The job lifecycle
Every order in ManagePrint follows one path: quote it, get it approved, produce it, get paid. This page explains the one idea that makes the whole system work: one approval creates two things.
One approval, two records
When a customer approves a quote, ManagePrint creates an invoice and a job at the same time. They’re linked, but they do different work.
Splitting the order this way is the point. Your front office watches the invoice. Your floor watches the job. Neither waits on the other, and both stay in sync because they came from the same approval.
The two records stay linked. The job carries its invoice number, and the invoice points back to its job. Open one and you can always jump to the other.
The full path
Quote
Build a quote with line items, fees, and mockups. Send the customer a link they approve in two taps. See Quotes.
Approve
The customer approves and signs. That single action does three things at once:
- Marks the quote approved.
- Generates an invoice with every line item and fee copied over.
- Generates a job and drops it on your production board as pending.
You re-key nothing. The order is already in production and already billable.
Produce
The job moves through your production stages, one tap at a time. Prep, approval, press, done. Every move is timestamped, so the board is always live and your analytics build themselves. See The production board.
Get paid
Collect a deposit up front or the full amount on completion. Payments post against the invoice, and its payment status updates on its own. See Payments.
Multi-part orders
A real order is rarely one thing. Shirts and hoodies. Front print and back print. ManagePrint handles this with multi-part jobs: each line item moves through the workflow on its own. The job’s overall status rolls up from its parts. See Multi-part jobs & locations.
Where production ends, and what comes next
Out of the box, the production workflow ends at Completed. Most shops want more, a QC checkpoint, a receiving step, a shipped marker. You’re not stuck with the default: ManagePrint lets you build your own stages on the invoice pipeline and slot them in wherever they belong. See Build your own workflow.
What feeds your numbers
Because every stage change is a timestamped event, you never fill out a timesheet to get analytics. The job’s history is the data. Read Analytics for what ManagePrint measures and how to read it.