By the MyToolers team at 182 AdFlow (Dubai & Lahore) · Last updated:
The stages of a print job
Almost every job in a printing press follows the same path: quote request → quote and approval → artwork and proof → job ticket → scheduling on a press → printing → finishing (cutting, folding, binding, lamination) → packing and delivery → invoice and payment.
Print workflow management simply means knowing, at any moment, which stage each job is at, who is responsible for it, and whether it will make its due date.
Start with the quote request
Many jobs are lost before they start because a WhatsApp enquiry was never answered. Log every request — customer, product, size, quantity, paper, colours, finishing and wanted-by date — and reply with a priced quote the same day.
Track which requests are still unanswered and which have been confirmed, so a confirmed quote always becomes a job.
What belongs on a job ticket
Customer and job name; product and finished size; quantity; paper type and GSM; colours (for example 4+4 or 4+0); press to be used; finishing steps; proof approval status; delivery address; due date; and the agreed price.
Repeat work — business cards, letterheads, invoice books, packaging — is faster and has fewer mistakes when each product is saved as a job template and copied for the next order.
Use a production board, not a whiteboard
A production board shows every job in a column for its stage — waiting for artwork, ready to print, on press, finishing, ready for delivery. Anyone in the shop can see what is running on which press and what is late.
The two lists that matter most every morning: jobs past their due date, and jobs that still have no press or operator assigned.
Where print shops lose money
Reprints from unapproved proofs, paper and ink that are never charged to a job, presses standing idle between runs, machines that break down because servicing was skipped, and invoices that are sent late — or never.
Record consumables against jobs, service each press on schedule, and invoice as soon as a job is delivered.
Numbers worth tracking
Jobs in production and jobs delivered; on-time delivery rate; presses running versus idle; reprints and waste; cost per job (paper, plates, ink, press time and finishing) against the price charged; and money owed by each customer.
Doing it with software
A spreadsheet works for a few jobs a day. Beyond that, print workflow software keeps quotes, job tickets, the production board, presses, operators, consumables and invoices connected, so nothing has to be typed twice.
PrintFlow, our CRM built only for printing, is built around exactly these pieces — quotes, products and pricing, print jobs, a production board, machines, operators, consumables and machine servicing — alongside invoices, staff and reports.