Disbursement Accounts in shipping – reduce costs with the leading DA automation product

DA-Desk enables you to handle the entire port call process online, from agent appointment to balance settlement and payments.

Let us help you with your disbursement accounts today.

We work like an extension of your team to take away all that paperwork and tedious manual processes.

As an added benefit, elevate your process via our built-in rigorous compliance checks.

All of this fully integrated into your VMS.

With DA-Desk we’re redefining the future of Disbursement Accounting

An end-to-end service and digital platform to alleviate the challenges of the complicated, manual and detailed business of port calls.

Integrating directly with your existing Voyage Management System (VMS), DA-Desk can improve and elevate your DA processes with the tools and resources you need to work faster and smarter.

Using DA-Desk you can manage your entire port call from nomination to final DA online; streamlining workflows and automating lengthy manual tasks, allowing you to spend more time on the decisions that matter the most.

DA-Desk bridges the information gap with operational data to support tasks every step of the way; accurately estimate port costs, settle claims quicker and reduce errors.

Working 24/7 to find the best possible rebate and discount opportunities including favourable FX and towage rates, we help our customers make significant savings.

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Our customers

350+

Customers

200,000

Port calls per year

$10bn

Payments made per year

360

Global team members

2001

Established

Read our brochure on disbursement accounts in maritime and how we can make your life simpler

Our guide on how we’re trying to redefine the future of Disbursement Accounting.

Read:

How we reduce your DA workload – only 3 touchpoints – and see product screenshots
The 4 main benefits of using DA-Desk, including compliance risk reduction
The dozens of validation checks we do on every one of your PDAs and FDAs

Read now

Proven savings with the leading Disbursement Account management solution. Ask us for a free demo

We invest in digitisation, compliance and bank-grade security to drive you forward.

This is why we’ve built an entire digital ecosystem around you – from our specialized integration team focused on your systems, to a team of experts solely dedicated to your onboarding.

Currently, over 350 companies use DA-Desk.

We’d be happy to give you a free demo of all the features.

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Automate every step of the disbursement account process – including payments (with added compliance built-in)

From agent appointment, to PDA and FDA checking, and payments – let us do the work for you.

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Measurable average savings of $700 per port call

Outsource your Disbursement Accounting to DA-Desk; making DAs simple, transparent, compliant and cheaper.

We enable average savings of up to $700 per port call.

For a fleet of 40 vessels making 800 port calls a year, that is a total of $560,000 of savings every year.

		Platform / digitisation savings
		FDA checks – value of credit notes
		Supplier discounts
		Payments savings - FX
		Payments savings – Transaction/fees/bank charges
	$700	Total savings per port call

-> 1. Platform / digitisation savings

DA-Desk is a digital platform to manage and issue all your DAs.

Digitalisation savings result in the following ways:

Operational Benefits

Time savings for your team – free them up to work on more value add activities, and not the paperwork
All documents, DAs, payments and SOAs at your fingertips – saves time
Process efficiency gain and data quality improvement by automating data capture into IMOS and SAP, eliminating manual data entry
Benefit from benchmarking capabilities of 200,000 port calls annually
Full visibility of and access to transactional and port cost data (learning loop)
Ensuring every port call is costed accurately
Enhancing operators’ control and understanding of port cost without adding significant workload

Organisational Benefits

Ability to scale up without hiring additional resources
A web-based system that supports multiple processes
A digital process and information flow linking all departments

-> 2. FDA checks and resulting credit notes savings

We carry out a series of checks and validations on EVERY SINGLE PDA and FDA.

Using a combination of skilled experts, automation and AI.

DAVE – our Disbursement Account Validation Engine software – assists our large team of experts.

DAVE helps check that rebates are accounted for on every transaction, irrespective of the value.

DAVE uses a rule-based engine to ensure variable data relating to discounts and rebates is automatically extracted from the port call. An algorithm assisted by our master data of port regulations ensures the screener is alerted to any possible opportunity of port cost reductions on a DA.

On average we secure reductions on 11% of all PDAs and credit notes on 4% of all FDAs.

