Weighbridge

Two weighings, one ticket, and a number somebody gets paid on.

For weighbridge operators, gatehouse staff, dispatch clerks and anyone who reconciles tonnage.

Printable: Weighbridge user guide (PDF) — the same guide laid out for a desk, a cab or a workshop wall.

What this module is for

A weighbridge ticket is a commercial document. Somebody is paid on the net mass it shows, and somebody else checks it. This module produces that ticket, keeps the sequence unbroken, and makes the exceptions visible rather than letting them settle quietly into the totals.

The one idea to hold on to

A ticket is two weighings with a gap in between. The vehicle crosses once, goes and does something, and crosses again. Everything else in this module follows from that.

• Between the two crossings the ticket is open. It is real, it is numbered, and it is waiting.
• The second weighing closes it, and only then does a net mass exist.
• A ticket that never gets its second weighing is abandoned — by a supervisor, with a reason. Not deleted, and not quietly completed.

What it does not do

• It does not invoice. It produces the mass an invoice is raised from.
• It does not manage your stock. It records what crossed the bridge.
• It does not decide your deduction rates, and there is nowhere to set standing ones. Each deduction is entered at weigh-out for the load in front of you, with a reason; the ticket shows each one, and never folds them into the net.

Setting it up

1. Add your bridges

Open Weighbridge → Bridges & tares, fill in Add a bridge and press Add bridge. A bridge needs a Name and a Ticket prefix before it can write tickets; the rest is optional but worth filling in.

Field	What it is for
Name	What the bay and the bridge list call this bridge.
Ticket prefix	This bridge's own run of numbers, for example WB1.
Site label	Printed on the ticket under the letterhead.
Capacity	The most the bridge can weigh. A heavier mass is refused.
Division	The smallest step the bridge reads in. A finer mass is refused, because it did not come off the bridge.
Calibrated until	The date the calibration certificate runs out.
Certificate	The certificate's reference.

Each bridge numbers its own tickets

Bridge A runs A-00417 while bridge B runs B-00092, and neither can skip or duplicate. This is why the prefix matters: a shared sequence across bridges cannot be kept unbroken when one of them is offline, and a ticket book with gaps in it is the first thing an auditor asks about.

WARNING

A lapsed calibration certificate is marked lapsed in the bridge list, the bay warns about it before a ticket is written, and every ticket written past expiry records that it was — and keeps recording it after the bridge is recertified. A customer can refuse such a ticket. By default the module warns rather than stops you; tick Refuse new tickets once the certificate has lapsed when you add the bridge to make it refuse instead.

2. Record tares where you can

A tare on file is a known empty mass for a specific vehicle. Under Record a tare, enter the vehicle's Registration and its Tare mass, optionally an Expires date, and press Record tare. Tares are listed with their Age, because an empty mass captured two years ago is no longer a fact about the vehicle; one older than 180 days, or past its expiry, is flagged reweigh.

The screens, one at a time

The bay

Weighbridge → The bay

The operating screen — the one that stays open all day. The On site list shows every open ticket: its number and product, the vehicle's registration, the first weighing and how long it has been waiting. The Weigh in panel beside it opens a new one.

Pressing Weigh out on a row swaps that panel for Weigh out, where the second mass and any Deductions are entered. Under them the ticket's figures are shown before it is written — net, each deduction, then payable — and Close ticket writes it. Back returns to weighing in without writing anything.

An operator works entirely from this screen. A vehicle arrives, you weigh it in; it comes back, you find it in On site and press Weigh out.

A supervisor — level 3 and above, and the account holder — also sees Abandon and Cancel ticket on each row. See Clearing a ticket that will never weigh out.

Tickets

Weighbridge → Tickets

The ticket book, as one table: ticket, when it was opened, vehicle, product, status, gross, tare and net, Deductions (kg), Deduction detail, payable, any Caveats — tare on file, typed weight, calibration lapsed — the Reason cleared on an abandoned or cancelled ticket, and how many Copies printed. Masses are in kilograms, with the unit in the column heading.

Find a ticket with the table's Search box, or type into the filter under any column: a ticket number under Ticket, a registration under Vehicle, open or cancelled under Status, typed under Caveats. Click a heading to sort by it, and choose which columns to show from the column list.

