Print Estimating Software

The problem

The estimate is where a print job makes or loses its money.

By the time the job is on the press the margin is already decided. Four ways a spreadsheet decides it badly.

The layout was never optimised

Nobody had time to work out whether the job fits 4-up or 6-up on the sheet you actually hold. The difference between those answers is often the whole margin.

Waste is a round number

Make-ready, run spoilage, offcuts and the reprint when colour drifts get covered by "add 10%". Sometimes generous, sometimes nowhere near, and you never find out which.

Every press is priced the same

One blended hourly rate means short digital runs subsidise long litho runs, or the reverse. Either way you are winning the work you should be losing.

It all lives with one estimator

The rates, the tricks and the judgement sit in one spreadsheet and one person’s head. When they are on leave quoting slows; when they leave it stops.

The benefit

Don't estimate. Be precise.

Configured to your presses, your stocks and your overhead recovery — not to an industry average.

The saving is found before you commit

BOS shows you a layout that reduces wastage while the job is still a quote, not after the offcuts are in the bin.

Waste costed to the cent

Make-ready and run waste are calculated rather than estimated, and the unavoidable remainder is priced into the job.

The desk is safe to hand over

The knowledge sits in the system, so a junior estimator quotes like a senior one and leave stops being a bottleneck.

The solution

What the module actually calculates.

Imposition guidance. How to lay the job out to reduce wastage, before the job is committed.
Waste, to the cent. Make-ready and run waste calculated, with the exact cost of unavoidable waste carried into the quote.
Ink consumption as material. Coverage priced as a cost rather than disappearing into an overhead rate.
Per-machine speeds and overheads. Each press, cutter, folder and finishing line runs at its own rate and recovers its own overhead.
Multi-quantity quoting. 500, 1 000 and 5 000 in a single estimate, so the customer can see the break points.
Outwork and bought-in items. Trade finishing, plates and delivery priced into the job rather than remembered at invoicing.
Paper price updates included in the subscription for South African print companies.

Beyond estimating

What a full print MIS carries.

"Print MIS" began in the 1980s as estimating plus management information. A modern one has to carry the whole job — which is what makes BOS an ERP rather than a quoting tool.

Order management: The accepted quote becomes the job card; specification, quantity, stock and due date travel with it.
Purchasing: Substrate and outwork ordered against the job, multiple supplier prices per item, landing costs allocated automatically.
Production planning: A board the whole shop can see, so "where is my job?" does not require a walk to the floor.
WIP and time tracking: Work in progress start to finish, with real hours booked against the job.
Invoicing and accounting: Invoice from the same record into IFRS and GAAP compliant full-house accounting.
Estimate versus actual: The comparison that makes the next quote better than this one.

What printers ask before they switch.

"Is this a quoting tool or a full system?" A full system. The estimator sits on the same database as stock, purchasing, production, CRM, invoicing and accounting — which is what makes estimate-versus-actual possible.
"Does it handle litho and digital?" Yes. Each machine carries its own speed, make-ready, waste factors and overhead recovery. Wide format and signage too.
"How much configuration?" The module is fixed and built for print, so you configure your machines, stocks and rates rather than building an estimating system.
"What does it cost?" Month-to-month, per user, no capital outlay, every module included. The prices are published.
"Can we run it on our own server?" Yes — your network, or a managed cloud server we host, patch and back up daily.

Bring a job you quoted last week

Send us a real job and we will estimate it in BOS alongside you — layout, waste, ink and machine time — so you can compare it with the number you quoted.

Quote a print job the way it will actually run.