Scale Software Program

Improves Grain Management At Toulon Grain

In the past nine years, Toulon Grain Company has transformed its labor-intensive grain accounting process to an efficient, real-time automated operation.

"When I came here nine years ago, we had a financial accounting system but nothing else," said Carl E. Schalber, general manager. "In 1991, we began to look into computerizing our overall grain management process because I knew that we had to use the technology available to stay competitive."

The first step in automating data was to install a grain accounting system. The system that Schalber chose was GrainTrac from Vertical Software, Inc., Peoria, ILL. GrainTrac is an accounting system that handles grain purchases from contract to delivery, to storage, through settlement and history. It calculates position reports, keeps customer histories, yield histories and contract balances. And it produces grain settlements and invoices.

Toulon Grain handles about 3.5 million bushels of grain each year. Since the majority of this grain is purchased during the harvest season, the need to speed up the processing was evident by the pile of weigh tickets on the counter at the end of the day. GrainTrac software brought the company part way in the automation of data, but the weighing operation was keeping them from expediting data flow in the total management system.

It all starts at the scale

All grain is purchased over a Cardinal 10 by 60-ft. electronic truck scale which is tied to an A&D weighmeter. To keep traffic flowing across the scale in a reasonable manner, Toulon Grain would let the weigh tickets pile up (unless a farmer wanted a settlement right away) and process them the following morning. This required a person to key in the weight tickets manually. This was labor intensive and prone to error.

To compete in the market place, Toulon Grain needed to work faster and smarter to meet its customers’ demands —grain haulers don’t like waiting in line at the grain elevator’s scale. Central to this need was the decision to tie the scale into the grain management system. Again, Schalber turned to Vertical Software.

Vertical’s ScaleTrac software system was installed to eliminate potential errors by capturing weights electronically and calculating each ticket with computer accuracy. The software is NTEP approved since it calculates weight to bushels for purchases over the scale. Cost to install the system was held down because it was not necessary to replace the weighmeter or other instrumentation. The PC simply reads the signal from the weighmeter via its RS-232 port.

The combination of the ScaleTrac and GrainTrac software systems eliminate all hand data entry of grain transactions at Toulon Grain. According to Schalber, the elimination of manual input of data has been the greatest asset of the ScaleTrac system. "Manually inputting weights and dockage figures into our grain accounting system was labor intensive and prone to error." he says. "Now we simply take all the information out of the computer by pressing one button and applying it to a customer’s account. And it works hand-in-hand with our financial system as well, basically eliminating accounting errors."

Automatic Scaling

Now the system performs the scaling function automatically. When the load enters the scale, the operator pushes the F1 button on the PC computer that is interfaced with the weighmeter. A menu comes up and asks if the load is incoming or outgoing, if the driver is on or off, and the customer’s code. Then the Enter button is pushed and the menu for the customer comes up, showing farm, driver, and grading information.

Toulon has a separate grading station in which an operator checks the moisture content of the grain sample and inputs the data into a "slave" computer, which is tied to the main PC. Another efficiency of the ScaleTrac system is that grain grades can be added to the tickets at any time, so the scale operator does not have to wait for this information before releasing the truck from the scale.

After the load is unloaded, the truck returns to the scale to get the tare weight. The operator then pushes the print button and ScaleTrac prints a ticket detailing gross and net weight, gross bushels, discounts, dollar values, disposition information and contract balances. The system will also split tickets to detail the number of bushels each tenant and landlord is receiving— a service that farmers really like.

The ScaleTrac system keeps traffic moving smoothly across the scale because it is fast, and there is no limit to the number of tickets that can be in queue waiting for the truck to return for the tare weight. "The ScaleTrac system is very user friendly and gives us the edge we need during the busy harvest season," said Schalber. "It’s made our lives much easier. Our close-out process is simply pushing a button to upload the scaling data right into the GrainTrac accounting system.

"What makes ScaleTrac most justifiable is when you integrate it into an entire management system," says Schalber. The combination of GrainTrac and ScaleTrac software not only eliminates all hand data entry of grain transactions for Toulon Grain, but all the information can be downloaded into the company’s financial accounting system. This enables Toulon Grain to do its monthly books much more efficiently than in the past.

Having more of the right information about the business in the right hands will help Toulon Grain be in a better position for the future. Even more significantly, the company has been able to grain better control over its day-to-day management of its operations.