Those work on the tickets the table already holds. The filter above the table reads the book from the server again: pick a Status, or type part of a ticket number or registration under Ticket or vehicle and press Enter or Search. The table then holds every ticket that matches — an old closed ticket the whole book leaves out included — so it can be found, reprinted or cancelled. There is no date filter. Clear the search and pick Every status to read the whole book again.

When there are no tickets to show, or the book could not be read, the page says which, with a Refresh — Try again after a failed read — in place of the table's own refresh.

The deductions are listed between net and payable, in two columns. Deductions (kg) is what they took together — a number, so it sorts and a spreadsheet can add it up; net less it is payable. Deduction detail lists each one: what it was for, the rule — a percentage of net, or flat — the mass it took and the reason given. A closed ticket with none shows 0; an open ticket, which has no net mass yet, shows nothing.

This is where you print: the print button on a ticket's row prints it, and only a closed ticket prints. A supervisor — level 3 and above, and the account holder — also sees Cancel ticket in the table's header, the one place a closed ticket can be voided. See Cancelling a closed ticket.

A reprint changes only Copies printed, and leaves the rows you have ticked and filtered as they are. A cancel does not: after one, the table ticks every row again, and a filter typed under a column no longer narrows what is ticked. Tick or filter down to the next ticket again before you cancel it or export.

The table holds the whole book up to 2,000 tickets. Past that it holds every open, abandoned and cancelled ticket and the newest closed ones, and a note above the table says how many of the oldest closed tickets it leaves out — the table's search, column filters, exports and prints do not reach those. Narrow the filter above the table to reach them: a ticket number, a registration or one status reads every ticket that matches, up to 2,000 again.

Net and payable are shown as separate columns and always both. See Net against payable.

Exceptions

Weighbridge → Exceptions

Everything that did not go cleanly, in one place — for a supervisor, level 3 and above. Four kinds, and each is a different conversation:

Kind	What it means
Still open	A ticket open for more than 12 hours — weighed in and never weighed out. Listed oldest first, with its product, when it was opened, how long it has waited and its first weighing. The only kind you act on here: Abandon or Cancel ticket on its row.
Abandoned	A ticket opened and never closed — the vehicle left without weighing out. Shows when it was opened and what happened.
Typed weights	A mass entered by hand rather than read off the indicator, with the reason given.
Closed against a tare on file	No second weighing happened; the tare on file was used instead. Shows the tare used and the net.

Apart from the first, none of these are errors that need clearing. They are facts about how the tonnage was arrived at, kept visible so that a month's figures can be read honestly.

Bridges & tares

Weighbridge → Bridges & tares

Add a bridge at the top, with the bridge list under it — prefix, the next ticket number, capacity and calibration date. Record a tare below that, with the tares on file under it — registration, tare, age and expiry.

Everyday tasks

Putting a load across

1. On The bay, in the Weigh in panel, choose the Direction — outbound for a dispatch, inbound for a receipt — and the Bridge if you have more than one.
2. Pick the Product category, then the Product on the truck, and enter the vehicle's Registration.
3. Enter the Mass and say How it was taken: Read off the indicator, or Typed — indicator unavailable, which asks Why it was typed. Haulier and Destination are optional.
4. Press Open ticket. The ticket is numbered and appears in On site.
5. When the vehicle returns, press Weigh out on its row, enter the Mass and How, and add any deductions — see Applying deductions.
6. Check the figures under the form and press Close ticket. Gross, tare, net and payable are worked out and the ticket closes.

You do not have to weigh in a particular order

An outbound truck arrives empty and an inbound one arrives loaded, and a driver who does the two the other way round still produces a correct ticket. Gross and tare are worked out from the two masses themselves — the heavier is the gross — not from which weighing came first.

Two equal masses are refused

A load of nothing is a mis-weighing, not a zero-tonne delivery, and a zero ticket in a payment run is something nobody can reconcile afterwards. Re-weigh.

Closing against a stored tare

When a vehicle leaves without its second weighing, press Use tare on its row in On site to close the ticket against its tare on file. The ticket completes and the tonnage is usable — but it is listed on Exceptions under Closed against a tare on file, with the tare that was used. A tare past its Expires date is refused: weigh the vehicle, or record a fresh tare.

TIP

Check the tare's age on Bridges & tares before you use it. A tare captured before a body or a tank was fitted will quietly overstate every net mass taken against it.

