Notes from the steel office.
Plain-English writing on the trade’s paperwork problem: certificates, traceability, weights and the systems that hold them together. New to the terms? Start with the steel trade glossary.
15 OCTOBER 2026
Same-day invoicing: cash flow is a paperwork-latency problem
Why steel stockholders invoice days after delivery, what that gap costs on 30-day terms, and how ePOD lets the invoice go out the day the signature comes back.
1 OCTOBER 2026
What is a heat number? Steel traceability from cast to customer
What a steel heat number is, where to find it, how it links to the mill certificate, and how a stockholder keeps it intact through cutting and processing.
15 SEPTEMBER 2026
The remnant graveyard: why certified offcuts get weighed in as scrap
Why certified steel offcuts end up in the scrap skip: the record dies before the material does. How remnants stay sellable with heat, cert and cost intact.
1 SEPTEMBER 2026
How to choose steel stockholding software: the questions worth asking before you sign
How to choose steel stockholding software: the questions to ask in the demo, covering heat traceability, catch-weight, migration, the pricing model and data exit.
15 AUGUST 2026
Why your mill certs still live in a filing cabinet in 2026
Steel certs went digital and retrieval got no easier. Why PDFs in folders and email archives still fail, and what treating an MTC as a record changes.
1 AUGUST 2026
Catch-weight invoicing explained: theoretical weight, actual weight, and how to bill steel without leaking margin
Catch-weight invoicing for steel stockholders: theoretical versus actual weight, which basis to bill on, variance limits, and pricing unweighed stock.
23 JULY 2026
Generic ERPs don't know what a heat number is
Why generic inventory software fails steel stockholders: catch-weight, heat genealogy, cert gates and cut-piece pricing are the point, not add-ons.
20 JULY 2026
EN 10204 explained: 2.1, 2.2, 3.1 and 3.2 certificates, and what stockholders actually need to do with them
EN 10204 certificate types 2.1 to 3.2 explained in plain English: what each type certifies, who signs it, and how stockholders should file and match them.
Rather see it than read about it?
Bring your own worst mill cert PDF to a demo and watch it get filed by heat.