Steel Warehouse Software: Cut Bars and Sheets from One Barcode

Avadar Industry’s steel warehouse software, through its “steel and iron mode”, lets you cut part of a barcoded bar or sheet and issue it, record length and weight instead of a count, and price stock per metre, per kilogram or per piece. This mode is available on the Elite plan of the Avadar Industry edition.

A steel stockyard is fundamentally different from a warehouse of packaged goods. In an ordinary store, stock is counted in units: one carton comes in, one carton goes out. In a steel warehouse, a single length or sheet may be cut several times, each piece may go to a different customer, and what is left on the rack is no longer the original item. Most general inventory software isn’t built for this, and the result is stock figures that don’t match the yard. This page explains how Avadar barcode inventory management software solves that.

Why doesn’t steel stock management fit ordinary inventory software?

In steel stockyards, rolling shops and metalworking workshops, the same problems tend to come up. These are general observations about the trade and may look different in your business:

• Partial cuts that get lost: several pieces are cut from a sheet or bar, and recording them in a ledger or spreadsheet is forgotten or delayed.
• Mixed units: you may buy by weight, sell by the metre and count the yard by the length; converting between them by hand creates errors.
• Offcuts and scrap: short leftover pieces pile up unnamed in a corner, neither visible in stock nor sold.
• Unknown origin: when a customer asks about the quality of a delivery, tracing which incoming load a piece came from is hard.
• Stocktake discrepancies: recorded weights and lengths don’t match what is physically on the floor.

Metal warehouse software: partial cuts of bars and sheets from one barcode

In Avadar’s steel and iron mode, each bar or sheet carries one barcode, and when part of it is cut and issued, exactly that portion is deducted from the same barcode. You don’t need to create a new dummy item for every cut, or issue the whole length and receive the remainder back in again.

In practice, the workflow in the warehouse looks like this:

1. On receipt, the sheet or bar is labelled with a barcode or QR code; Avadar prints labels from ready-made templates.
2. When cutting, the operator scans the barcode with a phone camera or scanner.
3. They enter the length or weight of the cut portion.
4. The item’s stock is updated and the remainder stays in the warehouse under the same ID.

Because entries are made by scanning, item-code typing errors drop. If you are new to barcode-based warehousing, see our article on barcode warehouse software.

Length and weight instead of counts: pricing per kg and per metre

In this mode, quantities are recorded by length or weight rather than by count, and pricing can work three ways:

This flexibility means you don’t need several codes for one item just to buy by the kilogram and sell by the metre. Hypothetical example: a sheet received by weight can be issued by recording the weight of each cut, so its weight-based stock is always clear.

Batch tracking, hidden costs and production in metal workshops

Steel and iron mode is part of Avadar Industry, the edition built for factories and production warehouses, which includes other features that are useful in the metals trade:

• Batches and traceability: record each incoming load as a batch so you later know which load every piece came from. Instant search by barcode, serial, batch, name, customer or supplier is also available.
• One-click recall: if a batch has a quality problem, the whole batch is stopped and the list of customers who received it is ready.
• Quality quarantine and release for loads that haven’t passed quality approval yet.
• Production and projects: product structure and production formulas, issuing, returning and consuming materials per project, reserving materials for a project, and separate scrap recording; suited to workshops that make parts from steel.
• Hidden warehouse cost analysis in 8 categories, including dead stock, shortages, surplus, space and extra handling, with practical recommendations.

On top of these come Avadar’s shared features: multiple warehouses and zones, transfers between warehouses, fast stocktaking by scanning, recipient signature on the delivery note, stock cards and Persian-language Excel export, and access to your data even when the internet is down. For the full picture of the edition, see Avadar Industry, manufacturing warehouse software.

Which Avadar edition and plan does a steel stockyard need?

Steel and iron mode sits in Avadar Industry, Elite plan. The table shows what each Industry plan gives your metal warehouse:

So if partial cuts and weight- or length-based pricing are essential for you, look at the Elite plan. It also includes priority support, a dedicated account manager and migration of your existing data. For general buying criteria, read our warehouse inventory software guide.

