Phlo Systems
How we run trade

Eight processes. One trade record.

International trade runs on eight processes — from pre-trade feasibility to cash-to-cash settlement. Most software tackles one or two and leaves the rest in spreadsheets and inboxes. Phlo runs all eight on a single tenant, against a single trade record. The friction lives between processes — so we removed the gaps.

We don’t sell software modules. We run processes.

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Process 01

Pre-trade feasibility

Before you commit to a deal, know what it will actually cost to land.

Today
  • Differential to ICE estimated by hand against last week's basis
  • Freight rate emailed from the forwarder, comes back the next day
  • EUDR readiness of the supplier checked over a phone call
  • Sanctions check is a manual list lookup, often skipped
With Phlo
  • Live differential to ICE London / NY snapped to the offer
  • Live freight rate by origin-destination corridor
  • EUDR readiness check on the supplier — geolocation + DDS status
  • Continuous sanctions screening on supplier, originator and any group entities
Outcome
30 seconds — differential, freight, financing, EUDR, sanctions, all on one screen
Process 02

Counterparty onboarding

Vet new suppliers and customers in hours, not weeks — and keep both sides monitored continuously.

Today
  • KYC done in spreadsheets and shared drives
  • Sanctions checked once at onboarding, then forgotten
  • Credit references collected over email, never re-checked
  • Customer credit limits set in the ERP without context
With Phlo
  • Structured counterparty record with every document attached
  • Continuous sanctions monitoring — alerts when status changes on either side
  • Credit limits, payment terms and group hierarchy version-controlled
  • Customer credit usage live across all open trades
Outcome
24 hours to a fully onboarded counterparty
Process 03

Contract & trade execution

Pricing terms, fixations, optionalities, amendments, rollovers — and quote-to-ship-to-document — all on the same trade record.

Today
  • Deal sheet in Excel; PTBF status, fixations and rollovers tracked in side workbooks
  • Contract amendments via signed PDF; trail spread across emails
  • Customs declaration re-typed from PO into broker software
  • Documents (BL, CI, ICCO cert, phytosanitary, fumigation, COA) scattered across inboxes
With Phlo
  • Pricing terms (fixed, PTBF, differential) with fixations and rollovers tracked live against ICE futures
  • Optionalities (buyer / seller call, shipment period, origin choice) and amendments captured with full audit trail
  • Multi-leg trades, hedges, freight booking and container tracking attached to the same record
  • Customs declaration files directly to HMRC CDS / NL DMS / NCTS6
Outcome
1 contract + trade record, not five separate systems
Process 04

Logistics & freight

Quote, book, track and reconcile freight — without leaving the trade record.

Today
  • Freight quotes collected over email from 3-5 forwarders
  • Booking confirmation lives in someone's inbox
  • Container tracking via the carrier's portal — one tab per shipment
  • Demurrage and detention exposure unknown until the bill arrives
With Phlo
  • Quote-to-book inside the trade record; multi-carrier comparison built in
  • Container + vessel tracking live alongside the trade — no portal-hopping
  • Demurrage + detention clocks running in real time, alerts before they trigger
  • Port-handling, freight forwarder fees and last-mile costs auto-link
Outcome
Zero tabs to keep open in your browser
Process 05

Quality control, claims & EUDR

Inspection, grading, certificates, arrival re-test, dispute resolution — and EUDR-ready due diligence on the day the regulation lands.

Today
  • Pre-shipment inspection booked separately with SGS / Bureau Veritas / Cotecna / Intertek
  • Bean count, moisture, defect % and foreign matter tracked in side spreadsheets
  • Quality certificates emailed as PDFs; arrival re-test re-keyed; disputes drag for weeks
  • EUDR / due-diligence data scrambled together by hand at the last minute
With Phlo
  • All cocoa specs — bean count, moisture, defects (slaty, mouldy, insect-damaged), foreign matter — pre-loaded against contract
  • Inspection booking inside the trade record; arrival re-test attached to the same record
  • Supplier quality history — every claim, every grade — surfaced before the next purchase
  • EUDR-ready: geolocation, DDS reference number generation per shipment
Outcome
One view of every quality + EUDR datum for a trade
Process 06

Risk management

Live position, live M2M, live differentials by origin — and PnL attribution that explains every penny of margin.

Today
  • Positions tracked in spreadsheets, refreshed weekly
  • Differential to ICE estimated on the back of an envelope
  • PnL attribution post-mortem'd weeks after the trade
  • Hedge cover hand-calculated; margin calls land as surprise emails
With Phlo
  • Live position book + M2M against ICE London / NY price curves
  • Live differential curves by origin (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Ecuador, Indonesia)
  • PnL attribution by trade, by origin, by hedge leg
  • Hedge tracking (futures + options) via your clearing broker
Outcome
Live position, M2M, differentials, PnL attribution
Process 07

Cash flow & trade finance

Real-time cash position, structured-finance instruments, and FX cover in one view.

Today
  • Cash projection built manually each Monday — drift by Wednesday
  • Borrowing-base reporting compiled by hand; covenant headroom a guess
  • PXF, LCs, bank guarantees, warehouse finance tracked in separate spreadsheets
  • Receivables financing / factoring decisions made deal-by-deal, often too late
With Phlo
  • Live cash position across all bank accounts and currencies
  • Trade-finance instruments wired in: borrowing-base, PXF, structured commodity finance, LCs, supply-chain finance, factoring, warehouse finance
  • Borrowing-base reports auto-compiled from live stock + receivables
  • Receivables-finance recommendations surface as soon as the BL is cleared
Outcome
30% error bar gone from the cash projection
Process 08

Cash-to-cash cycle

Vessel events trigger payments. Reconciliation happens automatically. Capital cycles faster.

Today
  • Payment release tied to manual document checks
  • Reconciliation between bank statement and AR/AP done weekly
  • Vessel arrival confirmed by phone calls to forwarder
  • GL postings done at month-end
With Phlo
  • Vessel-tracking events trigger payment release automatically
  • Live bank-feed reconciliation — exceptions surfaced, matches auto-cleared
  • Container / vessel ETA visible alongside the trade
  • GL postings continuous, not periodic
Outcome
15-30 days off the cash-to-cash cycle
The integration thesis

The same trade record flows through all eight processes.

The friction in trade today is everywhere betweensystems — the broker portal that doesn’t talk to your ERP, the bank statement that has to be re-keyed into the GL, the customs value entered at spot FX while your books carry the trade at the locked-forward rate. Single-tenant means one customer record, one supplier record, one trade record. No integration projects between modules — there are no modules, just one platform.

−30 to −40%
Trade-ops headcount
−15 to −30 days
Cash-to-cash cycle
Systematic
FTA savings captured
Queryable
Audit position, every artefact
Get started

Most customers are live in days. The biggest are live in weeks.

Days to start with a customs / declarations wedge. Weeks for a full opsPhlo deployment. Quarters for all eight processes — TORQ shipped in four months and scaled from 50 to 8,000 containers / year on Phlo.

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