We will deal with agents directly in order to correct the overcharging.

-> 3. Supplier discounts savings

An associated product closely tied to DA-Desk is our solution called PortsDirect – where you benefit from discounts we have negotiated from port suppliers, especially towage and pilotage.

We have a team dedicated to driving the best discounts from port suppliers in over 400 ports.

The net savings are derived by deducting the PortsDirect fee from the discounted amount which we obtain for customers off the vendor’s official tariffs.

-> 4. Payments savings - Reducing your FX and bank charges

Because we make payments for our customers of $10bn a year, we have negotiated access to preferential FX and bank payment fees/charges.

The bank charge and FX savings are calculated by working out the difference between what customers were paying prior to DA-Desk versus the lower rates they pay after taking DA-Desk.

Full quantification and breakdown of the savings are shown on the financial dashboard of each of our customers.

Will I achieve a $700 saving every port call?

For us at DA-Desk, we believe there’s no such thing as an average customer.

But, just this once, to keep this analysis simple, we’re showing savings for an average vessel type.

But….

The savings figures which our customers actually get from DA-Desk vary greatly depending on a whole host of factors, including:

trading pattern
size of fleet and vessel types
number of direct agreements with suppliers
freight income (currency).

If you want a more tailored savings report based on your fleet’s characteristics, our sales team would be happy to oblige.

What we mean by “average” in this report

These are typical values of savings for customers who:

use DA-Desk and its two connected products: PortPayables (our payments solution, how we pay your DA’s) and PortsDirect (discounted rate agreements on port services, especially towage); and
who operate primarily the most common type of vessel we see on DA-Desk which is large bulk vessels and large oil and chemical vessels.

If we analyse customers with very large vessel types these savings numbers will be bigger.

If we analyse customers with mainly small vessels then these savings numbers will be smaller.

So these typical / average numbers are meant as an indication of savings.

Calculating the actual numbers

For our customers with average vessel types we obtained their savings as per their Process Value Review document (which is a report we issue and discuss with every DA-Desk customer once a year, to show them the savings they have obtained from us).

We then did a straight average of the savings to get an average saving per customer.

Our customers matter most

Disbursement Accounting Outsourcing Services

Our customers are
at the heart of
everything we do

Benefits from using DA-Desk

There are two types of benefits you get as a DA-Desk customer.

The savings are 100% visible and measurable. See below for a detailed breakdown.

Additionally, there are 7 key benefits, which are slightly more difficult to put a $ number on, but which are very valuable.

In fact, most of our customers tell us that these key benefits are more valuable to them than the fully quantifiable ones.

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Save time

Improved analytics and insights free your operators and accountants from protracted administration, giving them more time to focus on important issues.

Integration
and control

With seamless end-to-end integration with your Voyage Management System, stay up-to-date with your DAs and stay on top of cost and allocation discrepancies.

Built-in compliance

We go to great lengths to provide extra layers of compliance controls, confidentiality and information security to give you total visibility – all included as part of the solution.

Reduce
costs

You obtain competitive money transfer rates and fees which optimise cash flows, cut costs and ensure operations run smoothly.

Deep insights & compliance checks

Our scale gives you unparalleled insight into global ports, business-critical analytics and benchmarks that save costs, increase profit and improve compliance.

Industry-leading peace of mind

Our independence gives you security, and our scale enables us to invest in a Master Data Framework, so you don’t have to.

Processing over $10bn in payments annually also means we can offer you multiple currencies at highly-competitive rates, all with minimal charges.

Your dedicated,
specialist Onboarding &
Integration teams await.

Customer satisfaction rating

Data sources:

The total score is based on results from recent customer satisfaction surveys, which we conduct on a regular basis and send to all DA-Desk customers.

The other three criteria are from a Simon Kucher & Partners consultant poll conducted on our behalf in 2021.

Disbursement Accounts in shipping – reduce costs with the leading DA automation product

With DA-Desk we’re redefining the future of Disbursement Accounting

Our customers

350+