Printer's Plan - Inventory and Stock Prices Follow

Maintaining accurate inventory and stock pricing in Printer’s Plan ensures your quoting, job costing, and profit tracking remain consistent and reliable. Even small discrepancies in material costs can cause quoting and profitability to drift over time. The inventory tools in Printer’s Plan make it easy to keep your data up to date without affecting historical jobs — allowing you to “tune up” your pricing rather than rebuild it.

1. How Printer’s Plan Handles Inventory

Printer’s Plan organizes all materials and services under departments and categories within the Services tab. Each item includes:

  • Cost: Your vendor or material cost per unit (often per thousand sheets for stock).
  • Pricing Method: The selling price, typically calculated as Cost + Markup.
  • Markup: Either a fixed percentage or a value from your Markup Table.

Key points:

  • Changes to costs and markups affect new and recalculated jobs only — past jobs retain their original pricing.
  • Each stock item maintains a “Modified Date” to show when its cost was last updated.
  • Printer’s Plan separates offset, digital, and blank stock markups, allowing tailored pricing for different production types.

2. Understanding the Markup Table

The Markup Table defines markup percentages based on cost ranges.

  • Rows 1–19 represent markup groups that can be assigned to individual stocks.
  • Columns across the top define cost breakpoints (e.g., $1 to $100).
  • Each cell specifies the markup percentage that applies when a stock falls within that cost range.

For example:

  • Group #3 might apply a 32% markup for stock under $100.
  • If the same stock costs more than $100, the markup may drop to 24%.

You can use either:

  • Markup Table values (for consistent rules across many items), or
  • Direct percentage entry (for one-off pricing).

3. Adjusting Stock Prices

Option 1: Change an Individual Stock

  1. Open the Services tab and select the desired department (e.g., Paper).
  2. Locate the stock item and double-click to open it.
  3. Update the Material Cost and/or Markup as needed.
  4. Click Save to apply the change.

Use this method for quick updates to individual items.

Option 2: Bulk Update by Category

  1. In the Services tab, open the desired Category (e.g., Cover Coated).
  2. Click Update Costs (top-right corner).
  3. Choose Manually to edit specific prices, or Percentage to apply a uniform increase or decrease.
  4. Enter a value such as 2% and click OK.
  5. Confirm and save — updated items will reflect a new modified date.

You can deselect individual rows if you do not want them included in the update.

Option 3: Bulk Update by Vendor

  1. From the Services menu, choose Find → Vendor and select a specific vendor (e.g., Atlantic Paper).
  2. Click Update Costs.
  3. Choose Percentage or Multiplier and specify the desired adjustment (e.g., +2%).
  4. Confirm and save.
    All selected items from that vendor are updated at once — ideal when vendors issue a price increase.

4. Working with Inventory Controls

Enabling Inventory Tracking

  1. Open a stock item and click More Properties.
  2. Check Inventory (optional tool).
  3. Define:
    • Minimum Level
    • Ream Quantity
    • In Stock (current floor quantity)
    • On Order (incoming stock)

This setup lets Printer’s Plan track material levels and prompt for restocking as needed.

Using the Scheduler Inventory Menu

When the Scheduler is open:

  1. Select Departments (e.g., Paper).
  2. The Inventory menu appears in the top-right corner.
  3. Click Setup/Adjust to:
    • View current stock levels and costs.
    • Modify pricing directly.
    • See which items are tracked (warehouse icon).
    • Add or remove items from tracking by clicking the warehouse icon.

Important Setting

In the Inventory Options, enable “Save Unit Cost if Edited.”
If unchecked, any price changes in the inventory window will not be saved.

5. Managing Permissions and Security

To control who can modify pricing:

  1. Navigate to Settings → General Settings → Passwords.
  2. Assign security levels to limit access to sensitive functions, such as editing costs.
  3. Users with lower permission levels will not be able to open or change service pricing screens.

You can temporarily disable password prompts using the Turn Off Security option if you need uninterrupted access.

6. Reports and Verification

Printer’s Plan offers built-in reporting to help verify updates and usage:

  • Printer and Paper Summary: Displays printer, service, and paper usage data.
  • Paper Usage by Digital vs. Offset: Breaks down cost and price data for each type of press.
  • Modified Date Column: Lets estimators see when a stock price was last updated — ensuring quotes reflect current costs.

7. Best Practices

  • Tune, don’t rebuild. Think of your inventory as your system’s engine — small, consistent updates keep it running efficiently.
  • Record modified dates. Encourage estimators to check modified dates when quoting.
  • Use bulk updates wisely. They save time but should be done carefully to avoid unintentional changes.
  • Protect your pricing. Use password levels to keep cost edits restricted.
  • Leverage exports. You can export inventory data to Excel for vendor updates, then re-import it with new pricing.

Summary

Keeping inventory accurate in Printer’s Plan ensures your pricing, quotes, and profitability stay aligned with real-world costs. Use the built-in tools to update costs efficiently, track vendor changes, and safeguard your data — and remember, you’re not rebuilding your pricing model, you’re just keeping it tuned.

 

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