Step 1
Start a new Request Case from your Role Center
Step 2
A blank new Case Card opens.
Starting from the top, select a Customer Company: start typing a company name in the “Sell-To Contact No.” field.
The reason we start typing a company name in the “Sell-To Contact No.” field and not in the “Sell-To No.” field: if a Company we are quoting for is not yet a Customer, it will only have a Contact number assigned, no “Sell-To” number. So, you will not find it under "Sell-To No."
If you use a “Sell-To Contact No.” field, PrintVis will find ANY company – either a Customer or a Contact.
If a Company is already a Customer, the “Sell-To Contact” person might automatically populate.
In the example above, Sally Smith will automatically appear as a "Sell-To Contact person" - if she has been assigned as such on the Customer Card.
If a Company is a Contact only, please select a “Sell-To Contact” person by clicking in the same "Sell-To Contact" dropdown window, but this time selecting a person attached to this Contact Company. In the example above, we would select Sally Smith.
Step 3
Select Order Type, then select Product Group. Always in this sequence.
These 2 selections will initiate certain built-in automation on the background (depending on the setup in your system).
Step 4
Enter a descriptive Job Name.
Whatever is entered here will appear on all production documents and on the Invoice. Enter enough info so that this project will be recognized later.
Please avoid using special characters, such as /, #, <, >
Step 5
**** Note: The columns in your screen may look differently - that is because I personalized the system to match the way my estimating workflow goes.
Click on any open text field in the “Jobs” fast tab (I would click on “Job Name”). Then hit the “tab” button.
In my example, the moment my cursor leaves the field, a built-in template attached to the Product Group will activate.
This will automatically bring-in some operations that are common for this Product Group (this could be, for example, some pre-press and some common finishing operations, or it could be a complete workflow - including the stock and the press selection - totally up to you).
“Job Name” field on the "Jobs" fast tab copies whatever was entered on the “Job Name” field above, on the “General” fast tab.
“External Description” will display the very basic production data about this quote version. What shows up here is programmed during the setup and can be changed.
Enter "Ordered Quantity", "Format Code" (finished size), number of printed pages, "colors front" and "colors back".
Now our automatically-built "External Description" field will say "2500 Flyers, 8.5 X 11 size, printed 4 / 0"
As you type-in the size, PrintVis may recognize the format as a specific “format code” – if a size is common enough.
Please see another article about format codes.
Note that as soon as you overwrite the “job name” or an “external description”, the “Manual Job Description” and “Manual Description” checkboxes will become “active”.
These are here as a warning to you.
If you do not do any manual overwrites, PrintVis will maintain the text automatically.
The moment you do a manual overwrite, PrintVis gives you a warning and now it is up to you to maintain the job name and the external description.
If you “untick” the boxes, PrintVis will put the default “descriptions” info back in.
Step 6
You do not need to enter anything else. Our automated template took care of the rest.
It automatically brought-in the press, the stock and the finishing.
Open the "Job Card" page
See this. All can be changed and adjusted. I can change the stock, the press, the finishing.
Step 7
Check the layout. Click on "Specification" button:
On the Specification page, you can see the full sheet and the press sheet sizes, the press sheet quantity calculations, the layout picture.
Close this page (hit "Escape" button)
Step 8
Open the “Estimating” page, where we see all “Calculation Units” in this estimate on top of the screen and all “Calculation Details” at the bottom.
“Calculation Units” are linked to specific Cost Centers. A “Cost Center” is usually a machine, but it can also be a function, a person or a specific “workplace”.
Each “Calculation Unit” contains specific calculation lines that show the cost of labor and materials.
With presses, we usually setup a separate calculation unit just for paper:
Select the “P” line and look below. PrintVis calculated 1,260 sheets:
A quick note about calculated sheet quantity: we obviously would not expect the press operator to run "exactly" 1,260 sheets.
This number is an automatically-calculated "target" we should aim towards.
System is not setup to "pad" every estimate with extra paper so that we get "rounded-up" sheet quantity at every step.
This may lead to overproduction.
Close the "Estimating" page and go back to Case Card.
Step 9
When you look at the “Quoted Price” you see the real price that will end up on the quote letter:
Hit “Change the status” button to switch into next logical status.
In this setup, the status is QUOTE. This is the when PrintVis assigns a number to our Quote and we can then generate a Quote Letter.
In your system, you may have different status codes setup.
Step 10
Go into “Documents”
and generate a quote letter:
1 – select a “Quote” document template
2 – hit “Create/Open Document:
PrintVis uses the document template and adds some data form the Case to generate a finished quote letter, it then saves that quote***.
(How and where the quote letter gets saved, depends on how your cloud or network folders are setup).
You can open it for review / adjustments:
See a basic sample quote letter. Remember, you can customize your quote letter to show much more detail!
1 - Customer Company address
2 – Sell-To Contact Person name
3 – Quote number
4 – Job Name
5 – “External Description” – automatically-generated basic printing specs
6 – Substrate (paper in this case)
7 – Quantity we entered
8 – Calculated quote price
9 – Price “for an additional thousand”
Save this quote letter as PDF and send it to Customer.
When done, switch to the next logical status, which in our example is a QUOTE SENT.
At this point, anyone looking at this Case knows that a quote has been done and sent out.