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Charter APA

Recording the APA a charterer pays, the expenses spent from it, the APA statement PDF, and settling or reopening the balance.

  • Management
  • Captain & crew

The Advance Provisioning Allowance (APA) is the money a charterer pays up front to cover fuel, food, drinks, berthing and other running costs of their charter. Nauticare keeps one APA ledger per charter, on the charter's APA tab.

APA money is kept completely out of every Finance figure: APA payments and expenses never appear in Finance → Accounts, Finance → Expenses or Finance → Overview, and never count against Finance → Budgets.

All APA ledger figures are in the vessel currency. On the charter form, Expected APA is entered in the vessel currency. An APA expense paid in another currency keeps its own currency, amount, tax and exchange rate, and the ledger uses its Total amount (vessel currency).

Who can do what

  • Charters → APA – view (together with Charters → View) shows the APA tab, the summary cards, the ledger, the Statement download and expense receipts.
  • Charters → APA – edit lets you record, edit and delete APA received entries, and add, edit and delete APA expenses while the APA is Open.
  • Settle APA and Reopen APA are available only to the captain and to management company users who can make changes (Company Admin and Company User), regardless of crew permissions.

Summary cards and statuses

Above the ledger, four cards show Expected, Received, Spent, and the balance — labelled Remaining when zero or positive, or Overspent (in red) when expenses exceed what has been received.

A status chip in the toolbar shows the state of the APA:

  • Not started — before any APA payment has been recorded. Only the summary cards are shown.
  • Open — once the first payment is recorded. The ledger table is shown and entries can be added or edited.
  • Settled — after the APA is settled. The ledger is locked and a Settlement card shows the final outcome.

Recording APA received and expenses

Click Record APA received to log a payment from the charterer. Enter the Date (required), Amount (required, in the vessel currency) and an optional Note, then click Record. Recording the first payment opens the APA. Record each top-up from the charterer as a separate entry.

While the APA is Open, click Add expense to record money spent from the APA:

  1. Upload one or more invoice or receipt files — with AI extraction to pre-fill the fields or without extraction — or skip the upload step to enter the expense manually.
  2. Fill in or review Name (required), Description, Date (required), Purchased by, Currency (required), Amount (expense currency) (required), Tax (expense currency), Exchange rate, Total amount (vessel currency) (required), Category (required) and Subcategory (required), then click Save and Finish (or Save and Next when reviewing a batch of uploaded files).

Unlike an operating expense in Finance, an APA expense has no Account or Vendor field and no option to hide it from crew, and it does not trigger inventory stock suggestions.

In the ledger table, each row shows Date, Type (Received or Expense), Description, Category and signed Amount. On an expense with an uploaded file, click Receipt to view the receipt, or open the expense to Download it or Open in new window. Users with Charters → APA – edit can click Edit (or click a row) and Delete on any entry while the APA is Open.

The APA statement PDF

Once the APA is Open or Settled, click Statement in the toolbar and choose:

  • Statement with receipts — downloads the statement PDF with every expense receipt appended in reference order (up to 1,500 receipts and 250 MB total).
  • Statement without receipts — downloads the statement PDF on its own.

While the APA is Open, the PDF is labelled an INTERIM statement. Once settled, it is a FINAL statement and includes the Settlement table and any settlement note. Both versions include charter details, APA received, Expenses grouped by category with subtotals, and a Sign-off page for the Captain and Charterer.

Settling and reopening the APA

At the end of the charter, the captain or a management user can click Settle APA:

  • The modal shows the current Remaining or Overspent balance.
  • When there is a positive Remaining balance, you can enter an optional Gratuity that the charterer leaves to the crew from the remaining APA. The gratuity cannot be negative or exceed the remaining balance; no gratuity field is shown when the balance is zero or overspent.
  • A live preview shows the outcome:
    • Refund … to the charterer when money remains after any gratuity.
    • Charterer pays … shortfall when the APA is overspent.
    • Balanced: nothing to refund or collect when the remaining balance minus gratuity is zero.
  • Choose the Settlement date (required), add an optional Note, and click Settle APA.

Settling records the Settlement card on the charter (Remaining or Overspent, Gratuity, Refunded to the charterer / Shortfall paid by the charterer / Balanced, Final balance of 0, Settled on, Settled by, and Note) and locks the ledger. It does not create any payment or refund in Finance.

If a correction is needed after settlement, the captain or a management user can click Reopen APA and confirm in the Reopen APA modal. Reopening removes the settlement so entries can be added, edited or deleted again; settle the APA once more when finished.

The APA history card at the bottom of the tab records when the APA was Opened, Settled and Reopened, and by whom.

Deleting a charter with APA

Deleting a charter also deletes its APA ledger, entries and receipts. If the charter has APA entries, the charter delete confirmation states how many entries will be deleted with it.