Testing & Troubleshooting Services Follow
Overview
Use this guide whenever a service line on a quote or order shows an unexpected Quantity, Time, Cost, or Price. It walks you through two core troubleshooting tools inside Printer’s Plan—Edit Costs and Quantity Detail—and shows how to apply fixes that instantly re‑price the job.
- How It Works
- Edit Service Defaults
- Review Costs with Edit Costs
- Use Quantity Detail
- Service‑Type Reference
- Key Points
How It Works
Each Service in Printer's Plan has a calculation to establish production needs. When Services are added to orders, their contribution to the total cost and price will be based on the components of the Service's configuration.
These components include:
- Quantity
- Waste
- Time
- Cost
- Price
- Open the quote or order that contains the service in question.
- Check the Job window’s right‑hand pane for each service’s outputs:
- Quantity: Units produced or consumed
- Time (hrs): production time charged
- Price / Hr: hourly sell rate (if time‑based)
- Unit Price: price per unit (if applicable)
- Total Price: amount billed to the customer
- If any number looks off, continue with the edits below and re‑price the job.
Edit Service Defaults
Follow these steps when a service’s Quantity, Time, or Price is wrong:
- Right‑click the service line in the Job window and choose Edit Service.
- Adjust the affected defaults—for example:
- Time Cost / BHR: hourly cost that represents labor or burden rate for machines.
- Material Unit Cost: Cost of the consumed materials for production.
- Setup / Run tables : The method for tracking production costs and pricing for each service.
- Difficulty / Waste tables: actors that increase production time or waste quantity
- Click Save & Close, then re‑price the order (Ribbon ➜ Reprice ➜ Default price level).
Review Costs with Edit Costs
Use Edit Costs to see how Printer’s Plan converts internal costs into customer prices.
- On the Job ribbon, click Edit Costs.
- Review the list of services represented as rows and key columns (Cost Per Hour, Actual Time, Material Cost, Markup %, etc.) for each service to pinpoint errors.
Back to Top
The Edit Costs > Quantity Detail Window
The Quantity Detail window is accessed via the Edit Costs window. Which ever service is highlighted in the Edit Costs window will be used for output within the Quantity Detail window. The information displayed within the Quantity Detail window will be determined on the Service type selected. Each Service's information is demonstrated and explained below.
Use Quantity Detail
The Quantity Detail window surfaces the exact numbers driving a single service’s Quantity, Time, and Price.
- In Edit Costs, highlight the service and click Quantity Detail (or press Ctrl + Q).
- Scroll through the readout to match inputs to outputs.
Figure 4 – Quantity Detail readout.
Common QUANTITY Fields:
Figure 5 - The QUANTITY section and data of the Quantity Detail window highlighted.
- Equal To: The final calculated output value and label displaying the method for tracking Quantity on this Service. This is determined by the Quantity field on the Service Setup window.
- Divide By: A modifier that divides the Quantity output. The value of the Divide By field on the Service Setup window.
- Multiply By: A modifier that will multiply the Quantity output by either entering a fixed value in the Multiply By field on the Service Setup window or a variable value based on information entered into the As How Many field on the Service Setup window.
- Round To: The rounding policy established in the Round To field on the Service Setup window. This value demonstrates the incremental rule for rounding up.
Paper QUANTITY Fields:
Figure 6 - The Paper-specific information within the Quantity section of the Quantity Detail window.
- Sheets: The number of original documents needed for this production item. Sheets or Originals are updated in the Item Window.
- Parts: The number of parts used for multi-part materials. The Parts are entered into the Paper Service Setup window in the Number of Parts field.
- Outs: The number of usable run-size documents cut from a parent-size sheet. Updated by entering a Run Size value in the Paper Specs window.
- Ups: The number of usable finish-size documents cut from a run-size sheet. Updated by entering a Finish Size value in the Paper Specs window.
- Side1: The front-side print option selected for Sides in the Paper Specs window.
- Side2: The back-side print option selected for Sides in the Paper Specs window.
Figure 7 - The Sides drop-down menu options within the Paper Specs window
1 = Black
2 = Black + 1 Color
3 = Black + 2 Colors
4 = Black + 3 Colors
5 = Black + 4 Colors
6 = 1 Color
7 = 2 Color
Etc...
- Passes: The number of passes through the machine based on colors selected. This is updated in the Sides section of the Paper Specs window.
- Caliper: The thickness of the Paper on a per-sheet basis.
ITEM QTY:
- Sheets/Set: The number of unique sheets or double-sided originals in the set for this item. References the Originals Field on the Item Window.
- Pages/Set: The number of unique impressions for this item.
- Colors/Pass: The number of colors for each pass. This is based on the number of colors selected within the Paper Specs window as well as the maximum number of colors per pass the press is capable of.
- Pass/Sheet: How many passes are necessary per-sheet in order to print.
- Sides: The total number of print sides. Updated via the Paper Specs window.
- Plates: Total number of Plates needed for production of this item. This is determined by the number of colors selected on the Paper Specs window.
- Special Plates: The number of Special Plates added as services to this item. This may represent duplicate plate services.
- Coverage: The difficulty level selected for the Printer or Press. This is based on the Difficulty selection for Coverage in the Paper Specs window.
- Register: The difficulty level selected for the Printer or Press. This is based on the Registration difficulty selection made in the Paper Specs window.
- PrintAs: The print method selected in the Paper Specs window.
- Washups: The number of washes necessary for production. This is established based on the colors chosen in the Paper Specs window.
- Mixes: The number of mixes necessary for the colors chosen. This value is updated via the colors entered into the Sides section of the Paper Specs window.
- Bleeds: The total number of bleeds selected within the Difficulties section of the Paper Specs window.
Figure 8 - The Sides section of the Paper Specs window with the Colors options highlighted.
SERVICE TIME:
Figure 9 - The Service Time section of the Quantity Detail Window
This section will help you understand the total setup and the run time being contributed to the total Service Time. If there are components contributing to the calculation as modifiers, the calculations will be explained.
- SETUP TIME: Each component contributing to setup time will be displayed as the total time.
- RUN SPEED: The default rate established on the Run Table is displayed as well as any modifications from the Difficulty Table.
PRICE TABLE: The current job's pricing will be explained with information showing which column and row to troubleshoot to correct the pricing as well as the calculations currently taking place.
UNIT COST: Read from Price Table indicates a specific Price Table is being used that also captures the click costs or Unit Cost. Instead of looking in the Mat. Cost column on the Run Table, check the first row on the Price Table for Material Costs.
Key Points
- Use the Job window to spot incorrect outputs.
- Use Edit Costs to diagnose time, material, and markup values.
- Open Quantity Detail for a line‑by‑line calculation breakdown.
- Right‑click ➜ Edit Service to adjust defaults.
- Click Reprice (Default price level) to test your changes.
Demonstration