Documentation

Welcome to Charter Logic Suite — the world's first AI-powered maritime financial audit platform. This manual covers every feature, every screen, and every workflow you will encounter. Read this section before your first audit, then refer to later sections as you explore each module.

Charter Logic Suite is a web application. No software installation is required.

1. Go to charterlogicsuite.com and click Choose a Plan.
2. Enter your first name, last name, work email, company name, and role.
3. Select your plan: Founding Member ($799/month), Professional ($1,999/month), or Enterprise ($4,999/month).
4. Create a password (minimum 8 characters, one number, one uppercase letter).
5. Click Create Account. A verification email is sent to your work address.
6. Click the verification link in the email. Your account is now active.

Your account is created after email verification. Choose a plan from Pricing to activate paid access.

After login, you land on the Executive Dashboard. The layout has three areas:

• Top bar — Logo, navigation links (Dashboard, Voyages, Invoices, Reports, Settings), alert indicator, and your user avatar.
• Sidebar — Module navigation grouped into four sections: Overview, Audit Tools, Compliance, and Intelligence. Active module is highlighted with a white card and shadow.
• Main content area — KPI cards, charts, and tables for your portfolio. Updates in real-time as audits complete.

1. Click New Audit in the top-right of the dashboard.
2. Upload your Statement of Facts (PDF, JPG, or TIFF). The system detects whether it is digital or scanned and routes it to the correct OCR engine automatically.
3. Enter the vessel name, demurrage rate (USD per day), and laytime allowed (hours).
4. If you have the Charterparty available, upload it for clause-level precision.
5. Click Run AI Audit. The AI analysis begins immediately.
6. Watch the progress screen — typically under 28 seconds for standard documents.
7. Review the audit result: event timeline, laytime calculation, and demurrage total.
8. Download the Excel report or PDF certificate. Generate a dispute letter if overcharge is identified.

The Demurrage Defender is the heart of Charter Logic Suite. It reads your Statement of Facts, extracts every timestamped event, classifies each as billable or deductible, calculates net laytime, and produces a legally-structured audit result in under 30 seconds.

Uploading a Statement of Facts

• Accepted formats: PDF, JPG, TIFF, PNG (up to 50 MB, max 200 pages)
• Scanned documents use Google Document AI OCR; digital PDFs use pdfplumber for direct text extraction
• Below 75% OCR confidence, a warning is shown

Understanding the Audit Result

Event Classification Colours

Generating a Dispute Letter

1. From the audit result screen, click Dispute Invoice
2. The system pre-populates vessel name, voyage reference, overcharge amount, and supporting evidence
3. Review and edit the letter text if needed
4. Download as Word (.docx) or PDF
5. Send directly to the carrier's claims department

The FMC requires US-regulated ocean freight invoices to contain 20 mandatory disclosure fields. Missing even one field makes an invoice legally contestable. The FMC Validator checks every field and generates a dispute letter within 30 days of the invoice date.

1. Navigate to FMC Validator in the sidebar
2. Upload the carrier invoice (PDF or JPG)
3. The system checks against all 20 FMC mandatory requirements
4. Results show each field as Present, Missing, or Malformed
5. The 30-day countdown starts from the invoice date automatically
6. If fields are missing, click Generate Dispute Letter

Since January 2024, EU ETS surcharges apply to container freight invoices for voyages entering, leaving, or between EU ports. Many carriers overcharge — calculating against incorrect CO₂ tonnage or applying the surcharge to non-qualifying voyages. The ETS Validator catches this.

How the Calculation Works

1. The system reads the carrier-stated CO₂ tonnage from the invoice
2. Cross-references the vessel's IMO DCS data for the actual voyage CO₂ figure
3. Applies the EUA spot price (fetched from ICE exchange at time of audit)
4. Justified charge = CO₂ tonnage × EUA spot price. If carrier charged more, the difference is the overcharge.

Forward any maritime document to [email protected] and receive a complete audit result reply within 30 seconds. Zero login required. Works from any email client. Available on Professional and Enterprise plans.

How It Works

1. Forward your Statement of Facts, FMC invoice, or ETS invoice to [email protected]
2. CLS auto-detects the document type using AI classification
3. The appropriate audit runs automatically (Demurrage, FMC, or ETS)
4. You receive an email reply with: summary, financial result, dispute recommendation, and PDF attached
5. All audits appear in your web dashboard regardless of how they were submitted

Upload up to 50 documents at once and process them in parallel. Audit your entire backlog of historical SoFs from the last 12 months in a single session. Professional: up to 20 docs. Enterprise: unlimited.

Using Batch Upload

1. Click Batch Upload from the dashboard
2. Drag and drop up to 50 files simultaneously
3. Watch the real-time progress dashboard showing status per document
4. Review the completion summary: X audits complete, $Y total recoverable detected, Z require manual review
5. Download all reports as a ZIP or review individually

Full REST API enabling integration into your TMS, ERP, or in-house operations dashboards. No competitor offers a maritime audit API. Enterprise plan only.

