Commodity trading and shipping
Adeo ERP - accounting and shipping for oil trading
Adeo ERP is the custom business system that Adeo builds for two international groups active in physical oil trading and shipping. In production since 2018, it brings together the accounts of several companies, the ships' voyages, their performance and the demurrage claims.
Summary
Accounting, ships and claims in one system.
A group that trades physical oil and runs shipping keeps the accounts of several companies, in several currencies. Around every voyage there are freight, commissions, bunker costs and port costs, and when time in port runs over, a demurrage claim starts. Adeo ERP holds all of this together: Eclipse is the accounting, Voyage Monitor follows ships and voyages with their profit and loss, Vessel Performance measures consumption and performance, and Winclaim handles the claims. Adeo has been building it as custom software since 2015: it has been in production since 2018, is now used by two groups, and keeps growing.
- Accounts for several companies and currencies, up to the group financial statements.
- Ships, voyages and the result of every voyage.
- Demurrage claims followed from notification to the legal stage.
Problem
Accounting that has to know about ships.
A generic accounting package does not know what a ship's voyage is. Here every cost and every revenue also has to be read by ship, by voyage and by strategy. There are several companies, working in different currencies and exchanging documents with each other. And a demurrage claim has contractual deadlines, the time bars: once they pass, the claim can no longer be enforced. On top of that, the starting data sat in the previous system and had to be carried into the new one.
- Several companies, several currencies, intercompany transactions.
- Costs and revenues to be attributed to ship, voyage and strategy.
- Claims with contractual deadlines that must not be missed.
- Master data, documents and postings of the previous system to be kept.
Approach
Accounting first, then the modules of the trade.
Adeo started from the accounting core: chart of accounts, documents, journal, receipts and payments. A migration tool carried companies, counterparties, documents and postings from the previous system into the new one. The operational modules then grew on the same database: voyage monitoring, vessel performance between 2017 and 2019 and, between 2019 and 2020, Winclaim: the claims application that Adeo had already built as a separate program, brought into the system together with its existing claims. The two groups work on the same system: permissions are granted by module, window and action, each user sees only the companies they are enabled for, and vessel performance and claims are kept separate by group.
- One accounting core shared by all modules.
- Migration of master data, documents and postings from the previous system.
- Modules added over the years on the same database.
- Permissions by module, window and action, and companies enabled user by user.
System
Four modules on the same database.
Eclipse covers general accounting: documents and invoices with their print templates, journal, receipts and payments, matching of open items, budget, fixed assets and depreciation, loans and deposits, exchange rates and exchange differences. Voyage Monitor records ships, voyages, cargoes and positions, and builds the account of each voyage: freight, commissions, bunkers, port costs, demurrage, down to the result and the net daily figure. Vessel Performance records the ships' standard messages and derives consumption and performance at sea and in port. Winclaim calculates times and amounts, produces the demurrage invoices and follows each claim through its stages.
- Eclipse: chart of accounts, documents and invoices, journal, receipts and payments, matching of open items, budget, depreciation, loans and deposits.
- Voyage Monitor: ships, voyages, cargoes and positions, with the account and the result of every voyage.
- Vessel Performance: standard messages from the ships, consumption and performance at sea and in port, port-to-port comparison.
- Winclaim: deductible time, invoice calculation and printing, a time bar for each stage, law and jurisdiction, cost and revenue.
- More than fifty reports and print layouts: financial statements by company, group and desk, ledgers, ageing, intercompany reconciliations, result by voyage.
Project status
In production since 2018, and still growing.
Adeo ERP has been in production since 2018, after the data migration from the previous system. Today two groups use it to keep their accounts and to follow voyages, vessel performance and claims. Development, which started in 2015, has never stopped: vessel performance, claims, financial statements by group of companies and by desk, intercompany reconciliations. Between 2025 and 2026 Winclaim was extended with time bars, notifications, law and jurisdiction. The system is now at version 3.
- Development started in 2015, in production since 2018.
- Vessel Performance and Winclaim added between 2017 and 2020.
- Version 3, with development and maintenance continuing in 2026.
- KOMMODO and TREX came out of the same collaboration.
Technology
Desktop client, SQL Server and batch programs.
Adeo ERP is a Windows desktop application on a SQL Server database. The interface uses Telerik components for grids, charts and pivot tables; reports and invoice prints are built with Telerik Reporting and can be exported to Excel. A few batch programs work alongside the client: they download exchange rates from a data provider, generate the depreciation postings, and close loans and deposits with the related postings.
- .NET Framework, WinForms desktop client with Telerik components.
- SQL Server database.
- Reports and prints with Telerik Reporting, export to Excel.
- Batch programs for exchange rates, depreciation, loans and deposits.
- Tools for data migration, database backup and restore.
Lessons
Custom software keeps together what packaged products keep apart.
Accounting and ship operations usually live in different products. Having them on the same database is what made it possible to add the modules one at a time, over the years, without rebuilding the foundations: the account of a voyage, a claim and a company's financial statements rest on the same master data and the same permissions. And at every step the system brought along the data that already existed: first the accounting, then the claims.
- Start from the accounting core and build around it.
- Add one module at a time, on the same database.
- Migrate the existing data at every step, not only at the start.
CTA
Do you have accounting or an operational process that standard packages do not cover?
Adeo designs custom software for complex financial and operational processes, and grows it over the years together with the people who use it.
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