01
Vessel owners
You own the operating budget and need every port dollar accounted for.
Buyer's Guide
How to choose a port cost & DA management platform
10 questions to ask any platform before you commit, plus a free scorecard to rate the one you use today.
Who this guide is for
The right platform catches overcharges before payment
The wrong one digitises the same manual work. Every port call ends in a DA that can run to hundreds of lines, and most teams still check them by hand.
The 10 questions
What to ask before you commit
Open each question to see why it matters and what good looks like.
1. Can it estimate a port call before you commit, in minutes?
Why it matters: Charterers price fixtures on port cost assumptions. A quote that takes days to arrive slows decisions and leaves margin exposed.
What good looks like: A full cost breakdown by category for any port, vessel and cargo type, generated in minutes, without waiting for an agent.
2. What data are the estimates built on?
Why it matters: An estimate is only as reliable as its data. Averages and old spreadsheets miss terminal-level and vessel-specific rules.
What good looks like: Current official tariffs combined with real port-call data at volume, calculated against the vessel's actual dimensions (GT, LOA, beam, draft).
3. Does it cover husbandry costs, not only port dues?
Why it matters: Crew changes, spares, surveys, inspections and cash to master often fall outside port cost tools, so budgets break.
What good looks like: Husbandry estimates with a quick mode for planning and a detailed mode for exact budgets.
4. Does it check every DA line against official tariffs automatically?
Why it matters: Manual review is slow and depends on one person's experience. Overcharges go unnoticed.
What good looks like: Each proforma and final DA line cross-checked against live tariffs, colour-coded for review, with savings flagged by category.
5. Can you tell whether your agent is pricing fairly?
Why it matters: Without benchmarks, teams chase quotes and negotiate on instinct.
What good looks like: Port-by-port, service-by-service benchmarks built from thousands of real port calls, visible before you appoint an agent.
6. How much of the review is automated with AI?
Why it matters: “AI” is now on every brochure. Ask what it actually does in the workflow.
What good looks like: AI that scans invoices and matches them to DA lines, explains local tariff documents in any language, and drafts clarification emails to agents.
7. Does it match PDAs to FDAs and support your approval flow?
Why it matters: Reconciliation and approvals are where finance teams lose days and where audit gaps appear.
What good looks like: Automatic PDA-to-FDA matching, budget allocation per expense, configurable approval flows by department, and a full audit trail.
8. Does it integrate with the systems you already use?
Why it matters: A tool that sits outside your voyage management and accounting stack creates double entry.
What good looks like: Direct data feeds into voyage management systems such as IMOS, plus open APIs and AI-agent connectivity.
9. Is it built for every department, not only one?
Why it matters: Crew, operations and accounting each touch the same port call, with different questions.
What good looks like: One platform from first estimate to final settlement, with views for crew, operations and accounting.
10. Is every agent you pay verified?
Why it matters: Paying an agent you have not verified exposes you to fraud, sanctions and compliance risk.
What good looks like: Every agent on the platform KYC-checked, so you know exactly who you are paying.
Free scorecard
Score the platform you use today
Rate your current tool or process on each question. Your score updates as you go.
How HarborLab answers
One platform from first estimate to final settlement
How HarborLab scores on each of the 10 questions.
50
port calls a year
4
registered vessels
6.5
port agents and vendors
See it on your own port calls
Find out what HarborLab would have flagged
Book a 30-minute demo and we’ll walk through the platform with port calls like yours.