A padded bag of unmarked pieces
Your workshop makes rings, pendants and bands that need hallmarking before they can be sold as precious metal. Every week or two, a batch of unmarked pieces goes off to the assay office. Some are for stock, some are commissions with a customer waiting.
The batch is listed on the assay office's submission form, maybe with a copy kept in a folder. When the pieces come back, they are unwrapped at the bench, and the customer pieces go on to final polish. Now and then something comes back unmarked with a note, for example a solder issue or a fineness question, and it goes back into the queue.
When a customer rings about her wedding ring, you have to work out whether it is at the assay office, back and waiting for polish, or somewhere else entirely.
Why hallmarking is a blind spot
The hallmarking step sits between the workshop and the customer, and it often belongs to nobody in particular. The submission form is filled in for the assay office, not for your records, so the link between a commission number and a line on the form is lost.
Returns can be partial or contain pieces that need rework. If the batch is not checked off item by item, a rejected piece can sit on the side unnoticed.
Timing also matters. If a commission has a wedding date, the send-out date needs working back from it, and nobody is reminded when the deadline for the next batch is.
What an unrecorded batch costs
| Problem | Effect |
|---|---|
| Submission form is the only record | Cannot link a customer piece to its batch |
| Returns not checked item by item | Rejected pieces waiting unnoticed |
| No send-out deadlines | Commissions sent too late for their date |
| Charges not linked to pieces | Hallmarking costs missing from customer prices |
| No batch history | Hard to answer where a piece is |
What must be hallmarked, and to what standard, is set by the law and the assay offices. We do not advise on that. The issue here is purely knowing where your pieces are.
How we track pieces to the assay office and back
- Pieces ready for hallmarking are scanned into a batch from the commission, repair or stock record, with the metal and fineness they are to be marked at.
- The system produces a list for your records and fills in as much of the submission details as the assay office's process allows, so the same information is not written twice.
- Each batch records the date sent, the courier and tracking reference, and the expected return date based on your usual turnaround.
- Commissions with deadlines show the latest date a piece can go in a batch to be back in time, and the workshop gets a reminder when that date is near.
- When the batch returns, each piece is scanned back in and marked as hallmarked or returned with a note, and the note is kept on the piece.
- Hallmarking charges from the invoice are allocated to the pieces in the batch, so they can be included in commission and stock costs.
If your assay office offers online submission, we look at whether we can prepare the batch details in a form that matches it.
Tracking a batch from bench to counter
The workshop sees what needs to go in the next batch, and which commissions are at risk if they miss it. The counter can see that the wedding ring is at the assay office and due back on a date. Returned pieces are scanned in, and any problems are dealt with immediately.
- Every piece at the assay office visible by job and customer
- Deadlines for commissions worked back from their dates
- Returns checked item by item, with rework flagged
- Hallmarking costs linked to the pieces they relate to
Signs your hallmarking batches need tracking
- The assay office form is your only record of what was sent.
- You sometimes cannot say whether a piece is away for hallmarking.
- Rejected pieces have waited unnoticed on the bench.
- Commissions have been sent too late for the customer's date.
- Hallmarking charges are not added to individual jobs.