> M{Chargeback found?}
    M -- Yes --> N[Triage + Action Path\n6 reason categories]
    N --> O{Material?}
    O -- Yes --> P[Escalate to Nick]
    O -- No --> Q[Resolve per category]
    R[Monthly: 5.5 Reserve Reconciliation\n7-step workflow\nCBCG Report compensating control] --> S{Discrepancy?}
    S -- Yes --> T[Flag + Investigate\n3 discrepancy types]
    S -- No --> U[Record in QBO\nClose month]

Steps

Key Flags

🛑 Critical Blockers

• Concetta’s Fifth-Third-Bank permissions are read-only — blocks same-day payment matching. Nick must update permissions before go-live.
• HaulPay factoring agreement not obtained — blocks reserve reconciliation and aging-window-based chargeback proactivity. Contract terms (reserve %, aging window) required.
• Tracking mechanisms not built — remittance tracker, suspense tracker, short-pay tracker, chargeback tracker all need to be created.

⚠️ Open Questions

• What is the HaulPay factoring reserve percentage? (Step 5.5 blocker)
• What is the HaulPay recourse aging window for Tier 2 invoices? (Step 5.4 proactive-chase blocker)
• What is the collections agency relationship status? (Concetta to confirm)
• Is QBO automated payment reminder configured for Path B Shippers?

🔲 Nick Decisions Required

• Material-short-pay threshold for James / Nick escalation (Step 5.3)
• Write-off protocol approval mechanics (Step 5.3)
• Material-chargeback threshold for Nick escalation (Step 5.4)
• Reserve discrepancy escalation threshold (Step 5.5)
• Update Concetta’s Fifth-Third-Bank permissions from read-only (Step 5.1, 5.1a, 7.1)

🔗 CBCG Report Connection

• Step 5.4 (weekly chargeback review) = direct remediation of undocumented chargeback accumulation
• Step 5.5 (monthly reserve reconciliation) = direct remediation of opaque reserve movements
• Historical reserve reconciliation (Step 5.5 Gap Closure 7) = one-time catch-up on period since last CBCG analysis

Previous phase: Phase 4 — Invoicing & Factoring Next phase: Phase 6 — Carrier Payment Processing