Everything a pawn shop, secondhand dealer or scrap buyer needs to start reporting to LeadsOnline — from enrollment to your first upload.
The short answer: to report to LeadsOnline (also written LEADS Online), you get enrolled — usually at the direction of your local police department — receive login credentials, and then either type each transaction into the LeadsOnline web portal by hand or send a formatted file from your point-of-sale software, typically every business day. This guide walks through both paths. (New to the system entirely? Start with What is LeadsOnline?)
Gather these before you start — enrollment and your first upload go much faster with everything in hand:
Most businesses don't go looking for LeadsOnline — LeadsOnline finds them, via a letter or visit from the local police department saying electronic reporting is now required. Enrollment itself is handled through LeadsOnline, and the service is free to reporting businesses: law enforcement agencies pay for the system, not you. Once enrolled, you receive a username and password for the reporting portal. If your department told you to report but you haven't received credentials, contact the department's pawn/property detail or LeadsOnline directly.
Reporting rules are set by your local ordinance, not by LeadsOnline — which is why two shops in the same state can have different requirements (see who has to report, by state). Commonly reported transactions are pawns, purchases of used goods, precious-metal buys and scrap purchases. The typical required fields are:
Serial numbers matter most — they're the field investigators actually match against stolen-property reports. A report with a mistyped serial number is, for recovery purposes, a report that was never filed.
The baseline method: log into the LeadsOnline website with your credentials and key in each transaction — the person, the ID details, every item, every serial number — one at a time. It works, and for a shop writing a handful of tickets a day it may be tolerable. The drawbacks are the obvious ones: you're typing every ticket twice (once in your own records, again in the portal), and every retype is a chance to transpose a digit in a serial number. If that's your daily reality, see our guide to automating LeadsOnline entry.
LeadsOnline accepts formatted transaction files from point-of-sale systems, and can issue FTP credentials for fully automatic submission. Your software generates a file containing every transaction since the last upload and sends it — on a schedule, with no retyping. This is how most multi-ticket shops report. PawnSmarts includes LeadsOnline export on every plan: it captures all the required pawner and item fields at the counter, then uploads automatically each day or produces the file for manual upload if your jurisdiction wants a person in the loop.
Free, no software needed. Every ticket typed twice; serial-number typos are on you; 2–4 minutes per transaction, every day.
Your POS formats and sends the report daily. No double entry, no transcription errors, nothing to remember. Included with PawnSmarts — no add-on fee.
Reporting frequency is set by local ordinance. Daily reporting (each business day's transactions submitted by the next day) is the most common requirement; some jurisdictions allow 48 hours, a few demand same-day. Missed or late reports are what turn a routine police relationship into fines, license trouble, or both. If reporting depends on someone remembering to do it at closing time, it will eventually be missed — that's the strongest argument for scheduled automatic upload.
LeadsOnline reporting sits alongside your other obligations: local police reporting and record-keeping rules, state licensing (see the US state guide and Canadian provincial guide), OFAC checks, and for firearms an ATF bound book. The pattern that keeps shops out of trouble is capturing every required field once, at the counter, and letting software produce every downstream report from that single record.
Enrollment is handled through LeadsOnline, usually after your local police department notifies you that electronic reporting is required. You'll receive a username and password for the reporting portal. If you've been told to report but have no credentials, contact your department's pawn detail or LeadsOnline directly.
No. LeadsOnline is free to reporting businesses — law enforcement agencies pay for the service. Your only costs are the time spent entering data manually, or the software that automates it. PawnSmarts includes LeadsOnline reporting on every plan at no extra charge.
Whatever your local ordinance says — daily reporting of each business day's transactions is the most common requirement, with some jurisdictions allowing 48 hours. Check the ordinance or police notice that established your reporting duty; the deadline comes from them, not from LeadsOnline.
Typically the seller or pledgor's identity (name, address, date of birth, government ID, physical description), full item details (category, description, brand, serial number, and often a photo), and the transaction facts (date, ticket number, amount, pawn or buy).
Yes. LeadsOnline accepts formatted files from POS systems and can issue FTP credentials for automatic daily upload. PawnSmarts generates and transmits the report on a schedule, sending only transactions since the last upload so nothing is duplicated.
Consequences are set by your local ordinance and can include fines, citations, and in repeat cases action against your license. Late and missing reports are the most common compliance failure for manual reporters, which is why scheduled automatic upload is the safer default.
PawnSmarts is independent pawn shop software and is not affiliated with or endorsed by LeadsOnline, LLC. LeadsOnline is a trademark of its owner.
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