More than 8,500 users use DA-Desk to process their DAs
Our aim is to help you save money, improve efficiencies, enhance compliance and provide transparency on your disbursement accounts.
Our customers
350+
Customers
200,000
Port calls per year
$12bn
Payments made per year
373
Global team members
2001
Established
Customer comments
We regularly survey our DA-Desk customers – here are a few of their comments.
(It’s conducted on the basis of anonymity.)
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.
What is DA-Desk and how do we work?
We provide one simple platform to automate all of your disbursement accounts and payments.
The process is straightforward with only three touchpoints needed from you:
- Touch 1 – Appoint the agent that you want whether that be your own preferred one or using our directory of over 8,000 agents.
- Touch 2 – Approve the PDA
- Touch 3 – Approve the FDA
Find out more about our port disbursement account platform by either contacting one of our specialists or read our comprehensive guide on the DA-Desk process.
DA-Desk enables you to automate and streamline due diligence, mitigate the risk of fraud and provide evidence of regulatory compliance
Every port call is screened, including every appointment, every proforma disbursement account (PDA), and every final disbursement account (FDA).
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.
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 |
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FDA checks – value of credit notes |
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Supplier discounts |
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Payments savings - FX |
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Payments savings – Transaction/fees/bank charges |
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$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.
Would you like to watch the DA-Desk demo video right now?
It’s a full 19 minute run through of our demo system!
Watch a video tour, run by Emma Wilson and Nick Pinkney, of all the features of DA-Desk, including:
- Agent appointment
- PDA and FDA approval
- The screening, validation and checking of PDAs and FDAs
- Reporting
- The enhanced compliance checks built into payments
- Managed vessel tracking and Port Document Management System
It’s a full 19 minute run through of our demo system!
Seamless integration to all major VMSs and custom systems
Customer stories
Walter from Seatrade: “We moved from piles of paper to DA-Desk”
Mark from Eagle Bulk: “We know Marcura is a market leader in technology and in the processing of Disbursement Accounts”
Benefits of our disbursement account platform
The four foundations of DA-Desk are risk reduction, smart operations, reduced costs and VMS integration and these are just a few of the many benefits that our system offers.
Smart operations
Remove the need for paperwork and lengthy operational tasks by elevating your operational efficiency.
Our system removes the need for manual processes such as managing payments, validating both PDAs and FDAs and compliance checks.
VMS integration
Our DA-Desk integration system (DIS) supports a high-quality data integration between both VMS and DA-Desk.
DA-Desk integrates seamlessly into all major VMSs.
Risk reduction
Maritime compliance is at the heart of everything we do as we understand how complex and potentially costly this can be.
DA-Desk helps to mitigate your financial, legal, transactional, regulatory and operational risks.
Reduced costs
Our dedicated team is here to help you create a more streamlined, cost-efficient process.
On average we’ve helped our customers save $700 per port call*.
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.
Dionysis Tzelepis, Managing Director of DA-Desk, reflects after achieving 2 million port calls in DA-Desk
