PrintVis Feature Release Highlights

Production analysis allows the user to analyze production time for jobs, cost centers, employees, or other categories. This page or API will help compare estimated vs. actual production recordings.

Material Analysis allows the user to analyze material usage by item, quality, type, job, or other categories. This page or API will help compare estimated vs actual material recordings.

Capacity Analysis allows the user to analyze capacity statistics such as free capacity, blocked capacity, planned capacity or placeholder capacity. This page or API will help evaluate capacity levels by Department, Capacity Group, or Capacity Unit.

The PrintVis Web2PV functionality has been updated to include a REST API for submitting orders, getting order status, and getting shipment updates.

The structure has also been updated to allow for Web2PV orders to include component (job item) information as well as a list of shipments.

A new action on the Web2PV list and a job queue option have been added to allow for the creation of Web2PV orders as PrintVis cases manually from the Web2PV Header list or automatically on a schedule with the job queue.

Existing Web2PV functionality has remained unchanged for those using the existing connections, but this new functionality will be recommended for future integrations.

In order for PrintVis to calculate the correct scrap on a job, the process flow must be correct, as the quantities of the preceding processes are also calculated.

In more complex products the next process in the calculation is not always just the next one on the same sheet or all sheets are assembled with the same finishing process. The PrintVis process groups provide a functionality to the user to modify the process flow and point to specific successors.

This functionality has been improved and it is now possible to bypass certain processes within a sheet or final finishing.

The PrintVis cost center import from reference company is part of the PrintVis Assisted Setup Services, which is a tool designed to expedite the time for implementation.

It provides functionality via a web service to connect to a database provided to PrintVis customers, to import from a database of machines and production equipment for the print industry. The user can choose from machine types and models from different vendors and also generic machines and workplace. Those can be imported with the full structure of configuration, parameters, operations and their speed tables and scrap tables.

This functionality was extended for customers that are maintaining their machine park in a master/reference environment. The new functionality provides the functionality to copy data 1:1 for a machine with all configurations, calculation units and the related data and tables in one single step. In addition, machines can be duplicated and renamed in the same step.

The web service connection to the reference environments has been improved as well and connection to on-premise and cloud environments are now possible.

PrintVis Report Setup (PrintVis Case Reports) is a tool for building the data for a dataset for creating customer-facing documents.

It is now possible to export and import each setup to and from a JSON formatted text file. After a new setup is created and tested in a sandbox environment, it can now easily be moved into the production environment by using the new import/export functionality.

The shop floor diagram provides a visual status of the machines on the shop floor.

An image of the shop floor is uploaded and then cost centers can be placed on the image and a refresh rate set. Cost centers will show green when running a job, orange when running an indirect time such as maintenance, red when running a waste or error code related to a job, or gray when a cost center is inactive.

Hovering over a cost center dot will display details about the active process.

Improvements have been made to the cost center monitor list to provide a better overview, especially for visualizing issues on the production shop floor.

The updates include setting different warning levels on operations, which will change colors to yellow or red, making internal errors easier to identify at a glance. Additionally, you can now view this in tile view, in addition to the traditional list view.

For additional monitoring, you can drill down to specific machines, with the option to add a URL for a live camera feed from your shop floor, enabling real-time viewing of your actual cost centers.

We have introduced several enhancements to the PrintVis Planning Board, incorporating more system automation to make the software smarter and more user-friendly. These improvements are designed to help customers save time by reducing the manual effort involved in scheduling and planning.

Reduction of Make-Ready Time: The system can now automatically recalculate make-ready time when similar jobs are scheduled back-to-back. This adjustment provides a more accurate reflection of the time spent on the shop floor, allowing you to optimize your overall schedule effectively.

Enhanced Auto-Scheduling: We have added an enhancement to the job queue function that supports recurring automatic scheduling. You can set specific recurring dates and times, enabling the system to plan tasks automatically on a regular basis based on customizable rulesets described below.

