Welcome to PrintERP
What PrintERP does, how the pieces fit together, and the order to set things up in.
PrintERP runs the whole of a printing shop in one place — what you have in stock, what you sell, what you print, what it cost you, and what you made. This guide is the map. Read it once and the rest of the Help centre will make sense.
The big idea
Most print shops track stock in one place, jobs in another, and profit nowhere at all. PrintERP joins them: when you finish a job, the paper and ink that job used come off your stock automatically, the cost is written against the job, and that cost flows into your reports. You only have to record things once.
For that to work, the system needs to know your recipes — how much paper and ink one unit of each product actually consumes. Setting those up is most of the work, and you only do it once per product.
The five layers
Everything in PrintERP sits in one of five layers. Each layer depends on the one above it, which is why setup happens in this order.
| Layer | What lives here | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Stock | The physical things you buy — paper, ink bottles, laminate, boxes | Inventory |
| 2. Measures | Paper counted in pieces, ink counted in millilitres | Paper · Ink |
| 3. Recipes | What one unit of a product consumes, plus its selling price | Products |
| 4. Work | Quotations, production jobs, waste, deliveries | Production |
| 5. Money | Costs, expenses, profit and loss, cash flow | Reports · Financial Report |
Why layers 1 and 2 are separate
You buy paper by the ream and ink by the bottle, but you print by the piece and by the millilitre. Layer 2 is the translation between the two. It is the reason PrintERP can tell you what a single business card cost to produce.
The order to set things up in
The setup wizard walks you through the first four of these when you sign up. If you skipped ahead or you are adding something new later, this is the order that works:
- 1Add your inventory items in Inventory Items — the paper, ink and materials you actually buy, with their unit (ream, bottle, pack) and cost.
- 2Add your machines in Machines. For printers, set the seconds per piece so PrintERP can estimate how long jobs take, and add the ink tanks.
- 3Register your paper in Paper — link a paper inventory item and say how many pieces are in one ream or box.
- 4Register your ink in Ink Usage Management — link an ink inventory item, say how many millilitres are in a bottle, and how many pages it prints.
- 5Build your products in Products — name, selling price, then the recipe: materials, paper and ink per unit.
- 6Add your customers in Customers if you quote work rather than selling over the counter.
Tip
You do not have to do all of this before you can use the system. Add one product properly, run one job through it, and see the numbers come out. Then add the rest.
Two ways to sell
PrintERP supports two paths into production, and you can use both:
- Over the counter. Go to Production, tap the products, set quantities, choose a machine, and check out. A job is created immediately. No customer record needed — good for walk-ins.
- Quoted work. Create a Quotation for a customer, get it approved, then convert it into a production job. This keeps a paper trail and lets you track margin per quote. Quotations are on the Press plan and above.
Either way you end up with a production job, and from there the flow is identical — see Running a production job.
What actually moves your stock
This trips people up more than anything else, so it is worth learning early. Only these actions change your inventory numbers:
| Action | Effect on stock |
|---|---|
| Receiving a purchase order | Increases the item |
| Manual adjustment or opening balance | Increases or decreases the item |
| Finishing a production job | Decreases paper, per the product recipe |
| Recording waste on a job | Decreases paper that was spoiled |
| Refilling a printer's ink tank | Decreases ink |
Printing does not deduct ink from stock
Ink leaves your inventory when you refill a printer, not when you print. Printing draws down the tank inside the machine. This mirrors what physically happens, and it is explained in full in How ink works.
Who sees what
Two separate things decide what a person can open. They are easy to confuse:
- Your plan decides which modules your business has at all. Locked modules show a padlock and an Upgrade chip in the sidebar. See Plans and limits.
- Your role decides which of those modules each individual user may open. A Sales Staff user will not see Inventory even on the top plan. See Users and roles.
Help is never restricted by either — every article here is readable by everyone, so your team can learn parts of the system they do not have access to yet.
Where to go next
I have just signed up. What now?
Finish the setup wizard, then read Your first job, start to finish.
My ink numbers look wrong.
Almost always this is the tanks-versus-stock distinction. Read How ink works.
Why did a whole ream disappear when I only used 20 sheets?
It should not have. See Partial reams and bottles for exactly when a whole unit comes off the books.
How do I see whether I am making money?
Profit & Loss vs Cash Flow explains the two views and why they differ.
Go to your dashboard
See what is in production, what is queued, and what needs attention.
Related guides
The setup wizard
The four steps you must finish before the dashboard unlocks, and what each one is for.
Your first job, start to finish
A complete worked example: one product, one job, one delivery — and the numbers it produces.
How ink works
Bottles on the shelf, tanks in the printer, and why only a refill moves your ink stock.