Glossary
Speak the
same language.
Shipping, vessels, navigation, regulation, warehousing and accounting each come with their own vocabulary, and so does the platform. Every term we could think of, explained simply, in one place.
170 terms
Shipping & documents
Bill of Lading (B/L)
A legal document a carrier issues to a shipper. It lists the cargo and works as a receipt, a contract, and a title document all at once.
Manifest
The official list of everything a vessel is carrying on a voyage, checked by ports and customs before departure and arrival.
Waybill
Similar to a bill of lading, but non-negotiable. It proves a shipment exists without also acting as a title document.
Charter Party
The contract between a vessel's owner and whoever is renting it, setting out the terms of use.
Consignee
The person or company a shipment is being delivered to.
Shipper
The person or company sending the cargo.
Notify Party
Whoever should be told when a shipment arrives, often the consignee's agent.
Pre-alert
An early notice sent to a port or agent that a shipment is on its way, ahead of the formal paperwork.
Delivery Order
The document that authorizes a port or terminal to release cargo to whoever is collecting it.
Freight Forwarder
A company that arranges shipping on a shipper's behalf, without owning the vessel itself.
FCL (Full Container Load)
A shipment large enough to fill an entire container on its own.
LCL (Less than Container Load)
A smaller shipment that shares container space with other shippers' cargo.
TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit)
The standard unit for counting container capacity, based on the size of a 20-foot container.
Demurrage
A fee charged when a container stays at a port longer than its free time allows.
Detention
A fee charged when a container is kept outside the port, at a customer's site for example, longer than agreed.
Laytime
The time allowed for loading or unloading a vessel before extra charges start.
Incoterms
A standard set of international trade terms, like FOB or CIF, that define who is responsible for goods at each stage of a shipment.
B2B Order
A commercial order between two businesses that often follows its own negotiated terms rather than a standard booking flow.
Certificate of Origin
A document certifying which country a shipment's goods were produced or manufactured in, often required by customs to apply the correct tariffs.
Packing List
An itemized list of exactly what's inside a shipment, quantities, weights, and dimensions, used alongside the invoice and bill of lading.
Commercial Invoice
The seller's bill to the buyer for the goods being shipped, used by customs to assess duties and value the cargo.
Insurance Certificate
Proof that a shipment is covered against loss or damage in transit, often required before a bank will release payment.
Seaway Bill
A non-negotiable shipping document similar to a waybill, used for sea freight when a title document isn't needed to release the cargo.
Phytosanitary Certificate
A certificate confirming a shipment of plants or plant products is free of pests and disease, required by many countries for agricultural imports.
Fumigation Certificate
Proof that a container or its packaging, often wood, has been treated against pests before shipping.
Dangerous Goods Declaration (IMDG)
A declaration required for cargo classified as hazardous, identifying it under the IMDG Code so it's stowed and handled safely.
Letter of Credit (L/C)
A bank's guarantee of payment to a seller, released once the seller proves the shipment happened, commonly used in international trade.
Shipping Instructions
Details a shipper sends the carrier or forwarder about how a shipment should be booked, documented, and handled.
Booking Confirmation
The carrier's confirmation that space has been reserved for a shipment on a specific voyage.
General Average
A principle where, if cargo or vessel is deliberately sacrificed to save a voyage from a shared danger, everyone with cargo aboard shares the loss proportionally.
Salvage
The recovery of a ship, its cargo, or both after an accident, and the legal claim a rescuer can make for having done it.
Charter Management
The administrative side of renting vessels: tracking hire payments, charter terms, and redelivery conditions.
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
A standard format for exchanging shipping documents, like bookings or invoices, directly between two companies' systems instead of by email or paper.
Vessels & fleet
Vessel
Any ship or boat used to carry cargo or passengers by water.
Hull
The main body of a ship, the part that sits in the water.
Bow
The front of a vessel.
Stern
The back of a vessel.