Customizable Auto-Scheduling Rules: You can now create custom rule sets to define your scheduling preferences. Set parameters for prioritization and grouping based on factors like delivery dates, material quality, tools, and more. The system allows for rough scheduling in advance, with the flexibility to fine-tune as deadlines approach. Here is an example of setting up auto scheduling ruleset for a printing department.

Placeholders/Reservations: It is now possible to set reservation time on cost centers for specific customers. This would ensure that only orders that are assigned to that specific customer will get press time in the defined spot/placeholder.

Locked Status: Manually locking a planning unit is observed and can not be moved through auto scheduling or manual movement, unless user specifically unlocks the said planning unit.

Always get a Result: All jobs that are set to be planned (meaning they have a planning unit created) will be scheduled, even if this scheduling action results in a warning. This will allow the scheduler to observe the planning unit on the schedule and make adjustment if they deem necessary. No more planning units dropping off the planning board and becoming unscheduled automatically.

Planners retain the ability to adjust auto-scheduled tasks as needed. You can still manually schedule jobs, ensuring you maintain full control over the scheduling process.

A completely new PrintVis ShopFloor Rolecenter, based on standard Business Central functionality, instead of the old written in JAVA-Script. This provides better support and an easier opportunity for ongoing adaptations. At the same time, we are prepared for any future changes from Microsoft.

The old Shop Floor Role centers still exist only with new names for “PrintVis Legacy ShopFloor Worker” and “PrintVis Legacy ShopFloor Manager”.

Basically, the functions are identical to the previous Shop Floor Role centers.
We have optimized the user interface so that the user has fewer pages, for example login can be done from the first page. It is also possible, from this page to load the order if there is a barcode on the Job Ticket Report

The Production Plan is now available with 2 tiles “Today” and “All”. When using “Today”, a default filter is set in the Production List on Start Date “..Today”, so user can also see previous cases that have not yet been completed.

From the Production List user can open the Electronic Ticket. Electronic Ticket has known functions as well as actions for the new functionality “Production Tracking” (See another release note). At the bottom of the Electronic Ticket is the “Case Description” function, here the user can see information entered in the PrintVis Case Card.

In the Shop Floor Summary – you can see all comments written from the Shop Floor. This Shop Floor Summary are also on Case Card.

The user can open Case Card from the Electronic Ticket.

From Shop Floor it is now possible to access PrintVis Folders (if the setup allows), this means that Shop Floor user has access to files placed in Folders.

The action “Consume Materials” has been updated so that only materials for the selected sheet are now displayed (if the setup is set to “Populate” on the Cost Center).

This new feature has been introduced to enhance user-friendliness. Previously, users were restricted to entering information in plain text within table lines. Now, you can edit case descriptions using rich text formatting and insert links and pictures directly into the description.

The new PrintVis Analysis pages, alongside their corresponding APIs, empower users to explore important quoting and costing data within the Business Central environment and across external platforms.

The following 5 analysis pages to be used in PrintVis and APIs to be used in Power BI or other outside applications are available. The APIs contain the exact fields and calculations as the pages.

Search “PrintVis analysis” and the 5 pages will appear.

Open Quotes
Rejected Quotes
Job Costing
Case Conversion (evaluation of cases that have quotes but not orders)
Case Complexity (evaluation based on the number of calculation detail lines per quote)

Each page within the analysis displays essential fields tailored to the selected analysis type, such as open quotes by date or job costing by product group, among others. Users have the flexibility to include additional fields using personalization.

Filters can be applied to narrow down the data being evaluated, and users can save, duplicate, or share views with colleagues. Additionally, users have the option to seamlessly export the data to Microsoft Excel for further analysis if preferred.

These analysis pages and APIs not only enhance decision-making processes but also facilitate continuous improvement in print companies by providing comprehensive insights and collaborative analysis among users.

Since PrintVis 21 we’ve integrated with the popular Scandinavian delivery management solution nShift.

