Trades · Print, signage and packaging
Technology for printing companies in Leicestershire
Most printers run an MIS such as Tharstern, printIQ or EFI Pace, with Sage 50 or Xero in the office and spreadsheets holding the two together. The MIS is usually fine. The problem is everything around it.
The three pains we keep finding
The same job gets typed three times
The estimate goes into the MIS. When the job ships, someone types the invoice into Sage. When the MD wants a sales summary, someone types it all again into a spreadsheet. Three versions of the truth, and they never quite agree.
"Where's my job?"
The floor runs on paper tickets and shouted questions. The MIS knows exactly what's due today and which press it's on, but that knowledge lives in a screen only the planners open.
Margin turns up once a year
Estimated cost against actual cost is sitting in the MIS right now, job by job. Most firms first see it at year end, in the accounts, long after the underpriced work has been re-quoted at the same price.
What we typically build for printers
- A live job screen on the shop floor: due today, by press, late in red. About a week.
- MIS to accounts: the invoice appears in Sage or Xero when the job ships. One to two weeks.
- A margin dashboard: estimated against actual, by customer and job type. About a week.
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One honest note
If your MIS's own scheduling board already answers "where's my job?" for the people who need it, you don't need a build; turn the board on and put a TV on the wall. We'll say so if that's your situation.
Run a print firm?
Tell us what gets typed twice. A first conversation costs nothing.