And why understanding their review process explains every query you have ever received
Ship agents spend considerable time thinking about how to defend their FDAs. Almost none spend time thinking about who is reviewing them and what that person's job actually requires. That asymmetry is the root cause of most disputes that should not have happened.
The person reviewing an incoming FDA is not trying to find a reason to dispute it. They are trying to find a reason to approve it. Their job is to verify that every charge is supported before releasing funds — not because they distrust the agent, but because that verification is a financial control requirement they cannot waive. Understanding that constraint changes how an agent should think about documentation.
Who Actually Reviews the FDA — and What Their Job Requires
Depending on the size of the principal, the FDA reviewer is typically one of three people: a voyage accountant responsible for closing out port call costs; an operations manager who reviews against their own voyage records before passing to accounts; or a finance controller who spot-checks against the PDA before authorizing payment.
In larger shipping companies, all three may touch the same FDA before payment is released. Each has a different lens. The operations manager checks the charges against what they know happened operationally. The voyage accountant checks the arithmetic and the currency. The finance controller checks the variance against the PDA and flags anything that exceeds their approval threshold.
None of these reviewers were on the vessel. None of them witnessed the port call. Everything they know about what happened comes from three sources: the PDA they approved before arrival, the Statement of Facts, and the documents attached to the FDA. If those three sources tell a consistent story, the FDA is approved. If they do not, it gets queried.
How the Review Actually Works: The Sequence That Determines What Gets Flagged
The FDA review is not a random scan of line items. It follows a predictable sequence. Understanding the sequence tells an agent exactly where their documentation needs to be strongest.
Step 1: PDA comparison
The first thing a reviewer does is compare the FDA total against the PDA total. Any variance above their internal tolerance — typically 10% — triggers a line-by-line review of what changed. Agents who include a brief variance note on every line that exceeded the PDA by more than 10% short-circuit this step. The reviewer does not have to investigate; the explanation is already there.
Step 2: Statement of Facts cross-reference
The SOF is the reviewer's independent operational record. They cross-reference it against movement-based charges: pilotage, mooring, launch hire, tug services. If the FDA shows three pilotage movements and the SOF records two arrivals and one departure, the reviewer flags the discrepancy — not because they are certain something is wrong, but because the records disagree and they cannot approve a charge they cannot trace.
Step 3: Line item verification
Each line item is checked against its supporting document. If the document is attached and matches the line item in amount, date, and service description, the line is approved. If it is missing, or if the amounts do not match, the line is queried. This step is where miscellaneous charges fail automatically: a line item with no individual invoice has nothing to verify against.
Step 4: Authorization check for out-of-PDA charges
Any charge that was not in the PDA receives specific scrutiny. The reviewer checks whether the agent obtained written authorization before committing the expenditure. If no authorization can be found in the correspondence record, the charge is disputed regardless of how operationally justified it was. The authorization is the only evidence the reviewer has that the principal agreed to the additional cost.
What an FDA Looks Like When It Is Easy to Approve
The FDAs that close in 24 hours share a common structure: every line item has a name, every name has a supporting document, every document matches the line item, and every variance from the PDA has a one-sentence explanation. The reviewer moves through the FDA in sequence and finds something verifiable at every step.
The FDAs that sit open for weeks share a different structure: one or more lines with missing invoices, a SOF that does not quite align with the movement charges, a CTM line with no receipt, and several items under a miscellaneous total with no breakdown. The reviewer cannot close the file until every one of those items is resolved. If the agent is slow to respond, or if sourcing the missing documents requires chasing third-party vendors, the delay compounds.
The documentation standard an agent should aim for is not completeness for its own sake. It is giving the reviewer nothing left to question. That is a specific, achievable target — and it is the fastest path to payment.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a principal typically take to review and approve an FDA?
For a clean, well-documented FDA, approval typically occurs within 3 to 7 business days. For an FDA with one or more queried line items, the timeline extends by 7 to 14 days per query cycle — longer if the supporting documents need to be sourced from third-party vendors. Disputed FDAs that escalate beyond the first query cycle can remain open for 3 to 6 weeks.
What variance from the PDA will trigger a line-by-line review?
This varies by principal, but most shipping company finance controls flag variances above 10% for detailed review. Some larger operators use absolute thresholds — any line item exceeding the PDA by more than a specified dollar amount triggers review regardless of the percentage. Agents who know their principal's threshold can pre-empt scrutiny by attaching a variance note to any charge that approaches or exceeds it.
Should agents send the FDA with supporting documents as a single package or separately?
As a single package, organized to match the FDA line sequence. Supporting invoices filed separately, or sent in a follow-up email after the FDA, add a document-matching step that slows the reviewer down and increases the chance of a document being missed. The reviewer should be able to move from FDA line to supporting document without leaving the package.
The Full Picture: All 12 Line Items
Understanding the reviewer's perspective is the first step. Our FDA Disputes Field Guide translates that understanding into specific documentation requirements for each of the 12 line items most likely to trigger pushback, with an 18-checkpoint pre-submission checklist to work through before every FDA is sent.