Connecting with over 1000 carriers throughout Europe, nShift allows merchants of all sizes to streamline processes, reduce costs, and improve their customer experience with a standard system on a SaaS platform.

In PrintVis 23, we have expanded our integration with the nShift Delivery module and introduced a similar integration with the nShift Ship module, offering enhanced functionality to streamline shipping operations. Key improvements include:

• The ability to designate a sender (“from”) address different from the default address associated with your company. This feature is particularly beneficial for organizations with multiple facilities.
• Users can now specify additional sender addresses, including locations of subcontractors, as the point of departure for shipments. The sender address information is automatically included on the shipping labels generated within the system.
• Location recognition functionality allows the system to identify different sender addresses based on the location of the last Cost Center used in production. This feature is especially valuable for companies with multiple facilities or departments, such as a print finishing department situated in a separate location nearby.

These enhancements aim to provide greater flexibility and efficiency in managing shipping processes, catering to the diverse needs of businesses with multiple facilities or subcontractor arrangements.

Easy to work with, the nShift/PrintVis integration provides:

• Automated creation of a nShift Waybill directly from the PV Shipment Card with a simple button push.
• Flexibility to edit and export the Waybill to nShift as needed.
• Optional receipt of a “Track’n Trace” number from nShift, which can be linked back to the PrintVis Shipment (nShift Delivery only)
  Ability to generate multiple waybills for all or selected shipments associated with a PV Job.
• Convenient feature to resubmit waybill data to nShift in case of updates or issues such as label printer jams.
• Capability to manually create waybills not directly tied to PrintVis Shipments, providing versatility in handling various shipment scenarios.

For PV23 we have significantly enhanced the PrintVis Report Setup, which was introduced in PV22 as a necessary replacement for PrintVis Document Management.

The improvements include:

• Enhanced page layout for field setup, designed to improve ease of use and streamline the configuration process.
• Expanded range of data types, offering greater data availability out-of-the-box. Users can now read data from various sources. New sources are:
  • Case Description
  • External Description
  • Internal Description
  • Merge Codes
  • Inks from Job Color table

This expansion results in a total of 20 data types, a substantial increase from the previous four.

These types/sections can be placed individually in the layout of the report if a document with more of a “form layout” is desired.

• Improved options for reading data from estimates, particularly for sheet-related and non-sheet related calculation units.
• Expanded selection of available reports, including PrintVis Case Report 1-5 and PrintVis Purchase Order.
• Ability to edit the output text before it is displayed in the report and saved as PDF file.
• Ability to save the report file as Word document.

LoyaltyLoop is a customer feedback and loyalty platform designed to help businesses gather customer feedback, improve customer satisfaction, and increase customer retention.

LoyaltyLoop offers features such as customizable surveys, automated feedback collection, reputation management, and customer insights. It also provides tools for managing online reviews and testimonials, as well as monitoring customer sentiment and trends over time.

Once set up in PrintVis, Case data is sent to LoyaltyLoop when triggered by a status change. Response data from LoyaltyLoop is then returned to PrintVis via a job queue, and made visible in Factbox areas for the Customer, Contact and Case cards.

Once the case moves to the Status Code with the LoyaltyLoop checkbox enabled, the specified Case data is automatically transmitted to LoyaltyLoop. This includes full contact details such as the sell-to email, name, organizational level, company name, address and phone, as well as PrintVis Case details, such as the Coordinator, Salesperson, Order number and Type, the job name and more.

LoyaltyLoop measures the data and provides different score types as metrics (Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) and Product Quality Score (PQUAL)).It returns actionable data which can include customer comments, “leads” (other products of yours in which they show an interest), and “referrals” (potential new customers interested in your products or services).

The Job Costing Journal associated with a Case can now be conveniently accessed and edited directly from the Hour Entries page for that specific Case.

