Half past four in the office
The counter has been busy all day. Every seller has been weighed, graded and given a ticket. Now someone in the office has to pay them. She opens online banking and, ticket by ticket, types the seller's name, sort code, account number and the amount. Regulars are saved as payees, but new sellers are typed from the form they filled in at the counter, in handwriting that is hard to read.
By the end she has made dozens of payments. Tomorrow a seller rings to say he has not been paid. She checks: his account number was mistyped by one digit and the payment was returned. Another seller was paid twice because his ticket was printed twice. A third was paid the amount from the ticket before his, because she lost her place.
Nobody enjoys this job, and everyone knows it is where money goes missing.
Why payments are still keyed by hand
Your weighbridge software produces tickets with amounts. Your bank accepts payments. Nothing connects them, so a person does.
- Ticket amounts are copied into online banking one by one.
- New sellers' bank details are handwritten at the counter.
- There is no check that a ticket has not already been paid.
- Approval is informal, so one person creates and sends payments.
- Sellers asking about payments cannot be answered at the counter.
What hand-keyed payments cost
Mistyped details lead to returned payments, calls from sellers and a second attempt. Duplicate payments are hard to recover from sellers who have already spent the money. Wrong amounts damage trust with regulars who bring you steady volume.
Having one person create and send payments without a second check is also a control weakness. It relies entirely on that person being careful and honest, which is unfair on them and risky for you.
And sellers compare yards. A yard where the money arrives promptly and correctly keeps its regulars; one where payments are late or wrong loses them to the yard down the road.
How we build payment batches from tickets
What we build connects your tickets to your bank without anyone retyping.
- Seller bank details are captured once at the counter on a tablet, typed by the seller or staff, with sort code validation and, where your bank or provider offers it, a name check on the account.
- Each ticket from your weighbridge software is linked to the seller's record with its amount.
- At set times, approved tickets are gathered into a payment batch. A ticket can only appear in one batch, so it cannot be paid twice.
- A second person reviews and approves the batch, seeing totals, new payees and anything unusual, such as an amount far above the seller's normal.
- The batch is sent to your bank as a payment file or through its API, where your bank supports it.
- Payment status is recorded against each ticket, so counter staff can tell a seller when their payment was sent.
| Check | What it prevents |
|---|---|
| Sort code validation | Mistyped bank details |
| Account name check, if available | Payments to the wrong account |
| One batch per ticket | Duplicate payments |
| Second person approval | Single-person errors or misuse |
| Unusual amount flag | Wrong amounts slipping through |
Half past four with batches
The office opens the day's batch. The tickets are already there with amounts and bank details. Two new sellers are flagged for review; their details were validated at the counter. One amount is flagged as unusually high for that seller, and she checks the ticket: a large load of copper cable, genuine. The yard manager approves the batch on his phone and it goes to the bank.
The next morning a regular asks at the counter whether he was paid. The counter staff look him up and tell him the payment went yesterday afternoon.
Are seller payments keyed in by hand?
- Payments are typed into online banking ticket by ticket.
- Payments have been returned for wrong bank details.
- Sellers have been paid twice or the wrong amount.
- One person creates and sends payments without a second check.
- Counter staff cannot tell a seller whether they have been paid.