What is weighing scale software?

Software that takes the weight from a scale and does something with it: display and export it, guide an operator through a recipe, or record and book a GMP weighing. For batch manufacturing, the relevant kind is a dispensing system that checks container and tolerance and records every weighing.

Do I need a specific scale?

For d-dispensing: a serial industrial scale, e.g. from Mettler Toledo, Sartorius or RHEWA. Further manufacturers are easy to add.

Isn't the scale maker's software enough?

For single benches without ERP integration, often yes. Once container checks, ERP booking and a verifiable audit trail are required, usually not.

Is a cloud solution acceptable?

From a regulatory point of view yes – what matters is that the system is validated and the data stay trustworthy. d-dispensing comes both ways: hosted by us in the cloud, or with a site server in your own network if weighings in progress must not depend on the internet connection.

Can the software manage recipes?

Deliberately not – recipes stay in the ERP. See the page on recipe weighing software.

DE Try the live terminal Schedule a demo

Weighing software

Weighing scale software for batch manufacturing: four kinds of weighing software and how to choose

Search for "scale software" and you get everything from truck-scale billing to lab software. This page maps the weighing software market for regulated batch manufacturing – pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, detergents – and gives purchasing, production and QA a shared basis for selection. At the end we show which of the categories d-dispensing covers.

Part 1 · Orientation

Four kinds of weighing scale software – and which one you need

Kind	What it does	Typical use	For GMP dispensing?
Display and capture software	Reads weights, stores or exports them (CSV, Excel)	Goods receipt, lab, check-weighing	No – no guided workflow, no audit trail
Vendor-specific terminal application	Runs on the scale maker's terminal; recipe and tolerance features	Simple recipe weighing, single benches	Partly – vendor lock-in, ERP integration usually a project, audit trail varies
Dispensing system	Guides operators through the ERP bill of materials, checks container and tolerance, records, books back	Batch manufacturing in pharma, cosmetics, chemicals	Yes – built for it
MES / EBR with weighing module	Electronic batch record across the whole process; weighing is one step	Large sites with an end-to-end MES strategy	Yes – but far larger scope and cost

Most mid-sized plants sit between rows 2 and 3: the scale maker's terminal application or an in-house build no longer suffices, and an MES project is too big. A dispensing system fills exactly that gap. Which rules apply in your industry is set out under weighing solutions by industry.

Seven requirements weighing software must meet for GMP dispensing

01Bill of materials from the ERP, not from the weighing software. Recipe ownership stays in the system of record; the weighing software runs the execution.
02Container check before weighing. Material and container/lot must be identified and checked against the position – "right weight, wrong container" is the most common documentation failure.
03Tolerances technically enforced. As a block, not a warning – and checked where they cannot be bypassed (on the server, not just in the UI).
04Tamper-evident audit trail. Annex 11 requires changes to be recorded with a reason; ALCOA+ requires trusted timestamps. An editable log is not enough.
05Booking back to ERP/WMS. Automatic, as one transaction – otherwise a second version of the stock figures appears.
06Defined behaviour on failure. What happens if the network drops mid-weighing? This must be described and tested.
07Maintainability. Signed, traceable updates; documented installation; no dependency on one person.

Questions to ask every vendor (including us)

Where are tolerances checked? Which ERP/WMS are implemented, not merely "connectable"? Which scale protocols exactly? How are updates signed, and when are they activated? What happens when the licence expires? How many components have to be operated? How many installations run in production, and since when? The full ten-question list with our answers is on the FAQ page.

Cost logic: scale, software, integration, operation

Tenders budget for the scale and forget the integration. Realistically, the cost of scale software falls into four blocks: scales and printers (often already in place – the software should drive serial industrial scales rather than force new purchases), the software licence, ERP/WMS integration (the block with the widest spread – does the interface exist, or is it a project?) and operation (number of services, update effort, qualification). A quote that says nothing about blocks 3 and 4 is incomplete.

Part 2 · Where d-dispensing stands

Where d-dispensing stands

d-dispensing is weighing software of the third kind: a dispensing system for manual, guided weighing at the bench – running daily at several manufacturers since 2015, with several million production orders processed.

Requirement	d-dispensing
BOM from ERP	Production orders and BOMs from myfactory or weclapp; no recipe management of its own
Container check	Container scan against the position before weighing; refusal logged
Tolerances	104 % of remaining per weighing, 98–102 % position closure, warnings at 50 %/95 % – checked server-side
Audit trail	Hash-chained, trusted timestamps, reasons, checkpoints, export
Booking back	myfactory + xstorage or weclapp in one transaction; label barcode = record ID
Failure behaviour	Weighing in progress finishes offline, is stored locally and booked idempotently later; new orders need the server
Maintainability	Ed25519-signed updates, one server per plant, one agent per scale; manual installation today, Windows installer on the roadmap

Scale connectivity via serial, including Mettler Toledo, Sartorius and RHEWA; the driver layer makes further manufacturers easy to add. Labels as ZPL to Zebra network printers. Operation in the browser, touch- and scanner-friendly; operator UI in German today, built for further languages. What GMP expects of the dispensing record itself is covered under GMP weighing and dispensing software.

Status

In production since 2015, several million production orders processed. Every release goes through hundreds of automated tests before it ships.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Next step

Where to read next

Purchasing: Ten-question list in the FAQ; a demo on your own orders.
Production: Try the live terminal.
QA: Dispensing under GMP – requirements and 12-point checklist.

Schedule a demo Try the live terminal →