Production & scheduling

Once artwork is approved, the job has to be made — in an order that respects due dates and what each machine can actually do — and then paid for and collected.

The job list

Print Shop → Print Jobs shows everything in flight with its stage, due date and customer. It is the shop's working list.

The kanban board

The Kanban Board moves jobs through the shop's stages — Quote, Proofing, Approved, Scheduled, In Production, Finishing and Ready — until the customer collects and the job is Picked Up. Anyone can see what is where without asking, which removes most of the interruptions in a busy shop.

A job can be cancelled at any stage before pickup, and a cancelled job can be reopened as a quote. Substrate stock is taken when a job goes into production and put back if it is cancelled.

Scheduling

The Production Schedule books approved jobs onto machines in time slots. A slot that overlaps another on the same machine is refused, so a press cannot be double-booked. Auto-schedule finds the earliest open slot on a machine that runs the job's method, without going past its due date.

Schedule by machine rather than by day. A shop's real constraint is almost always one device, and everything queues behind it.

The work order

Print the work order from the job for the shop floor. It carries the full specification — including any size breakdown, colours and locations, and stitch count — and a barcode of the job number that the register can scan.

Quality control

QC Checklists gate a job before it is marked ready — colour, registration, trim, count. A job cannot move to Ready until the required checks for its method are completed. The count is worth checking every time: a short delivery discovered by the customer costs far more than one caught on the bench.

Keeping the customer informed

When a job reaches Ready, the customer is told it is waiting for them — by email, and by text message where messaging is set up. In Print Settings you can also choose other stages at which the customer is emailed an update.

Payment and pickup

At the register, scan the job number from the work order — or type it — to bring up the balance still owed, and take payment as for any sale. The payment is recorded against the job, along with any deposit already paid.

Discounts cannot be applied to a print-job balance at the register. If the customer is buying other items with a discount, ring the print job up on its own sale.

Customers with a customer account can also pay online: Pay balance on the job opens your shop's pay-online invoice page for what is owed, and a payment made there counts toward the job like one taken at the register.

If the customer has print credit, use Apply print credit on the job to put it toward the balance. The amount applied is capped at both what is owed and the credit available, and if the job is later cancelled the credit is returned to the customer automatically.

A job cannot be marked picked up while a balance is owed. For a customer you bill later, release it on account instead: the job is handed over and an invoice is raised for the balance. Releasing on account needs a manager's Print Shop permission, and the job must be linked to a customer.

Pickup, delivery and shipping

Each job is set for customer pickup, local delivery or shipping, with a ship-to address for work that leaves the shop. Use Hand over on a finished job to record what went out: collected, delivered, or shipped with the carrier and tracking number.

A job can be handed over in parts — some boxes collected today, the rest shipped next week. Each shipment emails the customer the carrier and tracking number. The final handover completes the job, so it follows the same payment rule as pickup: the job must be Ready, and paid or released on account.

Recurring work

Recurring Jobs handles work that repeats on a cycle, so a monthly order does not depend on someone remembering it.

New jobs at the counter

New Job raises work directly for a walk-in or a phone order. It starts as a quote like every other job; where the price is already agreed, move it straight to Approved without sending a proof — unless your shop requires an approved proof before production.

Reading the shop

Reports covers revenue by print method, top substrates, machine throughput, proof turnaround, the quote-to-pickup funnel, top customers, and revenue compared with the previous period. The funnel and proof turnaround show where jobs stall — a customer slow to sign off a proof is often the real reason a job is late.

Job profitability

Reports → Profitability shows the margin on jobs that have reached production, per job and per print method. Revenue is the job's price excluding tax. Against it are set the material used (substrate quantity used at its cost), any outsourcing cost, and labour — the minutes timed on the job at the Labour rate per hour set in Print Settings. With the labour rate at 0, labour is not costed.

Material and labour only count what was recorded, so keep substrate costs current and run the job timer if you want the margin to be real.

