Meet DAVE, just one part of the smart checking team
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:
- DAVE – our proprietary DA Validation Engine – checks 1,800 rules, including applicable discounts and rebates
- A further automated rule-based tool which checks for potential errors using predefined scenarios
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to validate and screen all invoices
- Smart logic which checks for unusual costs, invoice duplication, and historical cost variations
- Our specialist screening teams in DA-Desk who do multiple manual checks.
In really simple terms, describe DA-Desk smart screening
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?
Screening, validating and checking across:
Checking over 1,800 rules
Does this make a difference?
Do you find savings?
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% |
How many FDAs and PDAs do you check on behalf of your customers?
Our processes check 100% of them.
We screen, check and validate costs and documents associated with 1,400 DAs on average every day.
Where do you find errors and issues?
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
- Incorrect basis of calculation
- Agreement not applied
- Direct billing to Owner / Charterer
- Light or other dues not payable
- Direct billing for port costs exists
- To be charged on FDA onlyOvertime estimation
FDAs – Savings category
- Agreement not applied
- Direct billing to Owner / Charterer
- Incorrect basis of calculation
- Rebates & discounts not applied
- Direct billing for port costs exists
- Vouchers missing / not matching
Using automated checks and human specialists to screen every detail
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.
Conclusion
So, the message from our screening teams at DA-Desk is: it’s really worth checking all your PDAs and FDAs to a high level of detail.
Alternatively… We know that agents and operators face a high administrative burden when it comes to DAs.
So, we encourage you to consider the DA-Desk service, as we’d be delighted to do all that screening and checking for you!
This article was written by:
- Dionysis Tzelepis, DA-Desk Managing Director
- Alexander Tarasenko, Process Excellence Director
- Vijay Mishra, Process Excellence Manager
- Mark Franklin, DA-Desk Commercial Director
- Suchint Miglani, Content writer
- Deepthi Madupu, Content writer
- David Hardy, Group Marketing Director