Service Departments & Categories

It makes sense to organize the Services in groups because, as you assign a Service to a job, looking up a Service in a relevant group is easier than searching for it in a list of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of Services. Departments and Categories in Printer’s Plan help you with this organization. In addition, Services inherit their characteristics from the Categories in which they are created.

In Printer’s Plan, you can create up to twelve Departments, such as Graphics, Paper, and Finishing. Within each Department, you can create up to one hundred Categories, such as Design and Proof in the Graphics Department, Bond and Coated Text in the Paper Department, and Fold and Cut in the Finishing Department. It is within a Category only, that you can set up a Service. You may set up as many Services as you wish in each Category. Following is a sample organization of Services:

Creating and Organizing Service Departments and Categories

In the Services section, click Service Settings and select Departments and Categories…

The “Service Departments and Categories” window appears.

Functions of the "Service Departments and Categories" window:

Consider the following as you create Departments and Categories:

Departments and Categories, their names, and their listing orders may become important in certain areas of Printer’s Plan, such as the following:

• Work Orders: Department and Category names are printed with each Service.
• As Services are added to an Item of an Order/Quote, they are listed and then printed on the work orders in the same order as that of their Categories and Departments. Production will be more efficient and error-free if the listing order matches the production order.
  • NOTE: The listing order of the Services in an Item be modified; however, this requires several extra clicks.
    (See the "Jobs" chapter for more information.)
• Basic Schedule: Services appear under the Departments to which they belong.
• Scheduler tool:
  • Services are listed under their Categories and Departments.
  • Item (job) locations match the Service Departments.
  • As Items automatically move from location to location, the movement follows the same order as that of the Departments.
    (See the Scheduler guide for more information.)
• JobTracker: Locations are the Service Departments.
  (See the JobTracker guide for more information.)
  

NOTE: Initially, do not be too concerned about setting up the Departments and Categories.
Later as you use Printer’s Plan, you can rename, delete, or relocate Departments and
Categories and move your Services from one Category to another at any time. The setup
of Services, including their costs and prices, will not be affected.

Category Types

Nine Category types are available in Printer's Plan.

Printer’s Plan allows only one of the following Category types: Carbonless, Envelope, Plate, Proof, and Quick Sale. If one is already created, the New Category window will not include that  type as an option. Therefore, your New Category window may look like the following because the Categories mentioned are already added in the original Printer’s Plan database you have received:

NOTE:

• The original database you have received from Printer’s Plan includes four Envelope  categories as an exception. If you delete them, however, you will be able to create only one Envelope category.
• All of the four original Envelope categories have identical properties.

After Departments and Categories are Created

Now you are ready to add (set up) Services. To add a Service, select the appropriate Category and then click “New” to open a Service setup window.