Estimating & Invoicing Software for digital print/copy center

[copyhut]

Currently I am doing all quotes and invoices by hand using a price book where I have basic pricing. I am looking to move into the digital world finally for my invoicing and quotes. Not sure what is out there and what anyone would recommend. Here is a little about my business. I am a walkin copy center that does larger orders also...I have two production color machines, two production black machines, 2 aqueous wideformat, 1 solvent wideformat printer and all the finishing equipment needed for such business. We outsource all offset work. We also deal with walkin business for "I need a copy of my license" up to 5,000 full color full bleed booklets. So I really am looking for something that I can ring out a customer for 5 copies and then also do other orders for business cards, booklets and more. Let me know if anyone has the same type business that has something that has worked well for you! I appreciate it!

 

[Craig]

Morning Flight is the bomb!

 

[pixeltim]

Morning Flight is the bomb!

It looks to be PC only, is that correct?

 

[davarino]

That is true about being a PC program... but it will apparently run well using Boot Camp or Parallels on Mac.

 

[DYP]

Morning Flight is the bomb!

No doubt. Can't even have 13 x 19 sheets.

 

[Keith]

Morning Flight is the bomb!

I second that vote! One drawback though is the lack of wide format. But you can put it custom items under Merchandise. That's what I do for my aqueous printer. I have some pricing in my system by the square foot for custom size orders and I have a lot of common sizes on my most poplular materials, like 22 x 28 posters on satin paper. I've been using it for over 6 years. I can write up a job ticket in under a minute.

 

[Keith]

No doubt. Can't even have 13 x 19 sheets.

Um, can you clarify?

 

[DYP]

Um, can you clarify?

Try to add a 13 x 19 sheet size capacity to the 4color digital. I can't.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Currently I am doing all quotes and invoices by hand using a price book where I have basic pricing.

copyhut, it always makes me cringe when I hear about folks quoting from a “price book” – not knowing the cost of the job before quoting!

More on this here:

Why the Correct Rate is Important


Stephen Marsh

 

[Keith]

Try to add a 13 x 19 sheet size capacity to the 4color digital. I can't.

I quote and write orders using 13 x 19 press sheets with Morning Flight all day long. Have you checked the press size limitations under My Shop? Now, 13 x 19 isn't a listed size but you can easily key it in.

 

[Craig]

I have to second Keith. I think your problem is you have not set the Digital Press or Copier limitations to a 13x19 Sheet. If you have the maximum size set to 12x18 then of course it will not let you choose a sheet larger than you can print. Please take a look in "My Shop" at your digital press settings or copier settings. There you will see a maximum and minimum sheet size. Adjust them accordingly and you can select 13x19 then.

 

[DYP]

I have to second Keith. I think your problem is you have not set the Digital Press or Copier limitations to a 13x19 Sheet. If you have the maximum size set to 12x18 then of course it will not let you choose a sheet larger than you can print. Please take a look in "My Shop" at your digital press settings or copier settings. There you will see a maximum and minimum sheet size. Adjust them accordingly and you can select 13x19 then.

That is exactly what I was talking about. You can't set maximum size to 13 x 19. Just reverts to 12 x 18.

 

[Keith]

What version of Morning Flight are you using? Free Edition, Passport, Express, Pixelblitz, Silver, or Gold? But honestly, I don't think any version limits the maximum press sheet size. I even checked the sheet size for the color copier and it's set to 13 x 19.

 

[DYP]

That is crazy. Free Edition Ver14.1. There is no way I can get it to take 13 x 19. Just reverts back to 12 x 18 when I type in 13 x 19.


Also under my products you can't set a press size bigger that 11.75 x 17.5. Can't even set 4up 6x9 Post Cards on a 13 x 19 sheets.

 

[Salvy]

Good luck finding a solution that will serve as an effective Point of sale with a robust quoting/estimating software. We have been using Printer's Plan for a bout 4 years now and we love it. BUT is no an effective point of sale. It has what is called "Quick sale". You can ring up a customer and attach a reciept printer with a cash drawer but you cannot maintain any sort of inventory for pens, folders, ink cartidges or any other typical office supply you may want to sell. BUT if you don't care about that then use PRINTER'S Plan. I just ran a demo of Morning FLight and i would never use it in place of Printer's Plan. So awkward. Have the guys at Printers plan let you demo the Quick Sale feature.

 

[michaelejahn]

Hi Copyhut,

One of our customers is a shop about your size.

http://nonstopprinting.net/

They have the "online, available to the public" estimator suppressed, but this customer does not;

Estimate - Carr Printing Co.

As you can see at Carr - you can not only select a product, but you can enter a custom height and width

Of course, it is totally a business decision if you want to expose your pricing to the outside world ( sometimes that is a great tool for brokers or partners )

But this is PressWise, and is far more than a estimating / invoicing app - it is a full Print MIS system and has storefront / web2print, production/batching/ imposition tools as well.

Web-to-Print, MIS and Print Workflow Automation | PressWise

probably more than you are looking for, but something to consider is that once you create a quote, this can be converted into a production order in a single click.

 

[Morning Flight]

Try to add a 13 x 19 sheet size capacity to the 4color digital. I can't.

Thanks, Keith and Craig, for the kudos and clarification. For the record, the maximum press sheet size in any Morning Flight program is 38 x 50" for digital and 99 x 99" for offset. As Keith mentioned, minimum and maximum sheet sizes are tied to what the user has dialed in for each press. We think that's a reasonable precaution to keep Cousin Mel from accepting jobs the shop can't print.

Speaking of Cousin Mel, Morning Flight was designed for shops without benefit of a full-time estimator. One of our design criteria was to make the program sufficiently automated to where most quotes and orders can be processed by office staff. To pull that off, we need to rely on data validation: http://www.morningflighthelp.com/index.html?validating_data.html

DYP, click on the umbrella BEFORE you enter 13 x 19".

 

[Morning Flight]

... under my products you can't set a press size bigger that 11.75 x 17.5. Can't even set 4up 6x9 Post Cards on a 13 x 19 sheets.

Sorry for the late answer, DYP. I check Printplanet every day, but mainly just the MIS and W2P categories. Didn't run into your post until I did a keyword search for Morning Flight.

Keith was right, the edition you're using doesn't matter. The attachment was in fact captured with your Free Edition. Once you've extended the maximum press sheet size, you're able to set up any press sheet to that size when creating or editing a product. Of course, increasing the size for black won't do anything for color. You'll have to dial in the maximum size for each press.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, click the umbrella before you increase the size. Click OK without the umbrella showing to confirm the change was entered with data validation still off.

 

[DYP]

Hey Morning Flight, how about a Mac version. You're missing a big opportunity, as over half the digital printing shop around here are Mac based. It is not practical to install MF on or RIPs which are the only boxes around here that run Windows and we don't want to take the risk of messing them up.

 

[Morning Flight]

Hey Morning Flight, how about a Mac version?

I'm assuming you have the size issue sorted out, DYP. As for developing a Mac version, that's no longer viable. Today's market demands either a universal mobile app or a browser-based combination desktop/mobile SPA. With either approach, the Mac versus PC debate goes away. While the Cloud is all the rage nowadays, we're seeing a lot of pushback concerning slow performance and too much reliance solely on the web, on all eggs in one basket so to speak.

We looked at FileMaker a while back but put it aside because it was iPad only on the internet (though it does work on both the Mac and PC on the desktop). Version 13 features the new WebDirect so it's worth another look. Stay tuned. And thanks for using Morning Flight.