Users with permission can modify essential details such as the Posting Date, Resource Code, Quantity, Hours, and Cost Center within this interface. Moreover, a tick box feature is available to indicate if the entry has been edited.

Any adjustments made are reflected in real-time. This enhancement proves especially beneficial for addressing common errors like forgetting to clock out of a job, enhancing overall efficiency and accuracy in Job Costing management.

Previously, in PrintVis, users could only release a single finished good item at a time for an order. However, PrintVis 23 has been updated to allow users to post multiple, different finished good items for an order in a single process.

This enables more efficient handling of finished goods release processes, accommodating common scenarios where multiple items need to be posted simultaneously for a single order.

This is a replacement for the current PrintVis Document Management functionality. We have redesigned the process for configuring quotes and order confirmation documents (other types of documents, such as purchase orders, will be included in upcoming releases).

The primary reason for this change is Microsoft’s pending deprecation of multiple functions used within our standard Document Management. Additionally, it’s a perfect opportunity for PrintVis to make some nice improvements.

The functionality is based on Business Central reports using a built-in Word layout. PrintVis will provide a default layout.

The existing Document Management functionality will remain until approximately one year from now, in the PV24 release.

Companies using WIP will enjoy the new PrintVis WIP Setup and Journal pages.

Earned Sales is a new WIP method, where the actual time recorded/estimated time for the job is calculated to determine a percentage completed.

Additionally, the PrintVis G/L Posting setup page is now much cleaner, as no WIP accounts appear.

There is a new option on the PrintVis General Setup page that allows a company to choose the Advanced Case Card, which will then move the job items and component information, normally accessed on the standard Job Card, to be displayed directly on the Case Card itself. This eliminates the need to navigate to a separate page to view and edit these job details.

This also results in a cleaner, consolidated menu, with duplicate actions, such as Specifications, removed, for a more user-friendly experience with fewer clicks.

This is a new field on the Case Card job line, added in response to requests we’ve received for the status codes of individual orders to be displayed at the job line level, when there are multiple orders per Case.

Now the production status of each order can be seen right on the Case Card, and it is updated based on the setup of the planning status.

PrintVis is changing the way project cases are managed. Rather than having a separate Project Management list, users will manage project cases from the Case Management list, like every other case.

There is a preconfigured view called “Project Cases” that will list all cases belonging to a project. Users can create and save their own filtered project lists for easy project management.

From the case list you can click a menu action called “Project Statistics” which will display all the cases within the selected project, their status, % completed, invoiced, etc.

A new alternative to Finished Good items when no inventory is required, the new PrintVis Product card shares most of the parameters of the standard Item card. As a PrintVis table, it allows products (equivalent to finished goods) to be added to individual cases without the standard Business Central requirements for posting, inventory management, etc.

Additionally, the Business Central Team Member user type can create PrintVis Products, whereas they cannot create Items in Business Central.

Microsoft has improved their own onboarding experience for Business Central and we are doing the same for PrintVis.

Prospects can easily get started with a trial of PrintVis and Business Central and, following our easy onboarding steps, go live in increments.

Entry-level modules:

• Basic Setup
• Case Management
• Folder Management
• User Fields
• Time Registration

The idea is to think of PrintVis as a complete system built of interconnected modules, some of which are reliant on information from other modules and must be set up according to their dependencies. Some of the more advanced modules may require help from an experienced PrintVis Implementation Partner.

Tool fields are now available on the PrintVis Sheet Matchmaker page, giving users the ability to filter for orders which share the same dies, print cylinders, knives and other tools, and subsequently gang those orders for a common production run.

The new PrintVis Industry Captions functionality allows a company to set the field captions in areas of PrintVis based on the specific industry niche of the company, Order Type, or Product Group, such as Commercial Print, Packaging or Label.

This gives you the flexibility to configure the system with matching company terminology and specific industry standards. If no industry captions are set up, the system will use the default PrintVis captions.

