Print shop

The print module quotes and schedules print production — digital, offset, screen printing, vinyl, and embroidery — with proofing, a production board, payment at the register or online, and an optional online ordering page.

Setting up what you sell

Before quoting, describe your shop under Print Shop: Print Methods, Substrates (the stock you print on), Finishes, Quantity Tiers for volume pricing, Setup Fees, and your Machines. Shop-wide defaults such as deposits, proof limits, customer notifications and your labour rate live under Print Settings.

Quoting a job

The Job Calculator prices from method, substrate, size, quantity and finishing, applying your tier pricing and setup fees. Garments can be priced by size, screen printing by colours and print locations, and embroidery by stitch count. Sheet stock with a press-sheet size is priced by the sheets the run needs, spoilage included, and ink coverage can be priced too. A shipping fee can be added for jobs you deliver or ship. Trade customers can have their own rates under Customer Pricing.

Every job starts as a quote — whether you raise it under New Job, convert a customer's submission from Quote Requests, or receive it as an order from your online storefront.

Proofing

Artwork proofs go to the customer for sign-off and come back into the Proof Inbox. Only the newest proof on a job can be approved, so an old link cannot sign off artwork that has since changed. You can also require an approved proof before any job goes into production, limit how many proof rounds are included, and have proof links expire after a set number of days.

Production

Print Jobs lists everything in flight; the Kanban Board moves jobs through Quote, Proofing, Approved, Scheduled, In Production, Finishing and Ready; the Production Schedule books them onto machines. QC Checklists gate the job before it is marked ready. Finished work can be collected, delivered or shipped, and handed over in parts if the customer needs some of it early.

Getting paid

Scan or type the job number at the register to take the balance — the payment is recorded against the job. Customers can also pay a job's balance online from their customer account, and a customer's print credit can be applied from the job. A job cannot be marked picked up while money is still owed unless a manager releases it on account, which invoices the balance. Optionally, approving a job raises a deposit invoice automatically.

To ask for payment before the work starts, choose Send proforma on the job: the customer is emailed a proforma invoice they can pay online. A proforma is a request for payment — it is not booked to your accounts until it is paid, the job is approved, or the job is released on account. It never counts as payment: a job with only a proforma can't be handed over unpaid. Orders placed on your online storefront arrive with a proforma too. Sending a proforma needs a manager's Print Shop permission.

Payments and invoices stay in step: when money arrives one way — at the register, from print credit or on an invoice — the job's other open invoices are reduced or withdrawn so the customer is never asked for the same amount twice, and any new invoice only asks for what is not already invoiced. A print-job balance cannot be discounted at the register or added to a scheduled order.

A job that has been paid can't simply be cancelled. Money taken at the register is either refunded there (Returns) before you cancel, or kept as the customer's print credit when you cancel — not both: once it is kept as credit, that sale can no longer be refunded. Money paid on an invoice is refunded on that invoice first. Re-pricing a job below what has already been paid asks you to confirm, and the job then shows how much it is overpaid by. The job's invoices — deposits, proformas and balances — are listed on the job with what each has collected.

Materials

Stock & Reorder shows substrate levels against their low-stock thresholds. Work you send out is tracked under Outsource Vendors with its cost and promised date, and can raise a vendor bill for you to pay. Machine Maintenance keeps servicing on schedule.

Repeat business

Recurring Jobs handles work that repeats on a cycle, and a reorder carries the latest artwork across. Artwork you save to a customer's library can be attached to their later jobs. Customer Credit holds a prepaid credit balance for customers who pay in advance and draw it down job by job.

Knowing what you made

Reports → Profitability sets each job's revenue against its material, outsourcing and labour cost, so you can see the margin per job and per print method.

Selling online

Templates you choose to show on your online storefront appear on a public ordering page, where customers configure a job with a live price, upload artwork and order. Each order arrives as a quote for you to proof.

One order, several items

A job can hold more than one item — say 48 T-shirts, 24 caps and a banner — so the customer gets one quote, one invoice and pays once. Each item is priced like the first, at the customer's own rates; shipping, a discount and your minimum order charge apply to the order as a whole. For team kit, add a names & numbers list, or start a group order and let each team member add their own name, number and size from a link.

Quotes the customer accepts online

Use Send quote on a job to email the customer the quote with an Accept button. Accepting approves the job just as if you had. In Print Settings you can set how many days a quote stays valid and have an unanswered quote followed up with one reminder.

Changes after approval

When a customer changes an approved job before it goes into production, raise a Change order instead of starting again: the job is re-priced, the change is recorded with its reason, and the customer is asked to accept the new total. Jobs can also be put on hold — waiting for artwork, approval, payment or materials — and a held job stays where it is until the hold is released.

Installs

Sign and graphics work you fit on site can be set to Install on site, with the address, date and crew on the work order and site photos stored on the job.