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PALBON-SuitesComplete ERP Solution

First-time setup

This page takes an administrator from a fresh PALBON-Suites site to a company ready for its first back-to-back trade. Follow the steps in order: later records link to earlier ones.

1. Prerequisites

  • A PALBON-Suites site with PALBONSphere (accounting, buying, selling, stock) and PALBON Utilities installed. PALBONTradeFinance needs both.
  • A System Manager account.
  • For India: PALBON Comply for GST on the invoices made from settlements (optional elsewhere).
  • Optional: PALBON Ekyc for e-signature of contracts; the PALBON AI service for the assistant's model, offline speech and reading scanned documents.

2. Install the app (server administrator)

PALBON-Suites installs PALBONTradeFinance with the other applications when its entry in the suite lock (apps/palbon-suite/apps.lock.json) says "install": true. On an existing site, run from the workspace root:

rig --site <your-site> install-app palbon_trade
rig --site <your-site> migrate
cd apps/palbon_trade/frontend && yarn install && yarn build
rig --site <your-site> clear-cache

What the installation does by itself:

  • creates the eleven trade roles (see Roles and access);
  • installs a workflow for every business record type that has none yet (a workflow you changed is never overwritten);
  • installs the shipped automation rules, switched off, and the two reminder rules switched on;
  • installs the dashboards, number cards and charts of every menu item, and Desk's PALBONTradeFinance workspaces;
  • creates the 14 standard contract types;
  • creates the service items the settlement invoices use (despatch, demurrage, freight, insurance, dead freight, quality adjustment, other charges).

Every migrate repeats these steps for anything missing, and never changes what you edited.

2.1 Demo data (demo and training sites only)

To explore the app with a complete, realistic trade book (ten back-to-back trades in coal, iron ore, soybean meal, palm oil, urea, copper, sugar; their contracts, credits, voyages, laytime, documents, settlements, screening, funding and hedges):

rig --site <demo-site> execute palbon_trade.demo.seed.setup

It only adds records; a record that already exists is left as it is, so it can be run again. Never run it on a production site. The end-to-end example uses this data.

3. Company and accounting

  1. Company (/app/company): set the default currency, the default receivable and payable accounts, and the Default Holiday List. The holiday list counts working days (for example the five working days to send non-negotiable documents).
  2. Currency Exchange (/app/currency-exchange): add the rates between the trade currency (often USD) and the company currency. A settlement cannot make an invoice without a rate for its date (There is no USD to INR exchange rate for …).
  3. A USD receivable or payable account is opened automatically the first time an invoice in USD is made, beside the company's default account.
  4. India only: in GST Settings enable overseas transactions if you invoice foreign buyers; give the commodity items their HSN codes.

4. Masters

4.1 Commodities (Item)

Master Data › Goods › Item. One item per commodity and quality, for example Indonesian Steam Coal GCV 4200. Set the item group, the stock unit (for example MT) and, for India, the HSN code. Quality parameters belong to each contract's quality specification, not to the item.

4.2 Parties

Master Data › Parties:

  • Customer: every buyer, with its e-mail address or a contact (contracts are e-mailed there).
  • Supplier: every seller, and also the surveyors, shipowners, insurers, warehouses, agents and brokers you contract with. Group them (for example Raw Material, Services) as you like.
  • Bank: issuing, advising, confirming and facility banks, with their SWIFT (BIC) codes.

4.3 Ports and vessels

  1. Master Data › Shipping › Port: port name, country, UN/LOCODE (country code and three characters, checked against the country), function, time zone (for example Asia/Kolkata), latitude and longitude (for the fleet map), draft and length limits. Then Send for Vetting; a Shipping Manager Approves it.
  2. Master Data › Shipping › Vessel: name, IMO number (seven digits; the last is a check digit, verified), type, size class, flag, MMSI (nine digits), call sign, year built (age is computed), deadweight, owner, operator, classification society, P&I Club, ISM Compliant. Then Send for Vetting and approve. These particulars are what nomination checks compare with the charter-party limits.

4.4 Laytime rule sets

Shipping › Laytime › Laytime Rule Set: one per charter-party practice, for example SHINC WPD (coal, Indonesia): terms (SHINC, SHEX, SATPM SHEX…), day basis, when laytime starts, turn time, WIBON/WIPON/WIFPON/WCCON, whether time before laycan counts, once on demurrage always on demurrage, events that never count, port holidays. Submit for Review; a Shipping Manager approves. See Laytime.

4.5 Contract library

1. Contracts › Library › Contract Clause: your standard wording by category (quality, price, laytime, payment, documents, law…), with {{ variables }} that fill from the contract. 1. Contracts › Library › Contract Template: a named set of clauses for a kind of deal (for example Bulk Coal FOB). 1. Trading › Pricing & Quality › Price Formula: how a quality result changes the price, with bonus caps and rejection limits. 1. Trading › Pricing & Quality › Discount Matrix: early-payment discount bands.

Each goes through its approval workflow (Draft → In Review → Approved). See Contract library.

4.6 Banks and limits

Trade Finance › Banking › Bank Facility: one per bank line (LC issuance, guarantees, trade loan, receivables discounting) with its limit, currency and validity. Submit for Approval; a Treasury Manager approves it (state Active). Credits reserve this limit when they are issued. See Facilities, funding and hedging.

4.7 Counterparties and screening

  1. Risk & Treasury › Risk › Counterparty Profile for each supplier, buyer, bank, surveyor and shipowner: registry, country, KYC, risk rating, beneficial owners.
  2. Master Data › Lists › Sanctions List Entry: the sanctions and PEP entries you screen against (OFAC, EU, UN, UK HMT, India MHA, internal watch list, PEP register).
  3. Run the onboarding workflow: Start KYC → Send to Screening → Screening Clear → Approve. See Counterparty risk and compliance.

5. E-mail, e-signature and AI

Feature What to set up Without it
Sending contracts, work orders, reminders An Email Account with outgoing mail enabled (/app/email-account) Mails stay in the queue; nothing is sent
E-signature of contracts PALBON Ekyc, Digio Settings with the sandbox or production service and its credentials Upload the signed copy instead
The assistant's model, offline speech, reading scans The suite's AI settings (IORD_BRAIN_INTERNAL_URL, IORD_BRAIN_API_AUTH_TOKEN; a vision model for scans) set by the server administrator The command bar still answers every sentence its built-in grammar understands

6. Workflows and automations

  1. Administration › Workflows › Workflows lists every record type's workflow. All shipped workflows are active. Review the approver roles and SLAs and change them in the designer if your company works differently. See Workflows.
  2. Administration › Automation › Automations lists the hand-offs between the flows. They are shipped off: switch on the ones that match your process (for example Draft a contract for each leg when a trade is confirmed), change them, or add your own. Use Try on a record before switching a rule on. See Automations.

7. People

Create the users and give them their roles (see Roles and access). Make sure each approval step has at least two people who can approve, because the requester cannot approve their own request.

8. Check the setup

  • [ ] Every trade role has at least one person; every approval step has two.
  • [ ] Company currency, holiday list and exchange rates are set.
  • [ ] Items, customers, suppliers (including surveyors and shipowners), banks, ports and vessels exist and are approved.
  • [ ] At least one laytime rule set, contract template and price formula is approved.
  • [ ] Bank facilities are Active.
  • [ ] Counterparties are onboarded and screened.
  • [ ] The automations you want are switched on and tried.
  • [ ] Outgoing e-mail works.

You are ready for the first trade: see Trades.