Software built for print brokers and producers.
You sell print you do not make. The job arrives from your client, goes out to whichever shop is right for it, and comes back to you to check, pack and deliver under your own name.
PrintBlocks runs both halves of that on one order: the client in front of you, and the shops behind you.
Sell anything, with no catalog behind it
A broker's work is rarely a product they stock. A line can be free text with its own description, quantity and price, so you can quote a job nobody has ever made before without inventing a product for it.
The catalog is there for the things you do repeat, and it is never a condition for taking an order.
The shops you use are real records
Each supplier holds its own contacts, email, phone and details, so the shop you send work to is a record rather than a name typed into a note.
A supplier can even carry its own email template, so the message that goes out to one shop reads the way that shop expects.
Send the work out as a purchase order
Raise a numbered purchase order for a supplier, with its own items and quantities, and send it to them by email with one press.
They get a link to a page showing the order in your branding, so a shop that is not in PrintBlocks still sees a proper document rather than a forwarded screenshot.
Every line remembers where it came from
An item on a purchase order carries the job it belongs to, so when the boxes come back from three different shops you can tell which order each part of the delivery is for without matching them up by hand.
See what is out, and at which shop
Purchase orders sit on a board grouped by their own status, so at a glance you can see what is still a draft, what has gone out, what a shop has confirmed and what has landed.
Those statuses are yours to name, because "sent to press" and "at the finisher" are stages a broker has and a print shop does not.
Your client approves before you commit
Send the client a link to their own page with the job, the quantities, the proofs and the price, and let them approve it there.
The approval is recorded with the date it happened, which is what you want in hand before you place work with a shop on their behalf.
The artwork stays with the job
Print files, proofs and production notes sit on the job rather than in a thread, so the file you send the shop is the file the client approved, and next year's repeat starts from the same one.
Two sides, two sets of statuses
The order has your client's view of it and the purchase orders have the production side, each with their own stages. What you tell the client and what you chase the shop about stop being the same list.
It arrives as yours
Your labels, your branding on the order page and the documents, your courier and your tracking. The client deals with you, which is the whole business.
What you paid, on the work you repeat
For the products you do keep in the catalog, a cost price sits behind the sell price, broken down into material, printing, packaging and picking if you want it that detailed, and the product report shows revenue against that cost.
Questions shops ask
We do not manufacture anything. Does that work?
Yes. Nothing in PrintBlocks requires a job to be produced in-house, and nothing requires a line to be a catalog product. The production side becomes the shops you buy from rather than a floor you walk.
How do we send a job to one of our shops?
As a purchase order to that supplier. It is numbered, it holds its own items and quantities, it can be emailed to them directly, and it opens as a page in your branding.
Do the shops we use need PrintBlocks?
No. They receive an email and a link, and that is all they need. Nothing asks them to log into anything or to adopt your software.
Can we tell which delivery belongs to which job?
Yes. Every purchase order item records the job it was raised for, so a box arriving from one shop can be matched back to the order it completes.
Can we use our own stages for the shops?
Yes. Supplier order statuses are records you create, name and colour, separately from the statuses your clients' orders move through.
Can our client approve the job before we place it?
Yes. They open a link, review the job and the proofs and approve, and the approval is recorded before you commit the work to a shop.
Does PrintBlocks work out our margin on a job?
Not on a one-off. Cost lives on catalog products, so the margin reporting covers the work you repeat and keep in the catalog. A one-off line carries the price you are selling it at, and what you paid for it is yours to track.
Can several shops work on the same order?
Yes. One order can hold several jobs, each raised to a different supplier, moving and finishing separately while remaining parts of the one order you deliver.
Can the client see the shops we use?
No. The client page shows their order, their proofs and their price. Suppliers, purchase orders and what you paid are on the other side of it.
Your clients in front, your shops behind, one order through the middle.
Quote it, get it approved, place it with the right shop and deliver it as your own.