Port (side)
The left side of a vessel when facing forward. Not to be confused with a port, the place a vessel docks.
Starboard
The right side of a vessel when facing forward.
Bridge
The control room of a vessel, where navigation and command actually happen.
Draft (or Draught)
How deep a vessel sits in the water, measured from the waterline to the bottom of the hull. It sets the minimum water depth a vessel needs to sail safely.
Deadweight Tonnage (DWT)
The total weight a vessel can safely carry: cargo, fuel, crew, and supplies combined.
Gross Tonnage (GT)
A measure of a vessel's overall internal volume, used for registration and regulation rather than cargo weight.
Bulk Carrier
A vessel built to carry loose cargo, like grain, coal, or ore, without containers.
Container Ship
A vessel built specifically to carry standardized shipping containers.
Tanker
A vessel built to carry liquid cargo, such as oil or chemicals, in bulk.
Tugboat
A small, powerful vessel used to push or pull larger ships, especially inside a port.
Barge
A flat-bottomed vessel, often without its own engine, used to carry cargo on rivers or short coastal routes, usually towed or pushed.
Keel
The structural backbone running along the bottom of a hull, from bow to stern.
Ballast
Weight, often water, carried inside a vessel to keep it stable when it isn't fully loaded with cargo.
LOA (Length Overall)
A vessel's total length, measured from the very front to the very back.
Beam
A vessel's width at its widest point.
Depth
The vertical distance from a vessel's keel to its main deck, a structural measurement, not to be confused with draft (how deep it sits in the water) or water depth.
Displacement Tonnage
The actual weight of water a vessel displaces while floating, equal to the vessel's own total weight, cargo included.
Ro-Ro Vessel
Short for roll-on/roll-off: a vessel built so vehicles can be driven directly on and off, rather than lifted by crane.
Reefer Ship
A vessel built to carry refrigerated cargo, keeping perishable goods at controlled temperatures for the whole voyage.
LNG Carrier
A vessel built to carry liquefied natural gas, kept in specialized insulated tanks at extremely low temperatures.
Feeder Vessel
A smaller vessel that moves cargo between a regional port and a larger hub port, where it's transferred onto bigger ships for the main voyage.
Bunkering
The process of supplying fuel to a vessel, whether at a port, an anchorage, or from another ship.
Fleet Registry
Inside SEALUTION: every vessel's specs, capacity, ownership, and current operating status, kept in one place.
Vessel Documents
Inside SEALUTION: the certificates and permits tied to a vessel, with expiry tracking so nothing lapses mid-charter.
Sea & navigation
Nautical Mile
A unit of sea distance, about 1.852 kilometers, based on the Earth's circumference rather than a fixed length like a land mile.
Knot
A vessel's speed, measured in nautical miles per hour.
Bathymetry
The measurement and mapping of water depth, so routing knows how deep the sea actually is, not just where the land is.
Nautical Chart
A map of the sea showing depth, hazards, and navigable routes, the maritime version of a road map.
Waypoint
A specific point along a planned route that a vessel is meant to pass through.
Route (or Routing)
The planned path a vessel takes between two ports, calculated to avoid land, shallow water, and unnecessary distance.
Anchorage
An area near a port where vessels can wait, safely anchored, until a berth becomes available.
Berth
A specific docking spot at a port where a vessel loads, unloads, or waits.
Buoy
A floating marker used to guide vessels, mark hazards, or show the edges of a safe channel.
Pilot
A local navigation expert who boards a vessel to guide it safely through a specific port or channel.
Mooring
Securing a vessel in place, whether at a berth, a buoy, or an anchorage.
Strait
A narrow stretch of water connecting two larger bodies of water, often a critical and congested shipping route.
Port of Call
Any port a vessel stops at during its voyage, not necessarily its final destination.
ETA / ETD
Estimated Time of Arrival and Estimated Time of Departure.
AIS (Automatic Identification System)
A tracking system that broadcasts a vessel's position, speed, and identity, so nearby ships and shore stations can see it.