API Endpoints

Authentication

• API key per customer (generated in dashboard Settings → API)
• Rate-limited per plan tier
• Webhook callbacks: POST to your URL when audit completes
• SDKs: Python and JavaScript clients available on GitHub

Multiple team members work on the same audit. Junior analysts run audits; senior managers review and approve before any dispute letter is sent to a carrier. Professional: 5 users. Enterprise: unlimited.

Collaboration Features

• Comment on any laytime event: "Check with captain — rain claim seems early"
• Assign audits to team members with due date
• Approval workflow: Draft → Under Review → Approved → Sent
• Full audit trail: who viewed, commented, approved, and when
• Email notifications when audit assigned or comment posted

Process Statements of Facts written in Arabic, Greek, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and Turkish. The system auto-detects the language and translates to English before auditing. Available on all plans.

Supported Languages

Push audit completions, dispute recommendations, and FMC deadline alerts directly to your team channels. Action buttons let you view audits, send dispute letters, or assign to team members without leaving Slack or Teams. Enterprise plan only.

Notification Types

• Audit Complete — Summary with recoverable amount and confidence score
• Dispute Update — Status changes on active disputes
• Approval Required — When an audit needs senior review
• FMC Deadline — 7-day and 3-day warnings before 30-day deadline

Paste charterparty laytime clauses before signing. AI reviews against BIMCO industry standards, flags risks from the charterer's perspective, and generates a negotiation brief with recommended changes. Enterprise plan only.

Risk Levels

Draft a legally correct Notice of Readiness during an active port call. The system checks it against your charterparty clauses and flags anything that could invalidate the NOR. Professional and Enterprise plans.

Supported Clauses

• WIBON — Whether In Berth Or Not
• WIPON — Whether In Port Or Not
• WCCON — Whether Customs Cleared Or Not
• Multi-language headers (English, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Arabic, Chinese)

P&I Clubs and brokers offer CLS-powered audits under their own brand. Custom domain, logo, colours, email templates, and multi-client management. Enterprise Plus plan only ($12,000+/month).

White-Label Features

• Custom Branding — Logo, colors, fonts, footer text
• Custom Domain — yourcompany.com instead of charterlogicsuite.com
• Email Templates — Branded transactional emails
• Client Management — Invite and manage multiple client organizations
• Usage Analytics — Per-client audit counts and recovery metrics

When a carrier disputes your deductible event claims, you need documented third-party evidence. The Causation Defense Builder automatically gathers this from port authorities, weather services, and carrier advisory records.

Most charterers focus on avoiding demurrage. The Laytime Profit Engine identifies the other side — despatch entitlements — where a vessel completes operations faster than agreed laytime and the charterer is owed a bonus.

• Despatch rate is typically 50% of the demurrage rate (defined in the charterparty)
• The system identifies when actual time used is less than laytime allowed
• Calculates: Time Saved × (Demurrage Rate ÷ 2) = Despatch Earned
• Generates a despatch claim letter addressed to the shipowner
• Alerts fire automatically when despatch value exceeds $1,000 (configurable)

Risk Radar predicts demurrage risk before a vessel arrives at port. Enter incoming vessel schedules and the system scores each vessel-port combination on a 0–100 risk index.

Benchmark Intelligence compares your demurrage charges against current market rates for the same port, cargo type, and delay duration. If a carrier is charging above market average, the system flags this and adds the benchmark comparison to your dispute letter automatically.

Every completed audit can be anchored to the blockchain via CargoX integration. The certificate contains the vessel, voyage, demurrage figure, AI confidence score, and audit timestamp — cryptographically signed and tamper-proof.

• Use case: P&I Club submissions, legal arbitration, bank covenant compliance
• Format: PDF with QR code linking to on-chain verification
• Blockchain: Ethereum / Polygon via CargoX and TradeTrust protocols
• Verification: Any party can scan the QR code to verify the audit is unaltered

Excel Audit Report

Contains five tabs: Summary, Event Timeline, Laytime Calculation, Deductible Events, and Dispute Evidence. Formatted for direct submission to carriers, P&I Clubs, and legal teams. No macros — safe to open in any environment.

PDF Audit Certificate

Formatted with the CLS letterhead, vessel and voyage details, the full laytime calculation, AI confidence score, and digital signature. Primary attachment to dispute correspondence.

Dispute Letter

Generated as a Word (.docx) file. Editable before sending. Includes: carrier name, invoice reference, voyage details, overcharge amount, itemised deductible event table, statutory citations, and formal demand for credit or refund.

Plan Comparison

Managing Your Subscription

• Go to Settings → Billing to view your current plan, next billing date, and payment history
• To upgrade: click Upgrade Plan. New tier activates immediately. Billed pro-rata for the remainder of the current month
• To cancel: click Cancel Subscription. Access continues until end of paid period. No data deleted for 90 days
• Payment processed by Paddle. Accepts international Visa, Mastercard, and American Express

Contacting Support