ConfigurationsBeta

A configuration is where Print MIS pricing comes together for a single pricing category. It defines the inputs a customer chooses (quantities, sizes, colors, turnarounds, and options), the formula variables and lookup tables that drive the math, the process steps that produce labor and material cost from your Equipment and Materials libraries, and the margin rules that turn cost into a sell price.

Enabling manufacturing pricing

A category is priced by Print MIS once it's marked as a manufacturing category and given a configuration. From that point the storefront calculator and the server-side recalculation both price the category through the Print MIS engine rather than a fixed price list.

The configuration editor

The configuration is edited across a series of tabs, ordered roughly in the sequence a price is built:

Formulas

Most of a configuration's power lives in its formulas. Print MIS uses one formula language across every field — variables, lookup values, process-step timing, option consumption, and margin — and the same engine evaluates it everywhere it runs. This page covers where formulas appear in a configuration; for the complete language reference and a tour of both editors, see Formulas.

Built-in values

Every formula can reference the job's core inputs without defining them: Qty, Width, Height, Area, FrontColors, BackColors, and PageCount. Your own variables build on these.

Authoring modes

Each formula field can be edited in either of two modes, and the choice is per field — you can mix them freely within one configuration:

• Advanced mode — a code editor with syntax highlighting, autocomplete for available variables and functions, and inline parse-error checking, so mistakes surface as you type rather than after saving.
• Simple mode — a drag-and-drop block builder for admins who'd rather assemble a formula visually than type it. Blocks map directly to the same formula text, so you can switch a field between modes at any time.

Whichever mode you use, the formula is stored as plain text — the blocks are just another view of it.

Variables

The Variables tab defines named values evaluated in a set order. Each variable has a name, an expression, and an evaluation order; later variables can reference earlier ones. Use variables to compute intermediate values once — a sheet count, a finished area, an imposition factor — and reuse them across process steps, options, and margin.

Lookup Tables

Lookup tables map a key to a value for use inside formulas — for example a setup charge by color count, or a discount factor by quantity. A table is keyed by either Number or String, holds any number of key/value entries, and is referenced by name from your formulas.

Process steps

Process steps are the heart of cost calculation. Each step represents one operation in producing the job and binds to a process on a piece of Equipment. Steps run in their configured order, each carrying its cost into a running total.

A step can shape its timing and consumption with formulas:

Each step also lists the materials it consumes, with a consumption formula per material. The formula resolves to a quantity in that material's unit, which is multiplied by the material's cost per unit to produce the step's material cost. Labor cost comes from the step's total time — run time (quantity ÷ speed) plus setup and takedown — at the equipment's hourly rate. Together these accumulate into the job's total production cost.

Options and smart triggers

Order options are the add-ons and finishing choices a customer selects — and in Print MIS they can carry cost and consume materials like a process step. An option item can set a cost, attach to a material, and the option can define a consumption formula describing how much of that material the selection uses.

Options and option items can each carry a visibility condition — a formula that hides the choice when it evaluates false. Smart option triggers extend this to relationships between options: a selection on one option can show or hide another, letting you model dependencies like "Spot UV is only available when a gloss laminate is chosen."

Margin

The Margin tab converts accumulated cost into a sell price. Print MIS supports several methods:

• Fixed percent — a single markup over total cost.
• Material / labor split — separate markup percentages applied to material cost and labor cost.
• Cost tiers — a markup chosen by where the cost falls across defined tiers.
• Quantity tiers — a markup chosen by the order quantity across defined tiers.

A configuration can also set a minimum price that the result is floored to, and an initial running total formula that seeds the calculation before steps and options are added.

Live preview

The Preview tab prices sample inputs without leaving the admin. Choose a quantity, color, and option selections — defaulting to the configuration's defaults — and Print MIS shows the sell price, the material/labor cost split, the margin method and tier applied, and an expandable breakdown of every resolved variable, each process step's running totals and costs, and each option's material contribution.

Because the preview runs the same engine as the storefront and the server-side recalculation, the price it shows is the price the customer pays. Sample selections are remembered per configuration, so your preview state survives reloads. If a chosen combination produces a formula error, the preview shows the labeled error message in place of the price, making it a fast way to catch authoring mistakes before publishing.

Import and export

A configuration can be exported to a single Excel workbook and re-imported — useful for bulk editing or copying a complete pricing setup to another storefront. The workbook holds the full configuration across separate sheets (General settings and margin, Variables, Lookup Tables and entries, Process Steps and their materials, Margin Tiers, Sizes, Colors, Quantities, Turnarounds, Custom Size price ranges, Options, Option Items and ranges, and Smart Option Triggers).

Imports are additive and update-only, like the Materials and Equipment libraries: rows with an existing Id update in place, blank-Id rows insert, and anything not present in the workbook is left untouched. An import never deletes configuration rows — removing a size, option item, or turnaround stays a UI action. The entire import runs as a single transaction: if any sheet, cross-reference, or duplicate-name check fails, nothing is written and the errors are reported by sheet and row.