Under Keel Clearance (UKC)
The gap between the bottom of a vessel's hull and the seabed, the real safety margin that depth checks and routing exist to protect.
Tidal Window
A limited stretch of time around high tide when a vessel has enough water depth to safely enter or leave a shallow port.
Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS)
A designated shipping lane system, similar to a highway, that keeps vessels moving in opposite directions apart in busy or narrow waters.
ECDIS
Electronic Chart Display and Information System: a digital navigation system showing a vessel's position on an electronic chart in real time, largely replacing paper charts on modern bridges.
Weather Routing
Planning or adjusting a voyage's path based on forecast weather and sea conditions, to avoid rough seas or take advantage of favorable currents.
Speed Over Ground (SOG)
A vessel's actual speed relative to the seabed, as opposed to its speed through the water, which current can push faster or slower.
High Risk Area (Piracy)
A designated sea region where the risk of piracy or armed robbery is elevated enough that vessels take extra precautions transiting it.
Regulatory & compliance
IMO (International Maritime Organization)
The United Nations agency responsible for global standards on shipping safety and pollution prevention.
SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea)
The main international treaty setting minimum safety standards for merchant ships.
MARPOL
The international convention for preventing pollution from ships, covering oil, chemicals, sewage, and garbage.
ISPS Code
International Ship and Port Facility Security Code, the international framework for securing ships and ports against security threats.
ISM Code
International Safety Management Code, an international standard for the safe management and operation of ships.
Port State Control
Inspections a foreign port can carry out on a visiting vessel to check it meets international safety and documentation standards.
Flag State
The country a vessel is registered in, whose laws and safety standards it operates under no matter where it sails.
Cabotage
The rule, called the Cabotage Principle in Indonesia, that restricts domestic sea transport to vessels flagged in that country.
Classification Society
An independent organization that inspects and certifies that a vessel meets structural and safety standards.
SIUPAL
An Indonesian shipping business license required to legally operate a sea freight company.
IMO FAL Convention
The international convention standardizing the paperwork, like cargo and crew declarations, used when a ship arrives at or leaves a port.
COLREGs
The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, the global rulebook for who gives way to whom when vessels approach each other.
Class Notation
A code a classification society assigns to a vessel, showing exactly what standards it was built and inspected to meet.
Ballast Water Management Convention (BWM)
An international rule requiring vessels to treat or exchange ballast water, to stop invasive species from spreading between ports.
SEEMP
Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan: a required plan describing how a vessel will monitor and improve its fuel efficiency over time.
CII (Carbon Intensity Indicator)
A rating that scores how much CO2 a vessel emits relative to the cargo it carries and distance sailed, used to grade a ship's efficiency.
EU ETS
The EU Emissions Trading System: a European Union scheme that charges shipping companies for the carbon emissions of voyages touching EU ports.
Maritime Labour Convention (MLC)
An international treaty setting minimum standards for seafarers' working and living conditions aboard ship.
P&I Club
Protection and Indemnity Club: a mutual insurance association covering a shipowner's liability risks, like injury, pollution, or cargo damage, that standard hull insurance doesn't.
Emissions Tracking
Recording and reporting a vessel or fleet's fuel use and emissions, the underlying data that regulations like CII and SEEMP are built on.
Warehouse & inventory
WMS (Warehouse Management System)
The software that tracks what stock is where inside a warehouse, and every movement that put it there.
SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)
The code identifying one distinct product, so two similar items can be told apart on a shelf and on a report.
Bin Location
The smallest addressable place in a warehouse, usually one shelf position in one rack, where a specific quantity of stock physically sits.
Put-away
Moving received goods from the receiving dock to the bin they will actually live in. Receiving and putting away are separate steps because stock can be in the building without anyone being able to find it.
Picking
Collecting the items an order needs from their bin locations, ready to be packed.
