Print ERP for offset print shops: sheet yield, make-ready, print runs
Long runs, long make-readies, tight margins. The print ERP for offset print shops that calculates the way you do, from quote to invoice.
What PrinTrace does for an offset print shop
PrinTrace is the print ERP for offset print shops. It calculates quotes across multiple print runs and opens the job. It follows the job through the department, deducts paper and plates from inventory, and issues the e-invoice. One set of data, entered once.
PrinTrace was built in 2010 on this kind of work. Today more than 250 printing companies use it.
Your work, three problems
The price changes depending on who works it out
Two people, two sheet yields, two prices. The customer notices and keeps the lower number. In PrinTrace, machines, paper, plates and make-ready times are set up once.
Whole hours spent calculating and rewriting
A structured print shop prepares around 2,760 quotes a year, ten minutes each. That’s 460 hours. With the ERP the time drops by 40%: 184 hours recovered, around €4,600 a year.
The phone asking “where’s my job?”
Fifteen calls a day, five minutes each, 290 working days. That’s 362.5 hours and around €9,063 a year. In PrinTrace you read the job status from the job record, without going down to the department.
Estimates from the PrinTrace Mini Analysis on 30 companies, 2025, conventional hourly cost €25/h. Download the Mini Analysis (PDF, in Italian) →
How the print ERP for offset print shops follows your workflow
The quote starts from the sheet yield
Choose format, paper, colours and print run. PrinTrace calculates the sheet yield and adds make-ready, plates and finishing. The guided steps ask for one piece of data at a time, in the order you’d think of it.
Does the customer ask for 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 copies? The comparative quote shows the three print runs in a single document, with the unit price falling. In offset that’s the lever that pushes the order towards the higher quantity. The PDF comes out with your logo and you send it by email from the ERP.
From accepted quote to job ticket
The customer accepts. The quote becomes a job, that is, the customer’s order. Inside the job sit the tasks, the individual operations. The job ticket is born already filled in: paper, machine, colours, finishing, delivery date. Nobody rewrites anything by hand. For work held on the customer’s behalf, you use call-off orders.
The department works, you see the statuses
The workflow assigns each task to the department and the operator. Printing, folding, finishing. You check the statuses and know where a job is stuck. Staff time sheets record the hours, and the actuals record what was really done.
Paper, plates and waste come off inventory
Every task deducts from inventory the materials it consumes. You log the waste on the same task: make-ready sheets, colour proofs, wastepaper. The low stock alert warns you before the paper runs out and the machine stops. That way the job’s cost includes what you threw away too.
From actuals to e-invoice
Once the job is closed, you compare the quoted cost with the actual cost, job by job. You see when make-ready cost more than expected and correct the price list. Then you issue the delivery note and invoice with the same data. PrinTrace sends the e-invoice through Italy’s SDI system with no intermediaries.
The jobs it calculates
- Offset printing, with make-ready, plates, sheet yield and long print runs.
- Small-format digital printing, for short runs and urgent reprints for the same customer.
- Large format by the square metre, when the customer also asks for a sign or a totem.
- Flatbed cutting plotter, for shapes, display stands and packaging work.
- Screen printing and embroidery, if alongside printed matter you also produce merchandise and clothing.
- Finishing operations, colour proofs, packing and shipping, itemised inside the guided step.
Case type C, structured company. Over €2.5 million in turnover, 2,760 quotes, 8,400 tasks and 1,800 invoices a year. The estimated recovery is 624 hours, around €15,600 a year on the three measured activities alone. Including customer status update requests, the total reaches €24,663. PrinTrace Mini Analysis 2025 on 30 companies, conventional hourly cost €25/h. Average figures, not a promise of results.
One set of data, from quote to invoice
The offset quote opens the job with the job ticket already filled in. Inventory deducts paper and plates and logs the waste. E-invoicing picks up the same data, with the payment schedule, Ri.Ba. and reminders. The dashboard gathers turnover, consumption, purchases and productivity, with the alert thresholds you set. Regular customers order from the customer portal. Do you also print digitally or in large format? Have a look at the other industries.
Frequently asked questions about offset
Does PrinTrace calculate the sheet yield and make-ready?
Yes. The guided step starts from format, paper, colours and print run. It calculates the sheet yield and adds make-ready, plates and finishing. Machines and price lists are set up once. From then on, whoever prepares the quote arrives at the same price.
Can I offer the customer several print runs in the same quote?
Yes, with the comparative quote. On a single document you put 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 copies, each with its own unit price. The customer immediately sees how much they save by raising the quantity. The PDF comes out with your logo and goes out by email from the ERP.
How do I account for waste and make-ready sheets?
You log them on the task that produced them. Inventory drops by the real quantity and the job carries the true cost, not the estimated one. At the end of the job, comparing quoted to actual tells you which formats are eating your margin.
We’re an offset print shop with five people in the office: how much does it cost?
The monthly fee starts from €59 per user per month, excluding VAT, with support included. Onboarding starts from €2,540 as a one-off and covers the initial setup and loading your records. Phone and email support is included in the monthly fee. The contract has a minimum term of one month.
Want to see your offset jobs inside PrinTrace?
Bring us a typical quote, ideally one with a long print run. We’ll redo it together in 45 minutes, online or in person, and follow a job through to the invoice.
Tel. +39 06 5290689 · info@printrace.eu
DPS Soluzioni Informatiche, Viale Giorgio Ribotta 11, 00144 Rome, Italy