Key takeaways
- One DA per port call: proforma estimate, cash advance, final statement, reconciliation.
- Variances between estimated and final costs are where money leaks, and where recovery lives.
- A DA left in a spreadsheet hides variances until after settlement.
How disbursement accounting works
Before a call, the port agent submits a proforma DA estimating the costs; the operator advances funds against it. After the call, the agent submits the final DA with supporting invoices. The operator's DA desk reconciles line by line: tariff checks on port dues and pilotage, contract checks on services, currency and tax verification, and queries back to the agent for anything unsupported.
At fleet scale this is a high-volume operational finance process: hundreds of calls, thousands of lines, multiple currencies and agents. Well-run desks keep postings current instead of batching them, code variance causes, measure settlement cycle time, and feed the results back into better proformas, so the next estimate is tighter than the last.
Why disbursement accounting matters
- Current, reconciled DAs surface variances while they can still be queried and recovered.
- Cycle-time discipline releases working capital tied up in unsettled advances.
- Variance cause codes turn reconciliation from bookkeeping into cost control.
A DA desk in a live operation
A vessel operator's DA desk tracks every port call on a shared workflow: proforma in, advance approved, final statement reconciled against tariffs, variances queried within days instead of quarters. Management sees status and aging live, and recurring variance causes at specific ports get fixed at the source.
Frequently asked questions
Who prepares a disbursement account?+
The port agent prepares the DA for the vessel operator or charterer that appointed it: a proforma before the call and a final statement with invoices after. The operator's DA desk reconciles and settles it.
What costs appear in a disbursement account?+
Typical lines are port and harbor dues, pilotage, towage, mooring, agency fees, cargo-related charges, crew and vessel services, and government charges for the call.
Why do DA variances matter?+
Because the difference between estimated and final cost is unmanaged spend: unqueried variances become unrecoverable, and weak proformas tie up cash in oversized advances. Reconciliation discipline closes both leaks.
Written and reviewed by the InfoSun operations team. Last updated September 9, 2026.