Job tickets and job bags in software

A job bag is the folder, envelope or plastic sleeve that travels with a job through the shop. It holds the order form, the customer's file on a USB stick, a printed proof and a heap of sticky notes. A digital job ticket does the same job without the folder.

The point isn't to look modern. It's that nobody has to ask who last had the bag.

What a job is, in record terms

Accountants define a job as a specific project done for one customer, or a batch of units made together.¹ That's a useful rule for your ticket. One customer request, one ticket. If a customer orders business cards and a sign in the same call, you may want two tickets so the costs stay apart.

Fields a ticket usually holds

A general reference says a job order will probably state the quantity to be built, plus the raw material needed and its price.² A print or sign ticket adds the details of the trade. When you look at software, check that it has a place for each of these, or lets you add one.

• Customer name, contact and purchase order number, if they give one
• Job name and a short description in the customer's words
• Finished size and quantity
• Material or stock, such as paper type, vinyl or board
• Sides printed, colours, and any spot colour needs
• Finishing: cutting, folding, laminating, hems, eyelets, drilling
• Artwork file names and the version in use
• Due date, and whether it's pickup or delivery
• Special instructions, kept apart from the general notes
• Who is working on it and which stage it's at

Not every shop needs every field. A sign shop will want a place for the install address, which a card printer never uses.

Labour and cost lines

A ticket can also hold the work done. Job orders can state the types of labour required, with a rate per hour or per unit.² For a typical job, direct material, labour, subcontract costs, equipment and other direct costs are tracked at their actual values.¹

Software may or may not track these. Some products stop at a description and a price. Ask the maker which cost lines a ticket can carry, and whether staff can add time from a phone or a shop-floor screen.

Files on the ticket

Artwork is often supplied as a print-ready PDF file.³ A good ticket keeps that file with the job. It shouldn't live in someone's downloads folder.

Some shops also run a pre-flight check, which is an automatic scan of the document against a printer's profile to find errors before it's sent.³ If that matters to you, ask whether the software does it, or whether it sits in a separate tool. The next page on artwork, proofs and approval goes further.

Printing a ticket anyway

You might still print a ticket and put it on the machine. That's fine. Check the print layout. Can you fit the key details on one sheet? Can a barcode or job number be printed large enough to read from a metre away?

Moving from paper

A few habits make the change easier.

• Pick the fields first. List what you write on the front of a job bag today.
• Add each new job only to the system. Don't start a second record for the same job.
• Keep the old bags until the last paper job has been delivered.
• Decide who may edit a ticket once production has started.

Ask the maker how edits are recorded. If a customer changes the size after the quote, you want the change visible on the ticket, not buried in a note.

Questions for a demo

• Can I make my own ticket layout for printing?
• Can two staff members open the same ticket at once?
• What happens to a ticket when a job is cancelled?
• Are old tickets kept, and can I search them by customer or job name?

When you compare how products handle quotes, check whether a quote turns into a ticket in one step or has to be typed again.