Pick Face
The bin a picker actually reaches into, as opposed to bulk storage higher up or further back that gets replenished down into it.
Cycle Count
Counting a small slice of the warehouse regularly instead of shutting the whole building once a year to count everything.
Stock Adjustment
A recorded correction to on-hand quantity, written as a movement with a reason, rather than an edit that overwrites the previous number.
Custody Stock
Goods physically held in your warehouse that belong to your customer. Tracked, counted and billed for like any stock, but never counted as your asset.
Own Stock
Goods you actually bought and own, which do appear on your balance sheet, as distinct from custody stock you are merely holding.
UOM (Unit of Measure)
The unit a quantity is expressed in, such as each, carton or pallet, together with the conversions between them, so 'ten' is never ambiguous.
Slotting
Deciding where each item should be stored based on how often it is picked, so the busiest items sit closest to the picker.
Goods Receipt Note (GRN)
The document recording what actually arrived against what was expected, including any shortfall or damage.
Yard Management
Tracking containers and trailers in the yard outside the building, by row, stack and tier, rather than as a list of numbers.
Stock Ledger
The complete record of every stock movement. On-hand quantity is calculated from it, which is what makes a stock figure something you can prove.
Maintenance & class
PMS (Planned Maintenance System)
The system that schedules maintenance before something breaks, based on time elapsed or hours run, rather than reacting after a failure.
Running Hours
How long a piece of machinery has actually operated. The meter most marine maintenance intervals are written against, because a laid-up engine does not wear out on a calendar.
Whichever-First Interval
A maintenance interval written as 'every six months or 1,000 running hours, whichever comes first'. Both clocks run, and the job falls due on the earlier of the two.
Work Order
The record of one maintenance job: what was to be done, who did it, what parts it used, and who verified it afterwards.
Critical Equipment
Machinery whose failure affects safety or breaches class or statutory requirements. Jobs on it can only be postponed through an approved deferral, never by editing a date.
Deferral (Waiver)
Formal, reasoned and approved permission to postpone a critical maintenance job. Requires a second person to approve, so it is a decision rather than a delay.
Condition Monitoring
Watching vibration, temperature, oil analysis and similar signals to catch a fault developing before it becomes a breakdown.
Dry Dock
Taking a vessel out of the water for hull work, survey and major maintenance. Planned years ahead because the slot has to be booked and the ship earns nothing while it is there.
Bottom Survey
Inspection of a vessel's underwater hull, required at intervals by class, which may be done in dry dock or, under some conditions, afloat.
Special Survey
The major class inspection carried out every five years, far more thorough than the annual and intermediate surveys between them.
Statutory Survey
An inspection required by law or convention, such as SOLAS or MARPOL, as opposed to one required by the classification society.
Survey Window
The period during which a survey may legally be carried out. A survey has a range, not just a date, which is why a deadline alone is not enough to plan against.
PSC Deficiency
A fault recorded by a port state control inspector. Serious ones can detain the vessel until they are rectified.
Near Miss
An incident that could have caused harm but did not. Recorded deliberately, because the pattern of near misses is the warning that arrives before an accident does.
Odometer
The distance meter on a vehicle. For road fleet maintenance it does the job running hours do at sea: the interval that matters is use, not time.
Finance & accounting
Double-entry Bookkeeping
The method where every transaction is recorded twice, as a debit and an equal credit, so the books can be checked against themselves.
General Ledger
The complete record of every accounting entry, from which every financial statement is produced.
Chart of Accounts
The structured list of accounts a business posts to, the categories that give a transaction its meaning.
Journal Entry
One accounting transaction, with its debits and credits, which must balance exactly before it can be posted.
Trial Balance
A listing of every account balance, where total debits must equal total credits. If it does not balance, something is wrong before you even look at the statements.
Accounts Receivable (AR)
Money customers owe you. Ageing groups it by how overdue it is, which is what turns a balance into a collections list.
