| Frequently Asked Questions

1. Will Scrap Dragon work in my yard? 2. Do I need an ATM? 3. Can Scrap Dragon print my checks? 4. Will Scrap Dragon work with my scales? 5. Can I take a picture of the inbound loads? 6. How do you put my commodities on the buttons? 7. What if I have more commodities than the number of buttons on the screen? 8. Does Scrap Dragon automatically calculate the prices? 9. What are Price Lists? 10. Does Scrap Dragon support formula pricing? 11. Isn’t Scrap Dragon just for buying scrap? 12. Why doesn’t Scrap Dragon include General Ledger Accounting? 13. Will Scrap Dragon work with my accounting software? 14. What kinds of reports are available? 15. How much training is required? 16. How long does it take to install the system? 17. Who will support and maintain the system? 18. How can ordinary computer hardware survive in the harsh environment of a scrap yard? If you don't find the answer to your question, please call 404-255-3030 to speak with a Scrap Dragon specialist.
1. Will Scrap Dragon work in my yard?
| Scrap Dragon is designed to work in any metal recycling facility. It works for Ferrous and Nonferrous, for Wholesale and Retail. There are setup screens in the back office module that let you easily configure the program for your needs.
2. Do I need an ATM?
| The ATM is the safest and most reliable method of making cash payments to your customers. However, you don’t have to have an ATM as Scrap Dragon has a complete Cashier module that supports traditional cash and check payments. The payment system is actually very powerful. Payment for an individual scrap purchase can be easily split into different pay methods (Cash, Check or ATM) and even split among different payees (driver, owner, etc). Payment can be made at the time of purchase or held on account for future payment. On account tickets to be paid can be selected from a list of open payables for a particular customer or can be printed in a batch process based on the due date.
3. Can Scrap Dragon print my checks?
| Absolutely. Using a laser printer, Scrap Dragon can print checks on pre-printed check forms or on blank check stock.
4. Will Scrap Dragon work with my scales?
| Yes, if your scale has an electronic indicator with an external serial port that can be configured for continuous output. This includes most indicators on the market today. We have interfaced with Cardinal, Rice Lake, Mettler-Toledo, Fairbanks, Trancell, Western, GSE and Weightronix . We connect your scale directly to your computer and do not require you to purchase any proprietary hardware. While some of our customers choose to just enter the weights manually on every ticket, this is much more time consuming and much less reliable than reading the weights directly from the scale. Even when the direct weights are used, the system can be configured to allow the operator to override the automatic weights.
5. Can I take a picture of the inbound loads?
| Using our companion product, jpegger, we can take any number of pictures of the entire scrap buying process. We use Ethernet networked cameras over tcpp/ip and can capture images from the scales, from the cashier window and from the ATM. Multiple cameras can be used to take pictures from different angles. For example when a truck is weighed in you might want to take one picture of the material from above and one picture of the vehicle from the side. All images can be viewed by ticket number from within Scrap Dragon and can easily be e-mailed to your customer.
6. How do you put my commodities on the buttons?
| We don’t, you do. The system is designed so that you don’t need a programmer to set up or maintain the screens that your scrap buyers use. You create the list of commodities that you will buy, and you specify a button for each commodity. You control the label, the font, and the color of the button. Using our unique button menu maker, you then place the buttons on the screen wherever you want them.
7. What if I have more commodities than the number of buttons on the screen?
| The number of different commodities that can be purchased with Scrap Dragon is virtually unlimited. Each button screen has 21 buttons. For a typical ferrous scale, all of the commodities will fit on a single screen, but 21 buttons is usually not enough for a nonferrous scale. However, any button can be designated to display an additional page of buttons. The most frequently purchased commodities would be put onto buttons on the home page and less frequently purchased commodities would be on additional pages that could be accessed by pressing a button on the home page.
8. Does Scrap Dragon automatically calculate the material price?
| Yes. Automatic pricing is one of the most useful features of the program. The most basic of automatic prices is the Scale Price or Door Price. This is the price that would be available to anyone and is usually the lowest price paid for a commodity. This price is entered into the commodity table and can be changed at any time. All other automatic pricing is established by creating special Price Lists.
9. What are Price Lists?
| Price Lists are used for two purposes. First, we use price lists to set up Pricing Tiers that appear in Scrap Buying on a pop-up list of available prices. Technically, Tier Prices are not automatic prices in that they are never part of an automatic price calculation. However, tier pricing is very useful in giving the scrap buyer price guidelines for special situations. Secondly, we use price lists to set up Customer Pricing. This is special automatic pricing that is for a particular customer for a particular commodity for a particular date range. Customer pricing can be set up as a flat rate price or as a formula based on the Scale price.
