The PortPayables® Financial Dashboard in DA-Desk provides you with a comprehensive overview of port expenditures, including information on statements of account per port Agent, savings generated for management accounting reports and cash flow forecasts for day-to-day practical needs.
Everything you need on one single platform.
10 Ways you can benefit from using PortPayables®
1. Bank-grade compliance
Each payment is screened seconds before being released to the bank ensuring no payments are processed to sanctions entities.
2. Handle all your recoveries
PortPayables® has a dedicated recovery team who are responsible for recovering all overfunded port calls. In 2022 we recovered $256 million on behalf of our customers.
3. Dedicated payments team to handle all agent & bank payment communication
You will have a dedicated payments team who will handle all your reporting and reconciliations and ensure all payments are processed timeously to beneficiaries.
4. No maintenance of agency database
Let us save you the time and admin hassle of maintaining agency details. We screen all vendors/agents to ensure maritime compliance, and we also ensure documents and bank account details are vetted.
Find out more about our stringent compliance checks by checking our dedicated DA compliance page.
5. End-to-end process workflow
Combining the payment into the port call workflow significantly reduces delays and friction between operations and finance teams.
6. Mitigation of fraud & phishing risk
Through our rigid processes and compliance standards we protect you against the risk of making any payments to fraudulent parties or falling victim to fraud.
7. Full transparency of FX exposure
Where possible we settle in local currency. Through monthly benchmarking of ALL customer trades, we ensure the rates applied on your disbursement accounts are consistently and accurately applied by each liquidity provider.
8. Financial dashboard access
You’ll have access to our proprietary finance tool to assist you with your cash flow forecasting, bank reconciliation and access to various reports.
9. SOX compliant with full ISAE 3402 audit
DA-Desk is audited annually to ensure compliance with SOX regulations.
10. FX and transactional benefits
Through the volume we transact on behalf of our customers we can offer competitive transactional and FX spreads.
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.
Port Expenditures FAQs
Do you ensure timely transfer of funding to the port agent?
All tasks related to payment, transfers, confirmation, netting, accounting, credit collection and reconciliation are managed through the PortPayables process. PortPayables provides access to 135 currencies and affords timely payments. Once a payment is approved in the DA-Desk System, PortPayables performs 55+ automated checks, including regulatory sanctions compliance checks. Provided all automated checks are passed, the payment flows through a straight-through payment process, made possible due to our host-to-host integration with Citibank.
Moreover, DA-Desk has a good knowledge of local holidays in different jurisdictions which, of course, can impact on timely payments. In fact, DA-Desk has collaborated with BIMCO to provide input for its Holiday Calendar. The Holiday Calendar covers general holidays in over 150 countries plus local holidays in more than 680 global ports and helps shipping companies plan their voyages.
Does your company have the ability to identify and ensure compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements?
The Group chooses to comply with the highest compliance standards globally. The Group processes are audited annually by Deloitte and LRQA to global ISO standards for Quality Management Systems (ISO9001) and Information Security Standards (ISO27001) and the Group’s PortPayables service offering is SOX-compliant and audited against the ISAE 3402 Type II standards. With the introduction of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and with a view to further strengthening the Group’s adherence to international regulations, the Group appointed an external Data Protection Officer who served as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Head of Cyber Security Operations and Investigations for Transport for London (TfL). The Group also has a very proactive internal training and awareness programme that runs periodically to ensure that every single member of staff is continuously assessed to help ensure compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements. Moreover, as part of our commitment to transparency, effective governance and compliance, we have joined organisations that share our values including the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN), becoming TRACE certified through a comprehensive due diligence review, analysis and approval process and we are an associate member of BIMCO and INTERTANKO.
Does your company manage payments in foreign currencies?
Using the combined payment volume of our customer base, we negotiated with our banking service provider for a package that allows our customers to pay in multiple currencies with highly competitive FX rates and zero-to-minimal service charges. All payments are traceable, trackable and benchmarkable against Reuters (an independent source). When a payment is made in local currency, our banking partner applies the customer’s pre-agreed spread on top of Reuters live market rate, which results in the USD amount which will be charged to the account.
At the end of the month, we benchmark all transactions processed against the prevailing agreed rates to ensure there are no discrepancies with the cost each customer should have incurred.