Accounts Payable (AP)
Money you owe suppliers: bunker vendors, port agents, hauliers.
Credit Note
A document reducing what a customer owes, issued instead of editing the original invoice, so the correction is visible.
Bank Reconciliation
Matching bank statement lines against the ledger. The lines that do not match are the point of the exercise.
Depreciation
Spreading an asset's cost across the years it is used, rather than charging it all in the year it was bought.
Book vs Fiscal Depreciation
The same asset depreciated on two different schedules: one for financial reporting, one for tax. They genuinely differ, and both have to be kept.
Period Close
Locking an accounting period so no further entries can be posted to it. A period that can still be edited is not closed.
Accrual
Recognising a cost or revenue in the period it belongs to, even if the cash moves later.
PPN
Indonesian value-added tax. Calculated on a fraction basis rather than a flat percentage, which is where hand-built spreadsheets tend to drift.
PPh 15
An Indonesian final income tax regime available to certain shipping operators. It applies to some and not others, so it is opt-in rather than assumed.
Voyage Result
The profit or loss of a single voyage once its revenue and all its costs, fuel, port charges, agency, are attributed to it.
Cost Centre
The part of the business a cost is attributed to, such as a vessel, a route or a warehouse, so profitability can be read where it is earned.
Inside SEALUTION
Voyage
One complete trip a vessel makes from one port to another, or a chain of ports, tracked as a single unit on the platform.
Shipment
A single consignment of cargo, tracked from booking through delivery, which may travel as part of a larger voyage.
Routing Engine
The part of the platform that calculates sea routes automatically, checking depth, coastlines, and known shortcuts.
Ocean Graph
The precomputed map of navigable sea used by Routing Engine 2.0, built from thousands of connected water cells, so a route becomes a lookup instead of a fresh calculation.
GPS Trail
The path a vessel actually sailed, captured from live position data, used both for tracking and for improving future routes.
Domain-bound License
A SEALUTION license tied to a specific domain, like your production server, part of the platform's one-time-payment model.
Business Provisioning
Loading your operation's ports, routes, fleet, and pricing into the platform before it goes live.
Container Grid
A live, visual grid showing every container's position, status, and history.
Lifecycle State
Inside SEALUTION: a container's current state, derived from its recorded movements rather than typed in, so it can always be rebuilt and always agrees with the paperwork.
Command Palette
Inside SEALUTION: press Ctrl+K and type where you want to go, in English or Indonesian. It navigates and searches, and the one thing it will write is a meter reading, read back for confirmation first.
Feature Control
Inside SEALUTION: the switchboard that turns whole modules on and off. Off means gone, not greyed out: no menu item, no reachable page.
Job Template
Inside SEALUTION: the definition of a recurring maintenance job, its interval and its expected spares, from which work orders are generated as they fall due.
Meter Reading
Inside SEALUTION: a logged running-hours or odometer figure. Readings are appended, never overwritten, so a mistyped number is corrected by logging the right one and the original stays visible.
Port Registry
Inside SEALUTION: your ports, terminals, berths, and agents, configured the way your operation actually works.
API Integration
Inside SEALUTION: the platform's own REST API, so other systems can call it directly, plus configurable integrations and webhooks that connect out to whatever you already run.
User Roles
Inside SEALUTION: the fine-grained access control, formally called Roles & permissions, that decides exactly what each team member can see and do.
Alerts & Notifications
Inside SEALUTION: the reminders the platform sends before something needs attention, like a vessel document about to expire or a task assigned to someone.
Historical Voyage Data
Inside SEALUTION: past voyages' recorded GPS trails and outcomes, kept so future routes and reports can be built on what actually happened, not just what was planned.
Performance KPIs
Inside SEALUTION: operational metrics, like turnaround time or fleet utilization, rolled up automatically from live data inside Reports & analytics.
Fuel Management
Inside SEALUTION: consumption profiles per vessel and bunkering records tied to each voyage, part of the Fuel & bunkering module.
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