How it works
From the port log to a figure anyone can check
A ship that stays in port longer than its contract allows earns demurrage; one that finishes early may earn despatch. Working out which, and how much, means reading the port's Statement of Facts against the charter party, hour by hour. LayGrounded does that work, and shows its working for every hour, for operations and claims staff at owners and for independent claims consultants.
- Laytime the time the contract allows for loading or discharging.
- Demurrage paid to the shipowner, per day, for time beyond it.
- Statement of Facts the port's log of what happened, and when.
Start a claim from the recap you already have
Paste the fixture recap and LayGrounded builds the claim and its contract terms from it. The recap is read by fixed rules rather than AI, so the same text always gives the same result. Anything it could not find is listed with the default used in its place, so nothing is guessed silently. You can also type the details by hand.
MV DEMO CARRIER / VOY DC-0001 LOAD PORT EXAMPLE, 40,000 MT GRAIN LAYTIME 72 HRS SHINC TIME BAR 60 DAYS
- Vessel
- MV Demo Carrier
- Laytime
- 72 h, SHINC
- Time bar
- 60 days after completion
- Form
- default: not named in the recap
Bring in the Statement of Facts
Upload the port's log as a PDF, paste its text, or, where email intake is set up, forward it to your company's intake address. A typed PDF is read from its own text. A scan or a photo can be read by AI where AI reading is switched on for your account.
A time written without a time zone is never guessed. It is read on the port's own clock when you have given one, and otherwise reported and set aside.
- 08:00 Notice of readiness tendered
- 14:00 All fast alongside
- 16:00 Commenced loading
- 21:00 Rain, loading suspended
- 23:30 Rain ceased, loading resumed
A person confirms every event
Every event read from a document arrives as a suggestion. It counts towards nothing until someone on your team accepts it, corrects it or rejects it. AI can help read a document; it never writes a number into a calculation.
Each event keeps the page it came from and the words it was read from, so it can always be checked against the original.
- NOR tenderedaccepted
- Commenced loadingaccepted
- Weather delaysuggestedAccept · Edit · Reject
The engine computes, and cites every line
You enter the contract terms: the form, the laytime allowed, the days basis, the demurrage and despatch rates. One deterministic engine applies them to the confirmed events. Same inputs, same answer, every time.
The result is broken down hour by hour. Every line says whether its time counted, the clause that decided it, and the event and document line behind it. Click a citation to jump to that event on the document.
- 16:00 to 21:00laytime, countsSoF 16:00 p.1
- 21:00 to 23:30weather, excludedSoF 21:00 p.1
- 23:30 onwardlaytime, countsSoF 23:30 p.1
Check the evidence, settle the disputes, agree
Claimed weather delays are checked against the historical weather archive, and positions against the ship's AIS track where a provider is connected. A check that cannot be made says so; it is never counted as agreement.
Disputes are raised against specific events, and a negotiation room lets the other side propose amendments while both watch the effect. Agreeing a claim fixes its figures, and only a role with authority over money can do it.
- corroborated Weather archive agrees with the claimed stoppage
- unavailable No position provider connected; reported, not guessed
- 1 open dispute Counter-time proposed on completion
Share it, and let anyone re-check it
Send the other side a read-only statement link. Give a bank or an auditor a token that opens one claim, expires, and can be revoked.
Any of them can download the verification bundle and run the same engine themselves, offline, without contacting LayGrounded. If their result matches, the figure stands on its own.
- Contract terms
- Confirmed events
- Published figures
- Engine fingerprint
Recomputed offline by the recipient, then compared.
Around the claim
Console
One list of everything that needs doing across all your claims, deadlines first, then by money. A live meter shows every voyage whose laytime clock is running.
Audit mode
Drop the documents of voyages already closed. The engine's figure is set beside the one the other side's statement presents, and a difference is named only when the engine can reproduce their figure.
Defense mode
Enter a claim someone has made against you, with their own events and terms. The same engine recomputes it, so every reduction is one they can reproduce.
Voyage P&L
Freight or hire, costs and the demurrage from every port call on a voyage, as one result with its time charter equivalent.
Off-hire
For time charters: enter off-hire windows by hand, or read deck and engine logs where AI is enabled, then review the hire deduction under NYPE or BALTIME.
Port costs
The port agent's disbursement account, line by line: who bears each cost under the contract, and what is recoverable, in the currency it was billed in.
Forecasting
Price proposed terms against past weather before fixing, estimate the chance of demurrage while a ship is on its way, and see risk across all your voyages at once.
Compliance
Prepare MRV and ETS calculations for review, calculate FuelEU Maritime exposure, and screen claims where a sanctions provider is connected. Scheduled evidence checks require a configured worker.
Knowledge base
A free, plain-language reference to the laytime and demurrage clauses the engine works with.
Who can do what
Everyone in a company has one of four roles. Each can do everything the one before it can, and more. The server enforces them, not just the screen.
- Viewer
- Read-only. Sees claims, calculations and evidence; changes nothing.
- Operator
- Day-to-day laytime work — create claims, ingest Statements of Facts, confirm events, raise disputes.
- Finance manager
- Everything an operator does, plus money: agreeing claims, settlement payloads, bank details, trade-finance grants and the negotiation mandate.
- Admin
- Everything, plus inviting colleagues and changing their roles.
What it will not do
- Let a model write, change or store a calculated figure.
- Count an event nobody has confirmed.
- Guess a time zone, a missing check or a missing rule.
- Treat “unavailable” as zero, or as agreement.
See it on the real screens
Already have an account? Sign in, then press Guided tour in the top bar. It walks through the main workflows, explains the controls in plain words, and says what your role can do.