Scrap metal recycling companies face many of the same challenges. 

Tracking inventory, staying in compliance, and optimizing a fleet of trucks and containers are just a few of the issues.  ScrapWare software helps recyclers tackle these issues and simplifies scrap metal management.  It is easy to use, saves time and money, helps companies stay in compliance, and provides accurate information for sound decision making.

ScrapWare has been providing software to the scrap metal recycling industry for the past 35 years, so it knows the industry inside and out.  It is designed to respond to these industry challenges. ScrapWare’s team of programmers, support and training personnel, and other specialists, continuously enhance ScrapWare so it’s always a robust, leading-edge solution.

Let’s look at some of the ways ScrapWare offers this simplification:

1. Time is money

Completing, distributing, and filing the paper documents and spreadsheets needed to run a scrap metal recycling business takes a lot of time.  This is time your employees could better spend growing your business.   Electronic documents are faster and cheaper than paper documents to create and distribute to vendors, customers and employees.  Digital documents cut down on bottle necks in your business and reduce the time of approval cycles.  Fewer hours spent on paperwork greatly simplifies scrap metal management and makes you more efficient in the process.

Moving from paper documents to digital documents can provide several benefits.  Specifically, it can:

Streamline and Accelerate Important Business Processes:  Digital documents can be moved from person to person more quicky than paper documents.  They can be viewed by many people at the same time.  Mistakes are more easily caught and corrected.

Simplify Interactions with Vendors and Customers:  With online documents, customers and vendors can access them when it is convenient and address them from any location.  They can sign paperwork digitally and print copies when and if they are needed. 

Make Finding Documents Faster and Easier:  If documents are stored digitally, it is easier to find them online instead of digging through file drawers.  Answers to inquiries from customers, vendors, government entities and staff are available at everyone’s fingertips.

Using digital instead of paper documents also has the advantage of allowing for electronic signatures, called E-signatures.  Signing contracts and agreements no longer requires printing out long documents to obtain paper signatures because e-signatures are legally binding.  They are also more efficient, convenient, faster, safer and cheaper to use than a traditional paper signature.  For scrap metal recyclers, ScrapWare software facilitates the use of e-signatures for all documents.  ScrapWare has teamed up with DocuSign, the industry leader in e-signatures, to allow ScrapWare users to employ e-signatures for all their business needs.

2. It’s all about inventory

Tracking and understanding your inventory is the single biggest task for recyclers.  For scrap metal recyclers, managing inventory is what drives profitability.  Recyclers need to know the state of their inventory—how much there is, its stage of processing, where it is located, and what it is worth.  A state-of-the-art inventory software solution will provide all this information in real time.  With a bird’s-eye-view of your inventory, it is easier for scrap metal recyclers to make smarter decisions that increase profits.   Having good scrap metal software to track your inventory is the foundation of simplifying scrap metal management.    

ScrapWare’s Inventory software is user-friendly and extremely flexible. You can set up, maintain, and manage your inventory in three ways:

1. REGRADE
Reclassify purchased raw materials to finished goods or other commodities. The regrade feature can also be used to move weights and/or costs from one material to another.

2. TRANSFER
Easily move material between yards or from one division to another within the same yard, with or without cost information.

3. FINISHED GOODS
Place processed, packaged finished goods like bales and boxes directly into your inventory. By interfacing with the Sales module, you can automatically remove finished goods from your inventory when they’re shipped.

Using ScrapWare for your inventory management you can:

  • Define commodity categories, classes, and subclasses.
  • Track average pricing based on perpetual weighted moving average cost.
  • Modify the perpetual weighted average cost.
  • Print and scan barcode tags for finished goods inventory.
  • Ensure data entry accuracy with useful tools like a color-coded user screen, helpful pop-up menus, and field validation.

We’re just getting started

Saving valuable time and establishing an inventory management system are just two of the many ways ScrapWare software can simplify operations for a scrap metal recycling company.  Over the next few months, our “Tales from the Scales” blog will talk about other ways ScrapWare software simplifies scrap metal management.  Check back soon!  


About ScrapWare Corporation: Since 1989, Rockville, Maryland-based ScrapWare Corporation has been the software of choice for the recycling industry. Its ease of installation and simplicity saves users time and money while helping them achieve compliance and maintain accurate business insights. With state-of-the-art functionality tailored to each organization’s unique requirements, ScrapWare is an advanced dynamic software solution that alleviates the most pressing recycling industry worries. For more information, please call (301) 517-8500 or visit https://www.scrapware.com/.