# Vessel due diligence desk for pre-fixture screening

> Screen a ship before you fix it: particulars, twelve months of port calls and AIS gaps in one shared record, with a memo filed to Google Docs.

- Workflow type: app
- Services: MarineTraffic, General Input Database, Google Docs
- Categories: Operations
- Published: 2026-08-31

## What it does

- Search any ship by name or IMO and open a due diligence file showing its type, dimensions, flag and ownership, the last twelve months of port calls, and its recent movements.
- Keep one shared screening board of every vessel your desk has checked, each with a cleared, flagged or pending status, the analyst's notes and the date it was screened.
- Hit Run screening and a background agent checks the call history against your own watchlist of jurisdictions and ports, finds stretches where the ship stopped reporting its position, and writes a dated memo with a recommendation.
- Each memo is filed to Google Docs so it can go straight onto the fixture file, and re-screening keeps the previous memo so you can see what changed since the last check.

## What you'll need

- A MarineTraffic account with API access. Each MarineTraffic data service is sold separately and carries its own key, so you will need the keys covering vessel search, vessel particulars, port calls and historical positions.
- A Google account for filing the finished memos in Google Docs.
- Your compliance team's list of watchlisted jurisdictions and ports, which you enter and maintain inside the app itself.

## Prompt

Build a vessel due diligence desk that our compliance and chartering analysts open to screen a ship before we fix it. Everything the app stores lives in General Input Database, so the desk keeps one shared record instead of a folder of PDFs on someone's drive: the vessel records, the watchlist and the memo history all sit there.

The home view is a screening board listing every vessel we have screened. Each row shows the vessel name, the identifier the analyst used, the type and flag, a status of cleared, flagged or pending, the analyst's notes and the date screened. Analysts can filter by status, sort by date screened, edit the status and notes inline, and open any vessel to its detail page. Status and notes are always set by the analyst and stored in General Input Database.

An analyst starts a screening by searching. The search box accepts either a vessel name or an identifier. For a name, use MarineTraffic Search Vessel by Name, which matches partial names, and show the results with name, type, flag, IMO and MMSI so the analyst can pick the right ship out of several similar names. For an identifier, use MarineTraffic Search Vessel by Identifier, which accepts shipid, MMSI or IMO. Accept any of the three and keep whichever identifier the analyst used on the vessel record.

Opening a vessel shows its due diligence file. A header carries the particulars from MarineTraffic Vessel Particulars: type, dimensions, flag, ownership and the rest of the master data. Below it, show the last twelve months of Single Vessel Port Calls as a table of arrivals and departures with port, country, timestamps, time in port and draught, and the vessel's recent movements from Single Vessel Historical Track. Single Vessel Positions can supply a current position and voyage line for the top of the page.

A settings view holds the watchlist our compliance team maintains inside the app: jurisdictions such as countries or flag states, and specific ports, each with a note on why it is listed. Analysts can add, edit and remove entries. The watchlist lives in General Input Database and is shared across the whole desk.

Every vessel page has a Run screening button that fires a background agent. The agent pulls the particulars, the twelve month port call history and the historical track over the same period. It checks every port call against the watchlist and lists each match with the port, the country, the arrival and departure timestamps and the watchlist reason. It then derives AIS gaps from the track: walk the reported positions in time order, find every interval between consecutive positions longer than a threshold the analyst can set with a default of seventy two hours, and report the gap start, the gap end, the duration and the last reported position before the vessel went quiet, including coordinates and nearest area. AIS gap detection is derived in the app from the track. It is not something the API returns.

The agent then writes a due diligence memo covering the particulars, a summary of the call history, the watchlist matches, the AIS gaps and a recommendation. It saves the memo onto the vessel record and files a copy to Google Docs, using Create Document for a document titled with the vessel name, identifier and screening date, then Batch Update Document to write the body, so the memo can be attached to the fixture file. Save the Google Docs link on the record and show it on the vessel page.

Every finding in the memo carries the timestamp it came from: each watchlist match cites its port call timestamps, and each AIS gap cites its start and end. All MarineTraffic timestamps are UTC and should be labelled as such. Re-screening a vessel must keep the previous memo, so store memos as a dated history on the vessel record and show them newest first, each with its own Google Docs link, letting an analyst open the previous memo and see what changed since the last check.

The app takes no position on whether a gap is innocent. Plenty of them have ordinary explanations, so the memo presents the findings and a recommendation and the analyst sets the status. Never auto-flag a vessel as suspect.

## How to customize

- Set the threshold that counts as a reporting gap. Seventy two hours is the default, tighten or loosen it to match your risk appetite.
- Change the lookback window from twelve months to whatever your counterparty policy requires. Port call and position history reaches back to January 2015.
- Edit the watchlist of jurisdictions and ports at any time, and adjust the status labels your desk works with.

## FAQ

### Does this decide whether a vessel is suspect?

No. The app presents its findings with the timestamps they came from, plus a recommendation, and your analyst sets the status. Gaps in position reporting often have perfectly ordinary explanations, so the judgement stays with your compliance team.

### How far back can we look?

Twelve months by default. Port calls and historical positions are available from January 2015, so you can extend the lookback if your counterparty policy asks for more.

### Can we search by IMO or MMSI instead of the name?

Yes. You can search by vessel name or by any identifier your desk uses, including IMO, MMSI or the MarineTraffic ship id, and the app keeps whichever identifier you used on the record.

### What happens when we screen the same vessel again?

The previous memo is kept. Every screening is stored as a dated entry on the vessel record, so an analyst can open the last memo and compare it against the new one.

### Where do the finished memos end up?

On the vessel record inside the app and as a copy in Google Docs, with the document link saved on the record so you can attach it to the fixture file.

Use this prompt in General Input: https://www.generalinput.com/prompts/vessel-due-diligence-desk-for-pre-fixture-screening