A big benefit of using DA-Desk is how we run a series of checks on 100% of your PDAs and FDAs.
We spend a lot of effort screening, checking and validating your disbursement accounts – so you don’t have to.
This smart screening is achieved using a combination of technology and people expertise, including:
Our smart screening does the tedious – but vital – job of checking all your PDA and FDAs for errors, issues and cost-saving opportunities.
It is a digitalised process, combining IT tools, automation and human experts.
We do all these checks quickly, so there is a fast turnaround of DAs.
After checks, screening and validation, all errors and issues are picked up by our team at DA-Desk, and we investigate and take them up directly with your agent to resolve.
As a result of all this, you save money.
We have been doing this for many years, so we have become pretty good at this process now.
The checks are continually evolving and improving thanks to ongoing, regular feedback from our customers (and by doing root cause analysis on each error aiming to implement preventative measures).
What types of smart screening do you do on our disbursement accounts?
Checking over 1,800 rules
Does this make a difference?
We find issues in many FDAs and PDAs, and we investigate them all for you.
Many of these initial flags are then found to be valid, with justification given.
However, reductions/savings are secured in 4% of FDAs and 11% of PDAs.
All DA-Desk customers - 2021 | |
Total value of credit notes issued for FDAs |
$14,880,682 |
Number of FDAs where a credit note was issued |
4% |
Total value of PDA reductions |
$101,122,592 |
Number of PDAs where a reduction was secured |
11% |
Our processes check 100% of them.
We screen, check and validate costs and documents associated with 1,400 DAs on average every day.
We find frequent calculation errors that must be corrected and where our customers own agreements have not been applied. Also, cost item misallocation requires correcting to ensure that all owners and charterers costs are correctly billed.
Any applicable rebates and discounts are highlighted to ensure they are applied within the PDA and the FDA.
Lastly, no cost will be accepted as per general accounting practice where it is not supported by the supplier’s invoice.
Here is where we find frequent issues and errors for our customers, with the most common first:
PDAs – Savings category
FDAs – Savings category
Do you find any significant savings?
As you would expect, savings range significantly in size.
However, we treat each one the same, in order the most accurate and correct PDA and FDA is presented to the customer.
Some recent PDA examples are where an agent quoted stevedore charges and the customer had direct billing contracts for stevedoring. Upon query, the agent agreed to exclude the quoted amount of USD 172,425.
Another example is where tonnage charges (basis flag of the vessel, NRT slab and number of days) and DAVE flagged the customer had already paid tonnage dues and opted for 30 days, therefore not chargeable. DA-Desk queried the agent and obtained a reduction in the PDA of USD 58,560.
In the FDA, savings come in the form of actual credit notes where errors are found. A recent example of this is when the Port Authority calculated tonnage dues using an incorrect gross tonnage. DA-Desk identified the discrepancy and obtained a credit note equivalent to USD 17,000.
We detected a similar incident where the port authority calculated the light dues basis vessel’s gross tonnage instead of net tonnage. A Credit note for USD 17,000 was raised for the excess amount charged due to the incorrect basis of calculation.
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