A tray full of tickets
Your weighbridge operator weighs every vehicle in and out. Each ticket shows the gross weight, tare, net weight, material, customer or supplier and the time. The weighbridge software stores it and prints a copy. By the end of the day there is a tray of tickets on the office desk.
The office then types them. Net weights and material grades into the accounts package for supplier payments and customer invoices. The same figures into a stock spreadsheet for each material. The loads from commercial suppliers into another spreadsheet for monthly rebates. Some tickets have handwritten deductions for contamination. Some are missing because a driver took the only copy.
On a busy day the typing falls behind. Suppliers ring to ask when they will be paid for Tuesday's loads, and the answer depends on whether the office has reached Tuesday's tickets yet. The yard manager asks how many tonnes of mixed paper are in stock, and the spreadsheet is three days out of date. When a customer queries a weight on an invoice, someone has to find the paper ticket in a box file and compare it with what was typed.
Why the ticket is typed three times
The weighbridge software is good at weighing. It is rarely connected to anything else.
- Weighbridge software stores tickets but does not talk to accounts or stock.
- Deductions for moisture, contamination or attachments are handwritten on the ticket.
- Material codes on the weighbridge do not match the grades in accounts or stock sheets.
- Supplier payments, customer invoices, stock and rebates are all separate places.
- When a ticket is corrected, the correction does not flow anywhere.
What retyping costs a recycling site
Each ticket typed three times is three chances for an error. A wrong weight or grade means a wrong payment or invoice, and a stock figure that drifts from what is in the yard. Suppliers who are underpaid notice. Suppliers who are overpaid do not complain.
Office time goes into typing instead of checking. And month end is slow, because rebates, stock and invoices all wait for the typing to catch up.
It also leaves the business dependent on one or two people who know which code on the weighbridge means which grade in the accounts, and how each regular supplier's deductions are usually handled. When they are off, the tray just gets fuller.
How we connect the weighbridge to everything else
What we build turns each ticket into one record that feeds every place that needs it.
- We connect to your weighbridge software through its export, database or API. Where none of those exist, tickets are photographed and read, with a person checking unclear readings.
- Material codes on the weighbridge are mapped once to your accounts and stock grades.
- Deductions are recorded on a tablet at the weighbridge with a reason and photo, instead of on paper.
- Each load record creates a supplier payment or customer invoice line in your accounts package, for example Xero or Sage, and updates stock by grade.
- Commercial supplier loads are tagged for rebate calculation.
- Corrections to a ticket update every place it was used, with a record of who changed what.
| Ticket field | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| Net weight and grade | Payment or invoice, stock |
| Supplier or customer | Accounts, rebates |
| Deductions | Adjusted net weight with reason |
| Time and vehicle | Load record for traceability |
The end of the day after the change
There is no tray of tickets. Each load was recorded as it was weighed. The office sees today's loads on one screen: payments ready to approve, invoices drafted, stock updated by grade, rebate loads tagged. Two loads have deductions with photos from the weighbridge tablet.
The office checks the exceptions and approves the rest. At month end, rebates and stock are ready because the data has been accumulating all month.
When a supplier rings about a weight, the office types the ticket number and sees the load record, the weights, any deduction with its photo and the payment it produced, all on one screen. The call takes a minute rather than a trip to the box file.
Are your weighbridge tickets retyped?
- Tickets are typed into accounts and spreadsheets every day.
- Deductions are handwritten on tickets.
- Stock figures drift from what is in the yard.
- Month end waits for typing to catch up.
- Weighbridge material codes do not match accounts grades.