Metal Tracking

JewelTrak’s Metals module handles the bench-jeweler reality of buying scrap gold and silver — both pulling pieces off your own shelves to melt down (inventory-source) and buying directly from walk-in customers (customer-source). The customer-source path is FL Ch. 538 compliant out of the box: seller identity capture, photo upload, signed affidavit, multi-lot per karat, 30-day police hold, 1099-B threshold tracking, and LeadsOnline export.

Even if you’re not in Florida, the workflow + audit trail is built on the strictest secondhand-dealer statute in the US, so anywhere else’s compliance is a subset of what’s already enforced.

The model — three things to know

1. A lot is a single karat purity (10K, 14K, 18K, etc.) at a single weight from a single seller transaction. One walk-in customer selling you their 14K ring + their 18K bracelet creates two lots (one per karat), grouped under one “buy ticket.”
2. An inventory-source lot is born when you scrap an existing JT inventory item — the cost basis flows from the inventory’s PurchasePrice. No compliance fields needed since you’re the legal owner.
3. A customer-source lot captures the FL Ch. 538 packet on the seller and the goods: ID type/number/state, photo of seller + goods, signed affidavit, payment method. All five panels are required before save.

Setup before first use

1. Org Settings → Identification → Secondhand Dealer License # — your FL Ch. 538 license number (or equivalent in your state). This prints on every buy ticket. Without it, the ticket renders a fillable blank for handwriting.
2. Per-store: same field on Settings → Stores → [your store] → Identification.
3. Default Gold/Silver Cost in Org Settings drives the per-DWT prefill on inventory-source scrap buys. Update when bullion spot moves significantly.

Buying — inventory source

Use this when you’re melting down a piece you already own.

1. Inventory list → select item(s) → Bulk Actions → Scrap.
2. Confirm the weight + karat (prefilled from inventory; editable on the form).
3. Cost basis = inventory’s PurchasePrice, prorated by weight if a partial scrap.
4. Save → metal_lot row created with Source='Inventory', the inventory item is marked Scrapped + decremented from QOH.

No compliance fields, no police hold (you already own it).

Buying — customer source (FL Ch. 538 path)

Use this for every walk-in selling you scrap. This is the path that keeps you out of trouble with FL secondhand-dealer enforcement.

Go to Sales menu → Metals → Buy → New and pick Customer Source.

The form has 5 required panels:

1. Seller identity. First/last/middle name, address, DOB, signature on file. Pulls from contact if recognized.
2. Physical description. Height, weight, hair color, eye color, race, gender. Required even when the seller is in your customer database (Ch. 538 wants a contemporaneous physical description on every transaction).
3. ID document. Type (Driver’s License / State ID / Passport / Military), number, issuing state, expiration. Photo of the ID must be uploaded — JT stores it in R2 with the lot, tenant-scoped.
4. Photo of the goods. Required by Ch. 538. Take it after laying the goods out flat with a ruler visible.
5. Signed affidavit. PDF template auto-generated from the form values. Customer reviews, signs (touch signature or printed paper), and you upload the signed copy.

Then add one or more lot lines — one row per karat. Each row captures weight, gross/fine, agreed $/DWT, total payable. The form blocks save until at least one lot has a non-zero weight.

Payment method (cash / check / Zelle / etc.) — Ch. 538 wants this recorded.

Save → buy ticket prints with everything Ch. 538 + IRS need:

• Your dealer license #
• Seller’s full identity panel
• ID + goods photos referenced by lot ID
• Per-karat breakdown
• Total paid + payment method
• Acquisition timestamp
• Affidavit reference

Police hold

Customer-source lots are automatically held for 30 days before you can sell them to a refiner. The lot detail page shows the release date.

If a police officer requests a hold on a specific lot during this window, mark it on the lot detail page (Police Hold button) with the requesting officer’s name + agency + case #. Held lots can’t be sold even after the 30-day window expires until the hold is released.

Inventory-source lots are not held — they’re your own.

Selling to a refiner

When all of a sale’s lots are past their hold period:

1. Sales menu → Metals → Sale → New.
2. Pick the refinery (customer record flagged IsRefinery).
3. Add lots — the page lists every lot that’s clear to sell, grouped by karat.
4. Confirm settlement weights + agreed $/DWT (often per-karat, sometimes adjusted after refinery’s own assay).
5. Save + finalize → JT moves the lots out of stock and creates a metal_sale row with the per-lot payments. Settlement payment comes back through Sales → AR like any other invoice.

Compliance reports

Sales → Metals → Compliance has three exports:

• LeadsOnline CSV — every customer-source buy in a date range, in LeadsOnline’s exact column shape. Upload through the LeadsOnline web portal weekly (most jurisdictions require ≤7 day reporting).
• 1099-B threshold report — every seller who crossed the IRS threshold ($600/year aggregate as of 2026) in a tax year. Drives 1099-B issuance.
• Holds clearing widget — shows which lots’ police holds expire in the next 30 days so you can plan refinery sales.

Voiding

A buy ticket can be voided same-day if the cash was returned. After end-of-day reconciliation, voids are blocked — write-off is the only path (creates an offsetting credit entry in the audit log; the original ticket stays intact for compliance).

Lot tag printing

Coming soon. Format decision pending (Godex EZPL vs HTML print-preview). For now, the lot detail page renders an inline buy-ticket label suitable for hand-writing or printing in HTML mode.

What this replaces

JT’s legacy /scrap-refinery module is deprecated. All scrap activity flows through /metals. The old scrap_batches table stays in the database read-only so historical receipts on /returns/[id] still render.

Audit trail

Every buy + sale + write-off + hold + release writes to the audit log. The lot detail page also shows an inline activity timeline. If FL Inspector requests records, the audit-log filter tableName=metal_lots produces the full chronological view.

Troubleshooting

• Buy save fails with “missing seller identity photo” — Ch. 538 won’t let you save a customer-source lot without the ID photo. Upload before retry.
• Refinery sale won’t include a specific lot — That lot is still inside its 30-day police hold or has an active officer-requested hold. Check the lot detail page.
• LeadsOnline export is empty — Date range only covers customer-source buys. Inventory-source scraps don’t reach LeadsOnline because there’s no seller to report. Adjust the filter if needed.
• 1099-B report shows a customer who shouldn’t be on it — Aggregation is by ContactID across all buys in the tax year. Confirm you haven’t merged two customers and re-run.
• Dealer License # prints as a blank underline — You haven’t set the SecondhandDealerLicense field in Org or Store settings. Fill it once and every future ticket carries it.