Case
One transaction — a charter, a clearance, a survey, a booking — carried as a single numbered record from the moment it is opened to the moment it is closed.
The case engine
A case is a transaction with a reference, a fixed sequence of steps, one owner on every step, and a written reason whenever it stops. This page sets out what a case holds, who is permitted to read which part of it, and the words the engine is allowed to use.
A case, a step, an owner, an entry
Four words carry most of the platform. They mean the same thing on every case, in every division, and nothing on this site uses them loosely.
Step
One unit of work inside a case. A step has a number, a name, exactly one owner, a status, and the documents it requires. A case is its steps, in order, and the sequence is set by the process rather than by whoever opened it.
Owner
The role that owes the next action on a step. Always a role — shipper, owner, surveyor, customs broker — and never a named individual, so a case does not stall because one person is travelling.
Entry
A line in the record. An entry states what happened, which role did it, and when. Entries are appended and never rewritten, so the history of a case is the case.
One case, eight steps, stopped at four
The same case as the home page, shown here for the detail rather than for the argument. Step 4 is blocked on an expired attestation; the three steps that depend on it are held rather than silently late, and the step running against a clock shows what is left of it.
Case fileStatus: blocked
BSL-2026-0417
12,400 MT bagged urea
- Case reference
- BSL-2026-0417
- Process
- Bulk charter, 8 steps
- Opened
- 2026-03-04
- Cargo
- 12,400 MT bagged urea
- HS code
- 3102.10
- Load port
- Ruwais (AERUW)
- Discharge port
- Paranaguá (BRPNG)
- Laycan
- 2026-03-22 / 2026-03-27
- Parties
- Shipper, owner, surveyor, chamber, customs broker
- Watching
- Issuing bank, cargo underwriter
Step 1: Counterparty verification
Status: doneCompleted byBluesealine
Trade licence and sanctions screening cleared on both principals.
Step 2: Fixture note
Status: doneCompleted byBroker
Terms agreed and countersigned. Freight and demurrage recorded on the case.
Step 3: Pre-shipment inspection
Status: doneCompleted bySurveyor
Bag count, moisture and stow condition attended and reported at the load port.
Step 4: Certificate of origin
Status: blockedOwed byShipper
Chamber-attested origin is required before the bill of lading can be issued.
EXPIRED_CERT
The chamber attestation on file expired on 2026-02-28. A current attestation is needed from the shipper before this step can clear.
Step 5: Vessel nomination and class
Status: activeOwed byOwner
Class certificates and P&I cover are under review against the fixture.
14h left of 48h
Step 6: Bill of lading
Status: pendingOwed byOwner
Cannot be issued until origin is attested.
Held until step 04 clears.
Step 7: Customs declaration
Status: pendingOwed byCustoms broker
Lodged against the bill of lading and the attested origin.
Held until step 04 clears.
Step 8: Discharge and statement of facts
Status: pendingOwed byAgent
Laytime and demurrage are computed from the signed statement of facts.
Held until step 04 clears.
This is a worked example, not a real case. No company shown here is a customer, and the reference, cargo and dates are invented to show how a blocked step holds the steps that depend on it.
Who sees which part of a case
Visibility is resolved per role every time the case is read. A party is shown the case, not a copy of it, so nobody has to decide what to forward and nobody is left off a thread.
Read access by role
- Principal
- The whole case. The principal opened it and carries the commercial terms, every step, every document and every entry.
- Counterparty
- Every step, its owner and its status, the terms it is party to, and the documents addressed to it. Not another party's rates.
- Verifier
- The step it is named on and the documents that step requires. A surveyor attending a load port is not shown the freight.
- Observer
- Step, status, owner, dates and the reason for any blockage. No commercial terms and no document contents. This is the bank and the insurer.
- Bluesealine
- The record, in order to operate it and to answer a question about it. Bluesealine is not a party to any trade on the platform.