Typing a weight

Where the indicator cannot be read — an instrument fault, a power cut — choose Typed — indicator unavailable under How and enter the mass by hand. You must fill in Why it was typed, and the ticket is marked. Both facts appear on Exceptions.

Each weighing records how it was captured: live when read off the indicator, stored when Use tare took the tare on file, or manual where somebody typed it. A reader can always tell which.

Applying deductions

Deductions — moisture, contamination, an agreed allowance — are entered on the Weigh out panel, before you close the ticket. Each is either a percentage of the net or a flat mass, and each needs a reason, because it lowers what somebody is paid.

1. In Weigh out, under Deductions, press Add deduction.
2. Choose For — Moisture, Contamination or Agreed allowance — and As — % of net or Flat mass — and enter the Amount.
3. Fill in Why it was taken: the meter reading, what the contamination was, who agreed the allowance.
4. Check the figures under the form: net, each deduction with the mass it takes, then payable. Add another with Add deduction after the last one; remove one with its bin icon, which asks first.
5. Press Close ticket.

Close ticket stays greyed until the deductions add up

It waits while a deduction is missing what it is for, its amount or its reason, while a percentage is over 100, and while the deductions together come to more than the net mass — a ticket cannot pay for less than nothing.

A ticket closed with no deductions has a payable mass equal to its net. Deductions cannot be added when a ticket is closed with Use tare.

Clearing a ticket that will never weigh out

A ticket that stays open is a ticket somebody may close by mistake next week, so clear it once you know what happened. Both of these are for a supervisor — level 3 and above, and the account holder — because they are the two acts that can make a load disappear.

• Abandon — the vehicle left without its second weighing. The ticket keeps its number, never gets a net mass, and is listed under Abandoned on Exceptions for good.
• Cancel ticket — the ticket was opened in error: twice for one truck, or against the wrong product or vehicle. It keeps its number and stays in the ticket book as cancelled.

1. Find the ticket in On site on the bay, or under Still open after 12 hours on Exceptions.
2. Press Abandon or Cancel ticket on its row.
3. The confirmation names the ticket and the vehicle. Check it is the one you mean, then write What happened — or Why it is being cancelled.
4. Press Abandon ticket or Cancel ticket. Keep it open changes nothing.

Nothing does this on a timer, and nothing undoes it

A ticket is only ever abandoned by a person who says what happened — a bridge that quietly tidied these away would be hiding the event worth investigating. An abandoned or cancelled ticket cannot be reopened, and an abandoned one cannot then be cancelled: its reason is the record of what happened.

Cancelling a closed ticket

A ticket written wrongly — against the wrong product or the wrong vehicle, or opened twice for one truck — is voided from Tickets. It keeps its number and stays in the book as cancelled, with the reason you give; a closed ticket's net mass leaves the throughput totals.

1. Type the ticket's number into the filter under Ticket, so the table is down to that one ticket. (The table ticks every row as it loads, and again after every cancel; ticking only the one you want works too.)
2. Press Cancel ticket in the table's header.
3. The confirmation names the ticket and the vehicle. Check it is the one you mean, then write Why it is being cancelled.
4. Press Cancel ticket. Keep ticket — Keep it open on an open ticket — changes nothing.

After the cancel the table ticks every row again. To cancel another ticket, filter or tick down to it first — pressed straight away, Cancel ticket says how many tickets are ticked and cancels nothing.

Only open and closed tickets can be cancelled. An abandoned ticket stays abandoned — its reason is the record of what happened — and nothing reopens a cancelled one.

How the figures are worked out

Gross, tare and net

The heavier weighing is the gross; the lighter is the tare. Net is the difference between them. Nothing about the direction of travel enters into it.

Net against payable

Deductions never change the net mass

Net is the mass weighed. Payable is the mass paid for, after deductions. They are two different facts, and a ticket that showed only one of them could not be checked by either side.

Worked through: a truck grosses 38 500 kg and tares 14 000 kg. Net is 24 500 kg. A 2% moisture deduction takes 490 kg, so payable is 24 010 kg. Both numbers appear on the ticket, and the deduction is itemised between them — on the Weigh out panel before the ticket is written, and in Deduction detail on Tickets after. Each deduction keeps the mass it took, so the ticket reads the same next year.

Net, each deduction and payable are rounded to the bridge's Division — to a thousandth where the bridge states none — and payable is net less the rounded deductions, so the itemised lines always add up. On a bridge reading in whole kilograms, 3.3% of a 24 537 kg net takes 810 kg, not 809.721.

