How SOF misalignments trigger automatic disputes on pilotage, mooring, and launch hire — and why most are recording gaps, not factual errors
Of all the documents an agent submits with an FDA, the Statement of Facts (SOF) carries the most weight with principals — not because it is the most detailed, but because it is the one document principals use as their independent operational record. They cross-reference every movement-based charge against it automatically. When the numbers do not align, the disputes follow without exception.
The important thing to understand is this: most SOF misalignment disputes are not caused by incorrect charges. They are caused by recording gaps — timestamps missing, movements unlabeled, berth shifts undocumented. The charges are right. The SOF simply does not prove it. That distinction matters because the fix is a documentation process problem, not an accounting problem.
What the Statement of Facts Is — and What Principals Use It For
The Statement of Facts is a chronological record of a vessel's activities during a port call, recording every significant event with a timestamp: arrival at anchorage, pilot boarding, first line, berth shift, commencement and completion of cargo operations, last line, and departure. It is typically prepared by the ship agent and signed by the master. Principals use it as their primary reference for verifying movement-based charges on the FDA.
The SOF is not just a ship agent document. It is the principal's operational audit trail. When a principal's operations team reviews an FDA, the SOF is the first thing they open. They count the pilotage movements in the SOF and compare that number to the pilotage line items on the FDA. They check the first line and last line times against the mooring charges. They trace the launch trip log against the SOF timeline.
If those comparisons produce matching numbers, the movement-based charges are approved. If they produce a discrepancy — one extra pilotage line, a mooring charge that does not correspond to a recorded movement, a launch trip that falls outside the SOF timeline — the charge is flagged, regardless of whether the agent is right.
The Three Charge Categories Most Exposed to SOF Misalignment
Pilotage
Pilotage disputes driven by SOF misalignment are the most common evidence dispute in disbursement accounting. The trigger is almost always a movement count: the FDA shows three pilotage charges but the SOF records only two clearly labeled movements. The third movement — typically a berth shift — may have occurred, but if the SOF does not record it with a timestamp and a label, the charge has no evidentiary support. Each pilotage movement needs its own SOF entry: arrival, departure, or shift, with time and destination recorded.
Mooring and Unmooring
Mooring charges are billed per shift. A vessel that arrives, shifts berths, and departs incurs three mooring operations. If the SOF records only a first line and a last line — without documenting the intermediate berth shift — the principal sees one arrival and one departure, and disputes the third mooring charge as unsupported. The SOF needs to record first line and last line for every distinct berth occupation, with timestamps precise enough to map to the gang shift invoices.
Launch Hire
Launch trips that fall outside the SOF timeline — or that are not corroborated by any SOF entry — are challenged automatically. Principals distinguish between scheduled launches (customs clearance, official visits) that appear in the SOF and unscheduled trips that do not. An unscheduled trip with no SOF reference and no master sign-off is a reliable dispute trigger, regardless of how operationally necessary it was.
Why SOF Misalignments Happen — and Why They Are Not What They Look Like
Most SOF misalignments are not disputes about what happened. They are disputes about what was recorded. The berth shift occurred — but the SOF entry says 'shift' without a timestamp. The launch trip ran — but it was logged on the launch record and not reflected in the SOF timeline. The mooring gang worked a night shift — but the SOF records only the daytime operation.
These are recording process problems. The events are real. The documentation is incomplete. And once the FDA has been submitted and the principal has flagged a discrepancy, the agent is in a reactive position — trying to prove after the fact that a recorded gap is not a substantive error.
The fix is a pre-submission SOF review: before the FDA leaves the agency, compare every movement-based charge against the SOF line by line. Every pilotage charge should map to a SOF entry. Every mooring shift should have a first line and last line time. Every launch trip should appear in the SOF or in the launch log with a cross-reference. If the comparison reveals a gap, amend the SOF before submission — not after the principal has already seen the discrepancy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the Statement of Facts be amended after it has been signed by the master?
Yes, but the amendment process matters. A SOF amendment should be issued as a formal addendum, clearly dated, describing what was added or corrected and why. It should ideally be counter-signed by the master or confirmed by a vessel representative. An informal edit to the original SOF — particularly one made after the principal has already queried a charge — will be treated with significant suspicion and may make the dispute harder to resolve, not easier.
Does the SOF need to record every launch trip, or only scheduled ones?
Every launch trip that generates a charge on the FDA should appear in either the SOF or a separate launch log that is submitted alongside the FDA. Scheduled trips typically appear in the SOF naturally. Unscheduled trips should be captured in a contemporaneous launch log recording date, time, purpose, and passengers for each trip. The launch log is the supporting document; the SOF is the cross-reference. Both need to be consistent.
What is the minimum information a SOF entry needs to include for a berth shift to be verifiable?
A verifiable berth shift entry in the SOF needs: the time last line was let go at the original berth, the time first line was made fast at the new berth, the name or number of both berths, and the reason for the shift if it was not operationally standard. Without both timestamps and both berth identifiers, the shift cannot be mapped to the mooring and pilotage charges it generated.
The Full Picture: All 12 Line Items
The SOF underpins pilotage, mooring, and launch hire disputes, three of the 12 line items covered in detail in our FDA Disputes Field Guide. Each of the 12 line items have its own documentation checklist that should be followed to avoid disputes. The guide also includes an 18-checkpoint pre-submission process to prevent any disputes. Download the guide today.
