Contract types
Every Trade Contract has a contract type. The type decides whether the contract is a leg of a trade, who the counterparty is, and what the contract must contain. PALBONTradeFinance ships 14 types; your company changes them, disables the ones it does not use, and adds its own.
The Contracts menu lists every enabled type, grouped by category, and each page opens the contracts of that type. New on a type's page starts a contract of that type.
1. The standard types
| Type | Menu group | Leg | Counterparty | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase Contract | Commodity Contracts | Purchase | Supplier | Commodity, quantity, price |
| Sale Contract | Commodity Contracts | Sale | Customer | Commodity, quantity, price |
| Long-term Supply Agreement | Commodity Contracts | Purchase or sale (you choose) | Supplier or customer | Commodity, quantity, price, period; framework |
| Offtake Agreement | Commodity Contracts | Purchase or sale (you choose) | Supplier or customer | Commodity, quantity, price, period; framework |
| Consignment Agreement | Commodity Contracts | – | Customer (the consignee) | Commodity, quantity, price, period |
| Charter Party | Shipping and Insurance | – | Supplier (the shipowner) | Cargo, quantity, freight rate |
| Cargo Insurance | Shipping and Insurance | – | Supplier (the insurer) | Cargo, quantity, premium rate, period, insured value |
| Storage and Warehousing Agreement | Finance and Services | – | Supplier | Period |
| Agency and Brokerage Agreement | Finance and Services | – | Supplier | Period |
| Surveyor Agreement | Finance and Services | – | Supplier (the surveyor) | Period |
| Tolling and Processing Agreement | Finance and Services | – | Supplier | Material, quantity, fee, period |
| Trade Finance Facility Agreement | Finance and Services | – | Bank | Period, limit |
| Hedging Agreement | Finance and Services | – | Bank | Period, limit |
| Novation and Assignment | Finance and Services | – | Customer (the new party) | The contract it transfers |
"Leg" means the contract is one side of a trade and is compared with the other side for deviations. A contract that is not a leg (a charter party, insurance, a facility) is never compared, has no leg, and lets you choose whether its counterparty is a supplier, a customer or a bank.
2. Create a contract of a type
- Contracts, then the type's page (for example Shipping and Insurance › Charter Party).
- New. The type is already chosen; its category and counterparty kind fill in.
- Fill what the type needs:
- Charter Party: the shipowner, the Vessel, the cargo and quantity, the freight rate as Base Price per Unit, Price Basis (for example Freight per MT, GENCON 1994), laycan, load port, demurrage and despatch rates, and the Related contract it serves.
- Cargo Insurance: the insurer, the cargo and quantity, the premium rate per unit, Insured value (for example 110% of the CIF value), Valid from / to, and the sale or purchase contract it covers.
- Trade Finance Facility Agreement and Hedging Agreement: the Bank, Valid from / to and the Limit.
- Novation and Assignment: the new party and the Related contract whose rights and duties pass to it.
- Long-term Supply and Offtake: choose Leg (Purchase or Sale), then the cargo, total quantity, tolerance, price, period.
- Save, then follow the contract workflow: share, amend, approve, finalise, sign.
By voice or text: Create a charter party, Draft a cargo insurance contract, New novation, or simply Create a contract (the assistant then asks which kind).
If something the type needs is missing, saving says so, for example A Charter Party needs: Commodity, Quantity, Base Price per Unit or A Trade Finance Facility Agreement needs: Valid from, Valid to.
3. Add or change a type
Contracts › Contract Types › Contract Types (Legal Manager, Contracts Executive, System Manager).
- New (or open an existing type).
- Contract type: the name, for example Joint Venture Agreement.
- Category: Commodity, Shipping, Insurance, Finance, Services, Assignment or Other. It decides the menu group (Commodity → Commodity Contracts; Shipping and Insurance → Shipping and Insurance; the rest → Finance and Services).
- Trade leg: Purchase or Sale (the contract is that leg of a trade), Either (the user chooses), or empty (not a leg).
- Counterparty is a: Supplier, Customer or Bank (for types that are not a leg; a leg's counterparty follows the leg).
- Tick what the type needs: Is for a cargo (commodity, quantity and price required), Framework (call-offs), Refers to another contract, Runs for a period.
- Default template: the contract template a new contract of this type starts from.
- Symbol: an emoji for the menu. Description.
- Save. The type appears in the Contracts menu at once.
Disabled removes a type from the menu and stops new contracts of it; existing contracts keep it.
The type's needs are checked when a contract is created or its type changes; contracts made before you changed a type are not blocked.
4. Framework agreements and call-offs
A Long-term Supply Agreement or Offtake Agreement is a framework: a total quantity over a period that individual shipments call off.
- Create the framework contract (for example Northwind long-term supply 2026, 600,000 MT ±10%, valid for a year) and take it through to Signed.
- For each shipment, create its trade and its leg contract as usual, and set Framework contract to the framework.
- On every save of a call-off, the framework's Quantity called off is updated with the total of its live call-offs.
- If the call-offs pass the framework's quantity plus tolerance, the app warns: The shipments call off …, more than framework … allows.
A contract cannot be its own framework, and Framework contract is offered only on purchase and sale contracts.