Ticket numbers

Each bridge holds its own unbroken sequence, formed from the bridge's prefix and the next number. The next number is shown in the bridge list on Bridges & tares so an operator can reconcile against a paper book.

When something looks wrong

What you see	Why, and what to do
The bay has old open tickets	Vehicles that never came back. If the load is known and the vehicle has a tare on file, press Use tare on its row. Otherwise a supervisor presses Abandon (the vehicle left) or Cancel ticket (it was opened in error) and says why. After 12 hours they are also listed on Exceptions.
There is no Abandon or Cancel ticket on the rows	Both are for level 3 and above. Ask a supervisor.
Cancel ticket was refused on an abandoned ticket	An abandoned ticket stays abandoned — cancelling it would replace the reason saying what happened.
This ticket changed a moment ago…	Somebody else closed, cancelled or abandoned the same ticket while you were working on it. Refresh to see where it stands — nothing you entered was written.
Close ticket stays greyed	Check each deduction has what it is for, an amount and a reason, that no percentage is over 100, and that together they come to less than the net.
A ticket was refused as zero	The two weighings were equal. Re-weigh — the module will not accept a zero-net ticket.
Net looks right but payable looks low	A deduction is applied. It is itemised under Deduction detail on Tickets, beside what it took in Deductions (kg), between the two figures, with the reason given.
A ticket is not in Tickets	Past 2,000 tickets the table holds the newest closed ones, and the note above it says how many older closed tickets it leaves out: type the ticket's number or registration under Ticket or vehicle above the table and press Search. Otherwise, check the filter above the table, and clear the table's search box and every column filter.
Tickets says the tickets could not be read	The book was not read — a dropped connection, the server restarting, or a refusal the notification explains. It says nothing about the tickets themselves. Press Try again.
Cancel ticket says several tickets are ticked	The table ticks every row as it loads, and again after every cancel. Type the ticket's number under Ticket to filter down to it, or untick the rest, and press it again.
There is no Cancel ticket on Tickets	It is for level 3 and above, and the account holder. Ask a supervisor.
The numbers have a gap	They should not have. Sequences are per bridge — check whether the missing number belongs to the other bridge's book.
A tare gives an odd net	Check the tare's age on Bridges & tares. A stale tare misstates every ticket closed against it.
A product is missing	Pick its Product category first — the Product list is filled from it. If the category itself is not offered, either the department you are viewing the app as does not include it, or you are not whitelisted on the Tracker Group that holds it. Ask the group owner or the account holder.

Who sees which tickets follows the product, not the vehicle

A member who may see a product sees every ticket for it, whoever hauled it. Most vehicles crossing a public weighbridge are not your own, so there is no second boundary to apply. Worth knowing before you assume a ticket is hidden.

Reference

Ticket status

Status	Meaning
Open	First weighing taken, waiting for the second.
Closed	Both weighings in. Net and payable exist.
Abandoned	Opened and never completed. Set by a supervisor, with what happened — never by a timer.
Cancelled	Voided deliberately — opened in error, or closed against the wrong product or vehicle. Kept, with its reason, so the sequence stays unbroken.

How a weight was captured

Capture	Meaning
Live	Read off the indicator — Read off the indicator under How.
Stored	The tare on file, used in place of a second weighing — Use tare on the bay.
Manual	Typed by an operator — Typed — indicator unavailable under How — with a reason recorded.

Taking the data with you

Tickets and Exceptions offer reading-mode preview, Excel, PDF, print and share; Bridges & tares does not. On Tickets they are the table's own, in its header, and they carry what the table holds: the ticked rows — every row until you untick some, and every row again after a cancel — narrowed by any search or filter, in the order you have sorted them, with the columns you have chosen. Deductions (kg) goes as a number, so a spreadsheet can add it up, beside every deduction itemised in Deduction detail; an open ticket, with no net mass yet, leaves the cell blank rather than dashed. The subtitle says when the book was read, the filter above the table it was read under and, past 2,000 tickets, which part of the book the document holds and that narrowing the filter reaches the rest. Exceptions exports from its card header as a document with its four kinds kept in separate sections. The print button on a closed ticket's row counts the copy: every copy after the first is marked DUPLICATE, and Copies printed shows the count. See Taking data away.