Priority, in-hands date and the customer's PO

Mark a job High or Urgent and it rises to the top of the job list. The in-hands date — when the customer must have the goods — can be set alongside the due date but not before it. A customer's PO number prints on the work order and on every invoice for the job, and up to five approver emails receive a copy of each proof and update.

Holds

Put a job on hold from its edit screen when it is waiting on something — artwork, the customer's approval, payment or materials. A held job can't move forward until the hold is released, though it can still be cancelled.

Artwork from the customer

Customers can send artwork from the tracking link in their emails until the job goes into production. The file is checked like any upload, a job waiting for artwork comes off hold, and you are emailed.

Garment colours and blank stock

Record the garment colour on the job and on each item. For garment stock, Substrates can track blanks by colour and size: production takes each size from that colour's stock, and cancelling puts it back.

Ordering blanks

Order blanks on a garment job works out what the job needs that your colour-and-size stock doesn't cover, and creates a purchase order for each supplier. Receiving the order doesn't update the colour-and-size counts — adjust them under Substrates when the blanks arrive.

Group orders

For a team, school or club, start a group order on a garment quote and share the link. Each member adds their name, number and size; the job's sizes, names list and price update as they join. The link closes at the deadline you set, when the job is approved, or when you close it, and the organiser pays the one invoice.

Installs

For work fitted on site, choose Install on site and add the address, date and crew; the work order carries them. Store survey and finished-install pictures as site photos on the job, and record the final handover as installed.

Shipping labels

Connect your own EasyPost or Shippo account in Print Settings — choose the provider, paste its API key and fill in your ship-from address — and connect your DHL, FedEx or UPS accounts there to get your own rates. On a job set to ship, add the customer's ship-to address on the job, then use Buy shipping label: enter the parcel's size and weight, compare the rates and buy one. The label is saved on the job to print, and its tracking number goes into the shipment you record. Shipments to another country include a customs declaration taken from the job. An unused label can be voided for a refund. Label costs count against the job's profit — a label bought in another currency at your exchange rate. When you record the shipment, the label's carrier and tracking number are filled in for you.

Not using a label provider? Type the carrier and tracking number when you record the shipment: for DHL, FedEx, UPS and USPS the customer's email and tracking page link straight to the carrier's tracking page.

Itemised invoices and sales by rep

An invoice for a whole order lists each item on it, and shipping, as its own line; a deposit invoice stays one line. If the job is repriced later, the change shows on the invoice as an adjustment line.

The print shop Reports include Sales by Rep: the jobs each sales rep sold in the period, with sales net of tax and shipping. Revenue figures on the reports exclude tax, and revenue by method and top substrates count every item on an order under its own method and substrate. Profitability shows shipping-label costs in their own column.

Quote PDF, reminders and templates

Open a job and use Quote PDF to download the quote to print or attach. In Print Settings, Remind about an unanswered proof after (days) sends the customer one reminder for a proof still waiting on them.

Use Save as template on a job to keep its full spec — every item on the order included — under Templates. Applying that template to a new job adds the other items for you.

Releasing a job on account follows the customer's credit limit and credit hold, as invoices do.

Quote options

On a quote, use Add option to offer another version — more pieces, a better stock, an extra finish — and edit it like any job. When you send the quote, the customer gets every option in one email and accepts the one they want. Once one option is accepted — by the customer or by you — the other options close; an option the customer has already paid toward stays open so you can refund or move the payment.

Item progress and shipping in parts

While a job is in production, set each additional item on the order to Not started, Printing or Done (the job's own line follows the job); the job board shows how many are done. When you buy a shipping label you can enter the pieces in that box and send it to a different address, so one order can ship to several places — recording that shipment fills in its pieces.

Consumables and commissions

In Print Settings, add your inks and threads under Consumables with how much a square foot of full coverage, or a thousand stitches, uses. Each job draws them when it goes into production, gives them back if it's cancelled, and their cost counts in Profitability. Set a Sales rep commission there too: when a job is picked up its sales rep earns that percentage of what the customer has paid (excluding tax and shipping), listed under Commissions. Payments that come in later add to it, and refunds take it back. A job keeps the rate it was first commissioned at, even if you change the setting later; if the job's rep changes, the earlier rep keeps what they earned and the new rep gets the rest. Give a consumable or a substrate a Supplier and Stock & Reorder shows it, with a link to Purchase Orders; Order blanks raises its purchase orders to each substrate's supplier.