PrintVis’ integration with EasyPost has been enhanced to allow for blind shipping and making multiple shipments at once.

When a shipment has “Shipment From Customer” checked, the label generated from the shipment provider will display the Sell-To customer name and address, instead of the company information.

It is also now possible to select multiple shipments from the Case Shipment list or the Shipment Overview page and by clicking “Buy Shipments,” submit all the shipments to EasyPost at once.

All the labels for these shipments will be compiled and downloaded simultaneously. For this to function properly it’s important that the ship-to address, phone, email address, shipping agent, shipping agent service, quantity to ship, quantity per package, and weight are completed for all shipments.

We also integrate with Scandinavian delivery management solution nShift. Connecting with over 1000 carriers throughout Europe, nShift allows merchants of all sizes to streamline processes, reduce costs, and improve their customer experience.

Integrated functionality includes:

• From the PrintVis Shipment Card, the nShift Waybill is automatically created with a push on a button
• The waybill can be edited and exported to nShift
• Optionally nShift can return a “Track’n Trace” number to the PrintVis Shipment
• Create multiply waybills for all (or selected) shipments for a PrintVis Job.
• Repeat waybill submission to nShift if changes are made or the label printer jammed
• Create manual waybills not connected to PrintVis Shipments

The import addresses functionality has been improved to allow for spreadsheet templates rather than using a single Excel format.

The Shipment Overview page has been updated to include ship and shipping integration actions. Additional shipping fields have been added to the page to make it easier to perform most shipment functions directly from this page.

It is now possible to select more than one shipment on the Shipment Overview page and the Case Shipment list and mark them all as shipped. This is the same functionality included in the EasyPost Buy Shipment integration.

The Business Central customer card has a default ship-to address. It is now possible on the PrintVis General Setup page to use Customer Ship-To as a default address option. The phone and email address from the customer and/or ship-to information is also now automatically included when the initial shipment is created.

The PrintVis Shipment Freight functionality has been improved to be used for all invoice template methods and allows for a markup to be included for each shipping agent. The No. field on the PrintVis Shipment Freight template line can also now be edited to allow for the freight costs to be applied to a different G/L account.

There are new actions on the Cost Center list that allow for the exporting and importing of a defined Cost Center.

Highlighting a Cost Center and clicking the Export action will download a .txt file containing the details of that Cost Center setup. Selecting the Import action will request the downloaded .txt file, and when selected will create that Cost Center with of its associated speed, scrap, calculation units, capacity units, as well as rates.

A benefit here is that you can set up new equipment in a test or sandbox environment to make sure everything is working correctly – and then easily import it into your live production environment.

There is a new action on the Cost Center, Calculation Unit, and Planning Unit pages that makes it easy to copy an existing unit. Copying the Cost Center gives the option to copy all price lists, scrap tables, and/or speed tables.

It is also possible to reuse the existing price lists, scrap tables, or speed tables. Also, you can choose which configurations to copy and whether you want the calculation units associated with the Cost Center to be copied as well. For example, if you have three identical machines you could reuse the price, speed and scrap tables so that the same one is used for all three.

A new collection of role-specific permission sets has been created to assist in the assignment of various permissions for users. Beginning with the PVS 365 prefix, included are permission sets for Advanced Setup, Case Edit, Job Cost Entry, Shop Floor and more.

Permission sets can automatically inherit supporting permission sets. For example, assigning the PVS 365 Case Edit permission set will automatically include the PVS 365 Basic permission set.

When defining a job in PrintVis, in the Page Input Unit field, you can choose to distinguish between printed pages (Pages w. Print) or simply total pages (No. of Pages). This option is available both on a Case level and in the PrintVis General Setup as shown below. The option selected here will be the default setting for a new Case; existing Cases will not be altered.

Both methods of calculation can be used within a single case on the individual job lines.

A new job costing report has been created that displays each order that is +/- a specific deviation percentage. The report can be exported as a PDF or Excel file.