10. Does Scrap Dragon support formula pricing?
| Yes. Scrap Dragon provides for limitless pricing possibilities by importing directly from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Any formula that can be maintained in Excel can be used in Scrap Dragon.
11. Isn’t Scrap Dragon just for buying scrap?
| Not anymore. Initially, Scrap Dragon was developed to purchase scrap at the scale and to pay for it using an ATM. By incorporating sophisticated data entry and data capture hardware, we designed a system that was faster, easier and more accurate than anything else available. Since then, we have continued to add capabilities to the system and now offer a complete product that includes contract management, shipping, inventory, and dispatch. In conjunction with your general ledger accounting system, Scrap Dragon provides complete yard management capability.
12. Why doesn’t Scrap Dragon include General Ledger Accounting?
| There are many fine accounting packages available on the market. There are far fewer good, affordable scrap yard systems. We prefer to focus our development efforts on creating the best scrap yard system that we can and then make it work with the accounting system of your choice. We wouldn’t want to force you to use our G/L Accounting system and deny you the opportunity to use one of the far superior accounting packages that are currently available.
13. Will Scrap Dragon work with my accounting software?
| Yes. Scrap Dragon is compliant which the Microsoft Open Database Concept (ODBC) which makes it compatible with most accounting software. Even if your accounting software is not ODBC compliant, Scrap Dragon can still be interfaced using a simple ASCII file transfer. We have already developed interfaces for Peachtree, Quick Books, MAS 2000 and Alere.
14. What kinds of reports are available?
| Scrap Dragon contains over 80 built in reports. These include a wide variety of reports for complete yard management, and are grouped into 7 categories; Inventory, Commodity, Customer, Purchasing, Cashier, Exception and Shipping. Some are specialized reports, such as the Texas State Report and the Canada Sales Tax Report, but most are designed for use in any scrap yard. All of these reports can be previewed on the screen, printed to any connected printer or directed to a Microsoft Excel file. To add to the reporting flexibility, most of the reports can be selected by date range and many have other selection criteria as well.
15. How much training is required?
| We have made Scrap Dragon extremely easy to use without sacrificing any powerful features. In particular, all of the screens that are used at the scales, in the warehouse or by the cashier are designed to be easily used by traditional scrap yard employees with a minimal amount of training. Typing or computer skills are not required, and the system can be easily mastered by anyone who can read and point. Your employees will need less than an hour of training and will become proficient and comfortable after using the system for just a day or two. The system administrator is the only employee that will need to be trained for more than an hour, and this training is integrated within the installation and configuration of the system.
16. How long does it take to install the system?
| This depends on you. The installation is done in 3 phases. In phase I, the hardware is set up by you or by a local company that provides your computer network support. We provide specific instructions on setting up the computer peripherals and also provide installation support over the telephone. Hardware installation can take from one week to one month, depending on equipment delivery times, the amount of equipment required and the determination of the installers. In phase II, the Scrap Dragon Software is installed and the system is configured for your needs. A Scrap Dragon specialist will work with your designated system administrator to do the initial setup and create the data files for your company. We use pcAnywhere during this phase of the installation to train your administrator without the high cost of on-site installation and training. Provided that at least one computer is available on the internet with pcAnywhere, phases I and II can proceed simultaneously to shorten the overall installation time. During this phase the electronic scales are interfaced, and printed forms are customized if desired. In phase III, the employees are trained and the system goes live. If you prefer, you can arrange to have one of our installers on-site for this phase which usually takes two or three days.
17. Who will support and maintain the system?
| The hardware and network support is provided by your local computer company. Scrap Dragon support is available by telephone, e-mail and remotely using pcAnywhere. There is a monthly maintenance fee that includes future software upgrades.
18. How can ordinary computer hardware survive in the harsh environment of a scrap yard?
| True, computers don’t do well in dirty, dusty environments which get extremely hot or cold. We overcome this problem by placing the computers in Dustshield industrial computer enclosures. These enclosures are made with 3/8” ABS plastic and meet NEMA standards. They provide positive pressure air flow and feature replaceable 0.1 micron filters that remove 98% of all contaminants. They can be equipped with extra fans, heaters and even A/C. We offer a custom Dustshield kiosk specifically made for Scrap Dragon that is perfect for nonferrous scrap buying.