Scheduling items and gang runs

When an order has an item printed a different way — hats embroidered while the tees are screen printed — that item gets its own card in the schedule's pool; drag it onto a machine for its method. To print several accepted jobs together on the same stock, tick them in the jobs list and choose Gang run on shared sheets: enter the sheets the run used, and the stock is taken once and shared between the jobs by what each needed. The form shows what each job will carry, and anything that would stop the run, before you start it. Gang runs on the jobs page lists past runs; Undo puts a run's jobs back to scheduled and returns the sheets. On a phone, tap Schedule on a pool card to pick the machine and time — the length is filled in from the machine's speed.

When you buy a shipping label for an order with several items, enter how many of each go in that box: the customs declaration and the packing slip list exactly those.

Ordering and receiving blanks

Order blanks now allows for blanks already on order and for the blanks other accepted jobs will use, so two jobs sharing one bin don't both count the same stock. When the purchase order is received, use Stock received blanks on the job to add what arrived to the colour and size bins (this also happens when the job goes into production).

Recurring jobs, labels and proofs

A recurring job can give each new copy a due date a set number of days after it is made, and can email the customer the quote automatically. The copy keeps the source job's outsourcing.

If buying a shipping label times out, the label shows Resolve: check your shipping provider's dashboard, then record it as bought (with its tracking number and cost) or as not bought, so it can be bought again. A box is checked again when its label is bought, so two labels can't be bought for the same pieces.

When the shop requires an approved proof before production, it is the newest proof that counts: if a later version is declined, the job waits for a new approval. A file that was sent as a proof is kept as the record of what the customer saw.

Converting a quote request lets you choose the method and link the request to an existing customer; a guest job can also be linked to a customer from Edit. The jobs list pages through every job and searches by the customer's name, email or phone.

Price grids, print locations and the shop floor

A print method can price decoration from a grid: set the quantity breaks (for example 12, 24, 48, 72, 144) and a price per piece for each quantity break and number of colours, the way screen printers quote. A job with more colours than the grid's last line pays that line plus the method's price per colour for each extra colour. Embroidery can have its own price per 1,000 stitches at each quantity break. With no grid, the flat rates apply as before.

Under Print locations & sides on a job, list each location on its own line: its name, colours, stitches and, for a heat transfer, its width and height in inches (for example Front, 3, Back, 1, Left chest, 0, 8000, Sleeve, 0, 0, 3x3). Each location is priced on its own, transfers by their area, and the work order lists every location.

For digital and offset work, choose the sides (4/0, 4/4, 4/1, 1/0 or 1/1) and the method's price per colour and per black click is charged per printed side. Enter a page count for a booklet: pages are imposed as spreads on the press sheet and both sides of every sheet are counted. A substrate can record its paper weight.

Finishes can now be priced per square foot of the piece (lamination, mounting) or per linear foot of its edge (hems, grommets), as well as flat or per unit.

A job can list its spot colours (for example PMS 186 C), printed on the work order. When an embroidery file in DST format is uploaded, its stitch count is read from the file and shown beside it; on a quote, use on quote re-prices the job with it.

On Production Schedule, Station opens a view for one machine: today's jobs on it, a box to scan or type a job ticket number, a timer, and one button to move the job to production, to finishing and to ready. Installs shows the sign installs booked for the next two weeks by crew, and the install jobs that still need a date.

Add your S&S Activewear account number and API key in Print Settings to check a blank style's colours, sizes, your price and stock from Order blanks.

In the customer portal, a quote the shop has sent, or a change waiting for approval, shows Review & accept.

Note: your business can rename menu items (Settings → POS Configuration → Menu Labels), so the names in your menu may differ from those shown here.