Finding your way in PALBONTradeFinance
The app opens at /palbon-trade-finance. Every screen has the same frame: the suite header at the top, the main menu on the left, the page in the middle, the Explore panel on the right and the command bar at the bottom.
1. Opening the app
- Sign in to PALBON-Suites.
- Open the launcher at /apps and choose PALBONTradeFinance, or go straight to /palbon-trade-finance.
- If the page says You do not have access to PALBONTradeFinance, ask an administrator to give you one of the trade roles (see Roles and access).
Note: Desk (/app) shows the same records. Desk's PALBONTradeFinance workspace and its child pages open the app's own dashboards, so there is one dashboard for each area. An administrator who needs Desk's view of the workspace adds ?desk=1 to the address (for example
/app/palbontradefinance?desk=1).
2. The suite header
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| PALBON-Suites brand | Opens the launcher with every product you may use. |
| Breadcrumb | Shows where you are: PALBONTradeFinance › menu item › page, for example PALBONTradeFinance › Contracts › Charter Party. Each step is a link. |
| Jump to… | Finds another product by name. |
| Bell | Your notifications (workflow steps assigned to you, reminders, alerts). |
| ? | Help pages. |
| Theme | Light, dark or automatic. |
| Your name | Your settings, the documentation, the API reference and sign-out. Administrators also see PALBONTradeFinance settings (Desk's workspace). |
3. The main menu (left)
The left menu lists the PALBON products you may use. Under PALBONTradeFinance it shows nine main items, each with its own dashboard:
| Item | Groups and pages |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | Quick Links: New Trade, New Letter of Credit, Record Master |
| Trading | Deals (Trade); Pricing & Quality (Price Formula, Discount Matrix); Settlement (Commercial Settlement); Reports (Trade Register, Outstanding Settlements) |
| Contracts | All Contracts; Commodity Contracts; Shipping and Insurance; Finance and Services (one page per contract type); Library (Contract Template, Contract Clause); Contract Types |
| Shipping | Vessels (Vessel Nomination, Voyage); Laytime (Laytime Calculation, Laytime Rule Set); Reports (Laycan Schedule) |
| Documents | Surveys (Surveyor Work Order); Document Sets (Document Instruction, Trade Document) |
| Trade Finance | Credits (Letter of Credit, LC Presentation, SWIFT Message); Banking (Bank Facility, Exposure Movement, Bank Guarantee); Reports (Credit Deadlines, Facility Exposure) |
| Risk & Treasury | Risk (Counterparty Profile, Sanctions Screening, Credit Assessment, Trade Alert); Treasury (Funding Request, Hedge Contract) |
| Master Data | Shipping (Vessel, Port); Parties (Customer, Supplier, Bank); Goods (Item); Lists (Sanctions List Entry) |
| Administration (System Managers) | Workflows (Workflows, Workflow Approvals, Workflow History, Workflow Versions); Automation (Automations, Automation Run); Audit (Trade Audit Entry, AI Action Log) |
- Click an item's name to open its dashboard; click the arrow to open its groups in the Explore panel.
- Customize menu (at the bottom) reorders and hides items and pages for you. A manager can arrange it for everyone.
- Collapse shrinks the menu to icons.
- Only the pages your roles may read are listed.
4. The Explore panel (right)
The Explore panel shows the groups of the item you are in. Type in Find a menu or report… to filter. The sidebar button in the page header opens the panel again after you close it. On a phone the panel opens over the page.
5. Dashboards
Each main item opens a dashboard: number cards, charts, quick lists and, on the main dashboard, the fleet map with every voyage's route.
- Refresh reloads the figures.
- Edit lets you add a box (Add a box), move it, resize it or remove it. Save keeps it for everyone if you are a Workspace Manager; otherwise Save as my dashboard keeps your own copy.
- New makes a new dashboard, from scratch or as a copy, for you only or for everyone.
- More renames or deletes a dashboard you own.
See Dashboards, reports and views.
6. Lists
Every record type opens as a list (for example Trading › Deals › Trade opens /palbon-trade-finance/trades).
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Search | Searches the ID, title and search fields. |
| Filter | Adds a condition (equals, not equals, greater or less than, like, is set, is not set). Filters show as chips you can remove. |
| Columns | Chooses, orders and removes columns. |
| Grouping | Groups the rows by a field and shows a count per group. |
| Sort | Chooses the sort field; the arrow switches ascending and descending. |
| Export CSV | Downloads the rows the filters select (up to 5,000). |
| Standard view / Save view | Saved views keep columns, filters, sort and grouping; a view can be yours or shared with everyone, and one can be your default. |
| Customize | Opens the form designer for the record type (System Managers). |
| New | Opens a new record. If the list is filtered by a value (for example Contract type is Charter Party), the new record starts with that value. |
| Add a dashboard to this page | Puts a dashboard above the list. |
A link that carries filters opens the list already filtered, for example /palbon-trade-finance/credits?status=Issued.
7. Forms (new and edit)
- Required fields are marked with *. Fields appear and disappear as you fill others (for example the Scope section only shows for contract types that need it).
- Choosing a linked record fills the fields that copy from it (for example choosing a contract type fills its category and counterparty kind).
- Fill from a document reads a PDF, scan or photo into the form with the PALBON AI model; you check every value before saving (see AI assistant and voice).
- Save (or Ctrl+S) saves. The server checks permissions, required values and business rules; problems are listed at the top of the form.
- Cancel leaves without saving; the app asks before discarding changes.
- Delete is offered when your roles allow it.
8. Record pages
Opening a record shows its page:
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Breadcrumb | Record type › record. |
| Every print design of the record type, Download PDF and, for administrators, Design print (PALBONPrint). See Print and form design. | |
| Actions | The record's own actions, for example Check against the contract on a credit or Raise the debit / credit note on a laytime calculation. Each action is described on the page of its record type. |
| Edit all | Opens the full form. |
| Customize | Opens the form designer (System Managers). |
| Workflow bar | The record's current step, how long it has been there, its SLA, and the actions open to you. See below. |
| Sections | The form's sections as cards; tables show their rows. |
| Side panel | Activity, comments, attachments and linked records. |
8.1 The workflow bar
Most record types follow a workflow. The bar on the record page shows:
- Process:
and the time in this step (for example 2 days in this step), with SLA and overdue when the step has a time limit. - One button for each action open to you now, for example Share with Counterparty or Approve Issuance. A button says where it moves the record (Moves it to Shared).
- When an action needs approvals from several people, the bar says how many are recorded and how many are needed (Needs 2 approvals from different people; 1 recorded so far).
- When a comment is required, the bar asks for it (Required: say why).
- No action is open to you at this step means the next step belongs to another role or waits for a condition (for example the deviation approval).
You can never approve your own request where the workflow asks for four eyes: the person who asked cannot approve.
9. The command bar
At the bottom of every page: Type a command, or press Alt+V to speak · "/" jumps here.
- Type a question or an instruction and press Enter or Go.
- Alt+V (or the microphone) speaks a command; Hands-free keeps listening for the next command.
- Examples lists sentences that work, such as Show LCs expiring in 14 days or Create a charter party.
- Changes are always shown as a preview first; nothing changes until you say or click yes.
10. Record Master
Dashboard › Quick Links › Record Master (/palbon-trade-finance/records) lists every kind of record the app keeps, grouped by module. Use it to find a record type that is not in the menu (for example LC Amendment rows or Automation Mapping are tables inside other records and are not listed; Trade Saved View and Trade UI Layout hold your saved views and layouts).