Getting started with steel inventory software

1. List your items: decide which items are bought and sold per kilogram, per metre or per piece.
2. Warehouses and zones: list your warehouses, sheds or storage zones.
3. Deployment: decide whether Avadar runs online on P-Soft hosting or on your company’s own server, even without internet.
4. Trial demo: before buying, see a demo arranged with the P-Soft team and test the cutting and issuing flow on a few items.
5. Labelling and opening stock: existing items get barcode or QR labels and are entered into the system by scanning.

Operators can work from a desktop or mobile browser, the Android app or a version installed on the phone’s home screen, and each operator sees only their own warehouse.

Steel inventory management software in short

Avadar Industry is inventory software for steel stockholders, metal traders and fabrication shops that need to track bars and sheets by length and weight instead of by unit count. Staff use it in a web browser, in the Android app or from the phone’s home screen, and the system is either hosted by P-Soft or installed on your own server. The iron and steel mode that handles partial cuts belongs to the Elite plan.

Who uses metal stock software: typical scenarios

The situations below are illustrative, not customer stories. They show where length-and-weight tracking tends to pay off.

• A rebar and section stockholder buys mill lengths by weight and cuts them to order for contractors. Each cut is scanned against the parent bar, so the offcut left on the rack keeps its identity and can still be sold rather than quietly written off.
• A fabrication workshop turns sheet into brackets, frames and stair parts for building projects. Material is reserved and issued per project, unused pieces come back into stock, and scrap sits on its own line, so job costing starts from what was really consumed.
• A metals trader with several yards moves stock between sites. Transfers are captured by scan, each operator sees only the yard they work in, and management reviews every location from a single dashboard.
• A supplier handling a quality complaint looks up the batch of the disputed piece, puts the remaining stock from that batch into quarantine and, on Elite, recalls it in one click together with the list of customers who received it.

Steel stock tracking: Avadar vs spreadsheets vs generic inventory tools

How to choose steel inventory software: a buyer checklist

1. Can one barcode follow a bar or sheet through every cut, or will item codes multiply?
2. Can you purchase by weight and sell in metres without creating duplicate items?
3. Is scrap recorded apart from normal issues, so material loss becomes visible?
4. Can every piece be traced back to the incoming load it arrived with?
5. Can yard staff record a movement on a phone at the rack, instead of later at a desk?
6. Can you host the system yourself if your site has an unreliable connection?
7. Will the vendor transfer your current stock list and show a demo on your own items before you commit?

If your process goes beyond what a ready-made product covers, P-Soft also builds custom software around specific workflows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Avadar support partial cuts of sheets and bars?

Yes. In Avadar Industry’s steel and iron mode, part of a bar or sheet is cut and issued from the same barcode.

Can I record stock by weight or length?

Yes. In this mode length and weight are recorded instead of a count, and pricing is per metre, per kilogram or per piece.

Which plan includes steel and iron mode?

The Elite plan of the Avadar Industry edition.

Can I trace where each load came from?

Yes. From the Pro plan, Avadar Industry records batches, and you can search by batch, supplier or customer.

Can I try the software before buying?

Yes. A trial demo is available before purchase, arranged with the P-Soft team.

Want to see how cutting a bar or sheet from one barcode would be recorded in your warehouse? Request an Avadar demo and the P-Soft team will arrange it with you.

Can Avadar run on our own server without an internet connection?

Yes. Besides online use on P-Soft hosting, Avadar can be installed on a server inside your company and keeps working there even when there is no internet. Operators then reach it from browsers on the local network, from phones or through the Android app. On either option, Avadar data stays viewable during an outage, which helps on yards with patchy connectivity.

Can we import our current steel stock list from Excel?

P-Soft transfers earlier records from Excel files or your previous software into Avadar, and the exact scope of that work is fixed in your plan or contract. On the Elite plan, migration of existing data is part of the support package. After the import, physical bars and sheets receive barcode or QR labels so that stock in the system and stock on the racks start from the same baseline.

Does steel inventory software track offcuts and scrap separately?

In Avadar Industry the two are handled differently. An offcut is simply the remaining length or weight of a bar or sheet, so it stays in stock under its original barcode and can be sold later. Scrap produced on a job is logged as its own entry within production projects, available from the Pro plan, which keeps material loss visible instead of hiding it inside ordinary stock issues.