The last night of a charter is the wrong time to discover the state of your APA account. Yet that is exactly when many captains find out — sitting over a laptop after service, sorting a stack of receipts, hoping the total lands where it should. This guide covers how to keep the APA under control from day one, and how to hand over a final statement that gets signed without an argument.
What the APA covers, briefly
The Advance Provisioning Allowance is the guest's money, held and spent by the yacht on the guest's behalf: fuel, dockage, provisioning, food and drink, and any extras requested during the trip. It is typically paid before the charter as a percentage of the charter fee. Two things follow from that, and both matter for reconciliation:
- Because it is the guest's money, every euro of it must be accounted for — with a receipt.
- Because it is an estimate, it can run out. Watching the balance is part of the job.
Why reconciliation goes wrong
Almost every messy final statement has the same root cause: the accounts were done in batches instead of as the money was spent. A few days of receipts wait in a drawer, then a few more, and by the final week the backlog is large enough that nobody wants to touch it. Add cash spending in more than one currency, receipts held by different heads of department, and a guest asking "how are we doing on the APA?" — and the last night becomes an accounting shift.
The fix is not discipline on the last night. It is a habit during the charter.
During the charter: three habits
1. Log every payment the day it happens. Fuel, berth, market run, florist — the entry takes a minute when the receipt is in your hand and the amount is fresh. The same entry takes five minutes and a headache two weeks later.
2. Keep every receipt, and keep them in one place. Whatever your system — an envelope, a folder, a photo of each receipt on your phone — the rule is the same: one place, no exceptions. If a head of department spends, the receipt comes to you (or into the shared system) the same day. A missing receipt on the final statement is an invitation to a dispute.
3. Track the running balance, not just the spending. The question you must be able to answer at any moment is not "what have we spent?" but "what is left?" If the balance is heading toward zero before the charter is heading toward its end, you want to know mid-week — while there is still time to talk to the broker or the guest about a top-up — not on the last morning.
Showing the guest the account mid-charter
If the guest asks how the APA stands, show them — the same day, in a form they can read. An up-to-date account shared openly during the trip does two things: it removes the surprise from the final number, and it settles questions about individual expenses while everyone still remembers them. A charge queried on the day it was made is a conversation; the same charge queried two weeks later at disembarkation is a dispute.
The final statement
At the end of the charter, the guest should receive a statement that answers every question before it is asked. It needs:
- Every expense, listed and categorised — fuel, dockage, provisioning, food and beverage, guest extras — with dates and amounts.
- Receipts to match — attached, referenced, or available on request, but existing for every line.
- The arithmetic in plain sight — APA received, total spent, and the balance: either the amount refunded to the guest, or the overage the guest owes.
- One currency for the totals — if spending happened in several currencies, convert to the charter's currency and show the totals in it.
Refund or overage is settled per the charter agreement — usually a refund of the unused balance, or payment of the difference before departure.
If a line is questioned
It happens: an amount looks unfamiliar, a category surprises someone, prices ashore were higher than the guest expected. The defence is the paperwork, not the argument. A dated receipt matched to a dated entry answers most questions on the spot. This is also why the mid-charter habit matters more than any end-of-charter effort: a statement built from day-one records holds up; a statement reconstructed on the last night invites exactly the questions it cannot answer.
The short version
Log daily, keep every receipt in one place, watch the balance, show the account when asked, and the final statement writes itself. The reconciliation you should be doing on the last night of a charter is none at all.