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PALBON-SuitesComplete ERP Solution

Trades

A Trade is one deal: the cargo, its purchase leg and its sale leg, the offers that led to it, and its economics. Every contract, credit, voyage, document set and settlement of the deal links to its trade. The trade is the anchor the four flows hang from.

To open the list: Trading › Deals › Trade (/palbon-trade-finance/trades).

1. Prerequisites

  • The commodity Item, the Supplier and the Customer.
  • Ports (load and discharge) and, if known, the vessel.
  • A Trader role (to create) and a Trade Finance Manager (to confirm).

2. Kinds of trade

Trade Type Legs
Back-to-Back A purchase leg and a sale leg of the same cargo. Both are required before the trade is confirmed.
Purchase Only Only a purchase leg (stock, or a sale not yet found).
Sale Only Only a sale leg (goods you already hold).

3. Create a trade

3.1 From the form

  1. Trading › Deals › Trade, then New (or Dashboard › Quick Links › New Trade).
  2. Title: a name people recognise, for example T.0101 Steam Coal Northwind / Deccan.
  3. Company, Trade Type, Trade Date, Risk Rating.
  4. Cargo: Commodity, Quality Basis (for example GCV 4,200 kcal/kg ARB), Quantity and Unit, Quantity Tolerance (+/-) (for example 10%), Incoterm, Load Port, Discharge Port, Laycan From / To, and the Vessel once nominated.
  5. Legs: one row per leg.
    • Leg: Purchase or Sale. A purchase leg is with a Supplier, a sale leg with a Customer (Row 1: a Purchase leg is with a Supplier if not).
    • Party, Price per Unit, Currency, Quantity (if it differs from the trade's), Payment Terms (LC at Sight, LC Usance, Standby LC, Documentary Collection, Open Account, Advance Payment).
    • Optional links: the Order (Purchase Order or Sales Order in PALBONSphere), the leg's Surveyor, its Letter of Credit and its Contract (filled in when the contract is drafted).
  6. Trade Currency.
  7. Save. The trade is in Draft.

3.2 By voice or text

In the command bar type or say, for example:

Create a back-to-back trade of 50,000 MT steam coal from Northwind at 51.72 to Harbourline at 52.39 USD

The assistant fills what the sentence says, asks for anything still missing (kind of trade, commodity, quantity, supplier and purchase price, buyer and sale price), checks every answer against your records, reads the whole trade back with its margin, and creates it only after you say yes. See AI assistant and voice.

4. Offers and confirmations

The Offers and confirmations table keeps the negotiation that led to each leg:

Field Use
Date, Leg, Party Who offered what, when
Quantity, Price, Currency, Valid until The offer
Status Offered, Countered, Accepted, Declined, Expired
Evidence type / Evidence A link to the e-mail, quotation, supplier quotation or order that proves it
Remarks For example Confirmed; recap signed by both desks

Typical sequence for each leg: the first offer (Countered), the revised offer (Accepted), with the recap or order as evidence.

5. Economics

The app works these out on every save:

Field How
Purchase / Sale Price per Unit From the legs
Margin per Unit Sale price − purchase price
Purchase Value, Sale Value Price × quantity of each leg
Expected Margin Sale value − purchase value
Sale Settled, Purchase Settled From the commercial settlements of the legs
Bank Charges and Fees Entered, or added from presentations
Realised Margin Sale settled − purchase settled − bank charges and fees
Open FX Exposure The trade's value in a currency other than the company's, less the notional of open FX hedges on the trade
Green-Finance Eligible Ticked when both counterparties' ESG scores are at least 60 and the voyage emits at most 8 g CO2 per tonne-mile

Example: 75,000 MT bought at 51.72 and sold at 52.39 gives a margin of 0.67 per MT and an expected margin of USD 50,250. After settlement at the surveyed quality and the bank charges, the realised margin of the demo trade T.0101 is USD 168,077.47.

6. The trade workflow

Step (state) Action Who What it means
Draft Submit for Confirmation Trader The deal is agreed with both counterparties
Pending Confirmation Confirm (margin zero or more) / Confirm Negative Margin (margin below zero) Trade Finance Manager, not the requester Business confirmed
Pending Confirmation Reject Trade Finance Manager Back to Draft
Confirmed Start Execution Trader Contracts, credits and shipping are under way
In Execution Mark Shipped Trader, Logistics Coordinator Loading completed
Shipped Settle Trade Finance Manager Both legs settled
Settled Close Trade Finance Manager Nothing left to do
Draft Cancel Trader, Trade Finance Manager Abandoned before confirmation
Confirmed Cancel Trade Finance Manager, not the requester Abandoned after confirmation

A back-to-back trade cannot be confirmed without both legs (A back-to-back trade needs a purchase leg and a sale leg before it is confirmed).

7. What confirmation can start

When a trade reaches Confirmed, these shipped automation rules can run. They are off until your company switches them on:

Rule Creates
Draft a contract for each leg when a trade is confirmed A draft Trade Contract per leg, with the trade's terms, written back into the leg
Draft a surveyor work order for each leg when a trade is confirmed A Surveyor Work Order per leg, to that leg's surveyor
Draft the purchase LC when a trade is confirmed A draft import Letter of Credit for the purchase leg
Tell the group ERP when a trade is confirmed A webhook to your ERP (address to be set)

8. One long-term contract, many trades

A long-term supply or offtake agreement carries many shipments. Each shipment is its own trade (its own Trade ID), and each shipment's purchase contract names the long-term agreement as its Framework contract. See Contract types.

9. Reports and dashboard

  • Trading › Reports › Trade Register: every trade with its legs, values, expected and realised margin.
  • The Trading dashboard shows open trades, the pipeline by state, expected and realised margin.
  • By voice: Total expected margin of confirmed trades, Show trades with sale value above 5 million.