What's New in Sedna VMS: More of the Commercial Picture Behind Every Voyage
Voyage decisions rarely come down to one number.
Market conditions change. Contract terms can get complicated. Emissions costs affect voyage economics. And there’s a difference between a Time Charter agreement that’s still being negotiated and one that’s ready for execution.
The challenge is keeping those commercial details connected as the voyage moves forward.
Across releases 8.29, 8.30, and 8.31, Sedna VMS introduces updates to voyage economics, Time Charter workflows, emissions settlement, and day-to-day voyage management.
These updates help chartering, operations, and finance teams keep more of the assumptions, agreements, and supporting information behind a voyage in VMS, from commercial negotiation through to execution.
Keep Voyage Economics Closer To Current Market Conditions
When assessing voyage economics, some numbers don’t stay still. Emission Allowance prices can change, meaning the price used in yesterday’s estimate may no longer reflect current market conditions.
Sedna VMS can now use live Emission Allowance market prices when calculating emission costs in a voyage estimate.
Users can link an Emission Allowance Market Index to a voyage, allowing the VMS to use market-based allowance prices in emissions cost calculations.
For charterers assessing whether a voyage makes commercial sense, this reduces the need to maintain allowance prices manually and helps keep emissions assumptions closer to current market conditions.
The capability applies to the allowance price used in the estimate. It does not forecast future allowance prices or automatically settle emissions costs.
Bring More Control To Time Charter Workflows
Time Charter agreements don't always move straight from negotiation to execution. Contract status needs to be confirmed, hire calculations may depend on changing market indices, and the same company information often needs to be entered across related voyages.
Recent Sedna VMS updates address each of these parts of the TC workflow:
1. Know when a Time Charter is ready to go:
A Time Charter can spend time between being negotiated and being confirmed. Until it’s fixed, it shouldn't be treated as an agreement ready for voyage execution.
TC In contracts can now be marked Fixed or Not Fixed. New TC In contracts start as Not Fixed and can be moved to Fixed once the agreement has been confirmed.
A voyage cannot be nominated against a Not Fixed TC In contract. A Fixed contract can only be moved back to Not Fixed when no linked voyages have reached Nominated status or higher.
This gives chartering and operations teams a clear control point between commercial negotiation and voyage execution, helping prevent nominations against agreements that haven't yet been fixed.
2. Handle the index-linked hire structure you've agreed:
Index-linked Time Charter contracts don't always apply the same percentage across every market level.
With Tiered Index Percentages, users can configure different Index Percentages for different market index levels.
With Tiered Index Percentages, users can configure different index percentages for different market index levels, allowing VMS to reflect more complex index-linked hire agreements in the TC rate calculation.
This allows more of the agreed hire structure to be represented directly in VMS, reducing the need for manual adjustments when the contract already defines how the percentage should change with the market.
Existing TC durations that use a single Index Percentage continue to work as before.
3. Spend less time entering the same TC details:
Creating TC voyages often involves information already recorded elsewhere in the system.
VMS can now automatically populate Owner, Charterer and Company information when users create TC In and TC Out voyages. For TC In voyages, Charterer information can default from the selected company. For TC Out voyages involving a vessel already on TC In, VMS can populate Owner and Company information from the vessel's existing TC In contract.
This means less repetitive lookup and data entry, with relevant counterparty and company information carried forward into the new voyage.
Keep Emissions Settlement Terms With The Contract
Estimating emissions costs is one part of the commercial picture. Teams also need to know how those costs have been agreed for settlement with the counterparty.
With Emission Settlement Terms, users can now record those agreements directly on Cargo and TC contracts.
Users can record settlement arrangements for emissions-related costs, including those associated with EU ETS and FuelEU, on Cargo and Time Charter contracts. Depending on the regulation and commercial agreement, these can include rate-based amounts, lump sums, and allowance transfers.
Users can also capture supporting commercial details, including currency, price, quantity, unit and amount.
For chartering and finance teams, this keeps the agreed settlement terms alongside the contract they relate to, making it easier to see how emissions-related costs are expected to be handled between counterparties.
While both emissions updates deal with commercial costs, they serve different purposes.
- Live Emission Allowance pricing brings current market prices into voyage estimates, helping teams assess voyage economics using more up-to-date assumptions.
- Emission Settlement Terms record how emissions-related costs have been agreed for settlement between counterparties.
One supports the estimate, the other captures the agreement behind settlement.
Find The Discussions And Documents Behind The Voyage
Not every voyage update involves a contract rule or calculation. Teams also rely on the comments, documents and supporting information that build up as work progresses.
Recent usability improvements make that information easier to find and work with:
1. Find the conversation you are looking for:
Improvements to Comments make it easier to filter discussions and navigate back to the relevant voyage context.
This makes it easier to find a particular discussion without having to search through unrelated comments.
2. Find supporting documents faster:
The updated Attachments panel makes supporting voyage documents easier to browse and access.
Supporting voyage documentation is easier to scan and access, particularly when several files are attached to the same workflow.
3. Move between voyage information on mobile:
Improved mobile navigation introduces persistent bottom navigation and easier access to Comments and Attachments within drawers.
This means that users can move between supporting information without leaving the current workflow.
More Of The Commercial Picture, From Agreement To Execution
For teams already using Sedna VMS, these updates bring more commercial detail into their existing workflows. They also show how VMS connects voyage economics, contract terms and supporting information as a voyage moves from negotiation into execution.
Charterers can assess voyage economics with more current emissions pricing. Teams managing Time Charters can distinguish between negotiated and fixed agreements, apply tiered index-linked hire calculations and reduce repetitive voyage setup. Chartering and finance teams can keep emissions settlement terms with the contracts where they were agreed.
Alongside improvements to comments, attachments and mobile navigation, these changes make it easier to work with the commercial assumptions, contract terms, and supporting information behind a voyage.
The releases also include stability and reliability improvements across Sedna VMS and its APIs.
Release Notes
For the full list of features, changes and fixes, please see the release notes.
