The Hidden Costs of Manual Estimations in the Print Industry

Blog Summary: Why to pay when you can estimate the cost of a print manually for free, right? Well, that cannot be any further away from reality. As the estimated cost is the foundation for every financial decision you make to complete a project, it should be efficient and accurate. If not, it costs you more than cost of automation. Therefore, this blog unveils the hidden cost of manual estimations for print projects.

Due to the fast-growing global custom printing market, the competition is unfettered. Therefore, automation is becoming a norm in the print industry. After all, it makes your print shop more efficient and profitable.

Yes, you heard right.

Automation makes processes like estimation cheaper if you consider the hidden costs of manual estimation in the print industry.

So, let’s understand the hidden costs of manual estimations and know how a smart print estimation software automates accounting processes for your business.

We will start with defining what manual estimation is.

What is Manual Estimation for Custom Printed Products?

Forecasting the cost of a custom print job based on customers’ requirements without using any print estimating software, is called manual estimation for custom print products.

Generally, small-scale print shops rely on manual estimation when the print job is either small or highly customized. It can include using tools like a calculator or even Excel sheets, but not any of the print quoting software, including accounting software, or print order management software.

The manual method of cost estimating is outdated in custom print products due to its inefficiency. But somehow, there are still a few of the print shop owners that argue in favor of manual estimating saying it is cheaper.

They are not wrong. As a small print shop owner who has just gotten a foot in the door, purchasing a printing estimate software might sound overwhelming or even unnecessary at times. But it is only when you see the hidden cost of manual estimations, that investing in printing cost calculator software seems worth it.

So, let’s unveil the hidden costs of manual estimations one by one.

Hidden Costs of Manual Estimations in the Printing Industry

Nobody talks about the hidden costs of manual estimations. You get to figure it out only when you try it yourself, and already it’s too late by then. So, to save you from making such avoidable expenses and have a win-win situations for print industry automation, we have listed here the costs that might surprise you for making estimates without any automation help.

Documentation and Storage Cost

Documentation is something that you cannot avoid. In addition to the estimates, you need to record all the estimates in a separate journal with details like the date of issuing, date of approval, and conditions applied. And being in the print industry we know paper does not come free of cost.

Other than that, as per the general rule recommended by lawyers and accountants, you need to keep all these records at least for 7 years. Imagine how much space would you need to store all the paperwork for the last 7 years.

Even if you use digitalized estimates, you have to pay for the digital storage like hard drives, and cloud storage separately.

However, if you choose to use print estimation software offered by OnPrintShop, you do not have to worry about documentation and storage. It automatically records every estimate with all the details and comes with its own cloud storage, where you can not only save the documents, but you can store customer data and accounting information. Furthermore, you can back up your entire ecommerce storefront too.

Cost of Correspondence

If you choose manual estimating, you need to pay for the correspondence too. You need to prepare the estimate, get it approved by the accounts team and the sales team, and then you have to mail it to the customer.

A single envelope might not cost you anything but imagine the cost of envelopes for the entire year. That is a considerable figure. And remember, not every estimate will bring you business. A vast number of them will be rejected and the correspondence cost you spend on those estimates is a pure loss.

Now, the customer might not be in the same area you are in, and not even the same country. It’s then when it gets too much expensive.

Whereas, using OnPrintShop’s quick print workflow automation software saves all that money and effort. You can create, send, and get your estimates approved digitally with a few clicks from anywhere in the world. Moreover, it saves your money the same way when it comes to invoicing.

Inefficient Employee Productivity

Manual estimation is a tedious task and thus it would take most of your employee’s time. To keep up with the leads and inquiries, you would need to hire more employees dedicatedly for estimations. And even if you have a large team, you will not want them to do the mundane reputation tasks that can be avoided.

Whereas, by automating your print estimation process, you will not need any dedicated employees to generate and send estimates.

Error Correction Expense

As a result of mundane work, humans tend to make more mistakes. And every mistake costs you money. You might have to start over and repeat the entire process right from calculating the rates for the line items due to a silly mistake. When it happens, your supply wastage gets increased as well.

On the other hand, OnPrintShop helps you automate repetitive tasks and minimize the scope of discrepancies. And saves all the expenses needed to correct the avoidable errors.

How OnPrintShop Reduces Print Cost Estimation ExpenseOnPrintShop’s advanced print estimating software drops your print cost estimation expenses drastically as it saves your money and time spent on manual estimation. It eliminates the guessing and provides you with accurate estimates for the print jobs. Moreover, it helps you make your print shop workflow management seamless.So, what are you waiting for? Try OnPrintShop for your custom print business to take your estimation cost down and pump your profit margin up.