No more calculation errors, forgotten set-up costs and outdated price lists. PrintDesk automatically calculates your printing prices based on current material costs, machine hourly rates and scale logic - and transfers the result directly into the offer.
Anyone who still calculates printing prices using Excel tables or based on empirical values is exposing their printing company to systematic risks. Here are the most common sources of error – and what they cost.
Paper and substrate prices fluctuate. If price lists are not kept up to date, you are calculating incorrect basic costs - and losing margin.
The set-up time has a significant percentage impact, particularly for short runs. Anyone who applies it across the board or not at all is working below cost.
Three edition levels, different products, several material options – a time-consuming manual process and a permanent source of error.
Anyone who transfers the calculation to a separate offer template risks incorrect numbers and inconsistencies - which the customer will notice.
Practical example: After introducing PrintDesk, a medium-sized printing company discovered that it had systematically not billed 18% of the actual makeready costs for runs of less than 500 copies. Extrapolated over three years: a six-figure loss. With automated calculations, this risk is a thing of the past.
PrintDesk covers all relevant calculation parameters - fully configurable to the cost structure of your print shop.
All materials used in your print shop - papers, foils, cardboard, special substrates - are stored in the PrintDesk material master with their purchase prices, formats, grammages and processing properties. If the purchase price of a paper changes, update it in one place. All future calculations that use this material will automatically use the new value.
This eliminates the biggest source of errors in Excel-based calculations: redundant price maintenance in several tables, which inevitably leads to inconsistencies.
PrintDesk calculates all circulation levels simultaneously from a single calculation model. Enter your desired scale levels (e.g. 100 / 250 / 500 / 1,000 / 2,500 units), and PrintDesk will automatically determine the total costs, unit price and recommended retail price for each level. The graduated logic takes into account that set-up costs are fixed and only after a certain edition does the influence on the unit price decrease - just as it corresponds to reality.
Each machine in your print shop receives its individual machine hourly rate in PrintDesk - including depreciation, energy costs and maintenance fees. Makeready times are defined for each printing process and format and are automatically included in the calculation. The result: precise machine costs without rule of thumb, which can differ significantly from reality depending on the order type.
In addition, further processing steps such as folding, stitching, laminating or punching can be stored with their own time values and costs. This creates a complete process calculation that correctly maps every step of your production process.
The most important step after the calculation is the offer. In PrintDesk, calculation and quotation systems are directly linked: With one click, a professional offer in the corporate design of your print shop is created from the completed calculation - with all graduated prices, product descriptions and your terms and conditions. The customer receives a clear, concise document; Your operation completely avoids transmission errors.
Read more in our blog article: Print shop calculation software – why automation is crucial.
PrintDesk is not an isolated calculation solution - it is an integrated system that seamlessly connects calculation, quotation, order and invoice.
The strength of PrintDesk lies in its end-to-end data integrity: Once a calculation has been created, it forms the basis for offers, order confirmations, production planning and invoices. No step requires data entry again. This means: The numbers on the invoice correspond exactly to what was promised to the customer in the offer - and to what was actually calculated in production.
For the Print MIS functionality This means: All order data is complete, production lists contain all the necessary specifications, and accounting always has a clean data base. The Order management in PrintDesk combines all of these steps in a unified interface.
PrintDesk enables subsequent calculations after the order has been completed: Compare your preliminary calculation with the actual costs incurred. Systematically identify which product categories, printing processes or print run sizes are profitable – and continually adapt your calculation basis to operational reality. This is calculation as a learning process, not as a one-time estimation process.
Yes. PrintDesk allows full configuration of your own substrates, material prices and machine hourly rates. All calculations are based on your individual cost data, not standard values. The configuration is carried out via clear master data management and can be updated at any time.
You enter the desired circulation levels (e.g. 250 / 500 / 1,000 / 2,500 pieces). PrintDesk automatically calculates the total price, unit price and margin for each level - based on the same cost parameters as the basic calculation. Fixed costs (setup times) are correctly distributed across the print run; variable costs scale linearly. The result is a realistic graduated pricing logic.
With a single click, a professional offer in the corporate design of your print shop is created from the completed calculation. The offer contains all bulk prices, product descriptions, delivery conditions and your terms and conditions. It can be emailed directly from PrintDesk or exported as a PDF.
Yes. PrintDesk offers a target/actual comparison between the original preliminary calculation and the actual costs incurred. This way you can systematically identify where your calculation basis should be optimized. Post-calculation is particularly valuable for product categories with complex production processes or fluctuating material costs.
Try PrintDesk free for 14 days and experience how automated calculation protects your margin.
Web-to-print automation for modern print shops. A product from Druckhaus interactive GmbH.