Your Screen Count Belongs On The Quote
Color separations decide your screen count, but that number has to live on the quote. How to keep pricing, prepress and the press floor working from one color count.
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Separating art is prepress work, and most shops have a way they already like doing it. The problem is rarely the seps themselves. It is that the number those seps produce, the screen count, often never makes it back onto the quote.
A job quoted as three colors that actually needs a white underbase plus three is a four-screen job priced like three. Multiply that across a week and small color-count errors turn into real lost margin.
Where the screen count goes missing
When the color count is decided after the quote goes out, nothing carries it back. The quote says three, prepress burns four, and the price never moves. Nobody is careless; the number simply lives in a document that pricing never reads. The fix is not a different seps tool, it is making the color count part of the quote itself.
- Color counts settled after quoting rarely feed back into the price.
- A missed white underbase turns a 3-color job into a 4-screen job.
- Pricing and production end up disagreeing about how many screens exist.
- Small color-count errors compound quietly into lost margin.
Put colors on the line item, per location
In PrintShopCRM the color count is a field on the quote, per print location, not an afterthought. Front three colors and back one is a four-screen job, and the quote knows that while you are still editing the price. Dark garments add an underbase automatically, because a one-color print on black is not a one-color job.
- Colors are set per print location, then summed for the job.
- Dark garments add a white underbase to the screen count automatically.
- Screen fees are calculated from that count, not typed in by hand.
- The margin verdict on the quote reflects the screens you will actually burn.
One color count, from quote to press
That single number then does everything else. It prices the job, it schedules the job, and it prints on the work ticket. A six-color run reserves six colors worth of press time instead of a default guess, so the date you promise is a date the press can actually hit.
- The quote defines the screen count once, for everyone.
- Capacity schedules on the real color count, so promised dates hold.
- The work ticket shows the press exactly what was quoted.
- No re-entering color counts between apps and people.
Common Questions
Does PrintShopCRM separate artwork for me?
No. Separations are prepress work and most shops already have a tool and a workflow they trust for it. PrintShopCRM takes the number that work produces, the screen count, and makes it part of the quote so pricing, scheduling and the work ticket all use it.
How does the color count affect my pricing?
Screen fees come from the count itself, and dark garments add an underbase automatically. An extra spot color or a second print location changes the quoted price as you set it, so you do not price a four-screen job like a three.
What if the screen count changes after the quote?
Edit the colors on the line item and the price, the margin verdict and the scheduled press time all move with it. The point is that one number drives all three rather than living in three places.