An observer is the reason this matters. A bank or a cargo underwriter can watch a case move and see where it has stopped without being shown the freight rate, because the record answers per role. There is no setting that widens that, and no document is emailed around to achieve it.
Five step states, and no sixth
A step is in exactly one of five states. The word is always shown; the colour beside it is a second channel and never the only one.
- Status: done
The step is complete and the evidence for it is on the record.
- Status: active
Work is happening now. The step has one owner and, where the process sets one, a time limit running against it.
- Status: blocked
Something is required before the step can move.
A blocked step always carries an issue code and a written reason, and every later step that depends on it is shown as held behind it.
- Status: pending
Queued behind an earlier step. Nothing is wrong; the step cannot start yet.
- Status: held
Paused deliberately, by the parties or by an authority. A hold stops the clock on the step rather than letting it run out against whoever is waiting.
Why a case stops: the eight issue codes
A blocked step names one code from a closed list, and then states in a sentence what is actually wrong and who can fix it. The list is closed on purpose. Free text cannot be counted, compared between cases or escalated, and a code that anyone can invent means nothing a week after it was written.
- MISSING_DOC
A document the step requires has not been filed by its deadline.
Effect The step is blocked, and its clock keeps running.
Clears when The owner of the step files it.
- EXPIRED_CERT
A certificate the step depends on has passed its expiry date, whether it was filed on the case or held in the company's registry record.
Effect The step is blocked, and the steps that depend on it are held behind it.
Clears when The holder of the credential files a current one, recorded with its issuer, issue date and expiry.
- DATA_MISMATCH
A field on a document contradicts the case record — a tonnage, a cargo description, a port or a date.
Effect The step goes to correction. One retry, then it escalates.
Clears when The party that submitted it files a corrected document.
- REJECTED_BY_VERIFIER
A verifier has declined the submission and given a written reason.
Effect The step goes to correction, and the reason is visible to the parties.
Clears when The owner of the step addresses the reason and resubmits.
- AUTHORITY_HOLD
An external body — customs, a port, a chamber, a class society — has stopped the file, and nobody on the case can move it.
Effect The case is flagged and the clock is paused, because the delay is not the owner's to answer for.
Clears when The broker or agent returns the authority's decision to the case.
- PAYMENT_PENDING
A fee the step depends on has not been settled.
Effect The step is blocked until settlement is confirmed.
Clears when The payer settles it and the settlement is recorded against the step.
- SLA_BREACH
A step has run past the time the process allows for it.
Effect It escalates to Bluesealine and counts against the provider's record on the platform.
Clears when Raised by the system, not by a party. It closes when the step completes.
- COUNTERPARTY_UNVERIFIED
A party has lost its verified status while the case was running.
Effect The case is flagged and no new step opens until it is resolved.
Clears when The party restores verification against the same checks a listing requires.
What the record guarantees
Six properties of a case, each of which holds on every case or is not worth writing down.
Every case has one reference
A case is opened with a reference, and that reference carries every step, document, entry and message belonging to it. There is no second identifier to reconcile.
Every step has one owner
Exactly one role owes the next action at any moment. A step owned by two parties is a step neither of them moves.
Every stop has a reason in writing
A blocked step names a code from the closed list and states in a sentence what is required and from whom. A case never simply goes quiet.
Nothing is edited after the fact
Entries are appended. A correction is a new entry that states what it corrects, and the entry it corrects stays readable.
Time sits on the step it governs
Where a process sets a time limit, the limit and what is left of it are shown on the step itself, and a hold by an authority stops the clock rather than running it down.
Every party reads one record
What a party may read differs by role, but there is a single record. Nobody is working from a copy that somebody else chose to forward.
Where this stands today The case engine is specified and being built. Bluesealine is not operating cases for customers yet, so nothing on this page is a record of one. What is open now is the registry: a company can ask to be listed, and verification is what listing requires.
Registry
List your company
Tell us what your company does and which division it belongs in. We will write back with what we need to verify it.