Recording errors and waste
Log a jam or bad print, let PrintERP work out the ink loss, and see it land on the job's cost.
Jams and bad prints are part of printing. Recording them against the job that caused them is what makes your margins honest — and, over time, shows you which products and machines are quietly expensive.
Recording an error
Open the running job from Production Jobs and use the Error action. The job stays in production throughout — you are logging a loss, not stopping the run.
- 1Pick the type: Paper Jam, Invalid / Mistake Print, Misalignment, Ink Smudge, or Other.
- 2Enter the paper pieces spoiled.
- 3Check the ink millilitres, which PrintERP fills in for you. Override if the real loss differed.
- 4Add a note if it is worth remembering, and save.
How the ink figure is worked out
If one unit of a product uses a known number of paper pieces and a known volume of ink, then one piece carries a known share of that ink: volume per unit ÷ pieces per unit. Spoil ten pieces and you have spoiled ten times that share of every ink in the recipe.
Tip
It is an estimate from your own recipe, so it is only as good as the recipe. Override it whenever you know better — a purge after a jam wastes far more than the sheets suggest.
What moves, and what does not
| Stock | Cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Paper | Deducted immediately as waste | Added to the job |
| Ink | Not deducted | Added to the job |
Why wasted ink is charged but not deducted
The ink left your inventory when the tank was filled, and left the tank when the job started. Deducting it again here would count the same millilitres twice. What the waste record adds is the money — so the job carries the true cost of the mistake. Full explanation in How ink works.
Using what you record
Waste raises the job's recorded cost, which flows into Reports and the waste line of the Financial Report. Patterns are the point:
- One machine jamming far more than the others usually wants maintenance.
- One product wasting consistently means its waste allowance is too low, and every quote using it is under-priced.
- A spike after a paper change is a supplier conversation.
Do not use Error for stock corrections
Damaged, lost or miscounted stock that never went near a press belongs in a manual adjustment on the inventory item — see Reading the stock movement trail. Logging it as job waste would blame a job that did nothing wrong.
Related guides
Running a production job
Start to finish: starting a job, watching progress, logging errors, and marking it done.
How ink works
Bottles on the shelf, tanks in the printer, and why only a refill moves your ink stock.
Profit & Loss vs Cash Flow
Two views of the same business, why they disagree, and why buying stock is not a loss.