Digital Printing Hourly Rate Costing Method Three

Distribution of General Management Fees Each item of printed product will be subject to a number of comprehensive management fees for the project, such as budget preparation and job planning expenses. (In some companies, budget and job planning fees are sometimes included in production overheads, sometimes Included in sales expenses, also includes advertising, promotion, transportation, telephone, office and other miscellaneous expenses. These costs must be assigned to the company's operating cost center. When analyzing the cost per page of digital printing, the general management fee is often overlooked.

Sales Expenses and Customer Service Some printing companies simply charge all sales expenses into the general management fee. Others separately record sales and marketing expenses, including the cost of sales and marketing workforce, and some subjects directly associated with the project, including advertising fees, promotional fees, sales fees for sales staff, and sometimes even office occupancy fees. . In fact, they consider the selling cost as a cost accounting center. For digital printing companies, especially if there is a group of sales people who specialize in this work, it is advisable to record such fees separately in a cost center in order to clearly identify such cost of sales.

Development of the project The printing of variable content jobs is complex and often requires a great deal of effort from the printer. Although sales staff are sometimes able to provide assistance for project development, they are more likely to rely on technicians who have deeper data and information processing knowledge, understand the requirements of variable content job types, and have a good understanding of customer needs.

The hourly rate can be calculated by dividing the total cost of each cost center by the expected time of charge. Based on the budgeted hourly rate, the cost of each print job can be calculated by determining the number of hours required for the job and the material consumed. These data come from cost accounting centers such as job receiving, prepress processing, printing, postpress processing/binding, etc. For each cost center, it is necessary to establish a standard for estimating working hours. Of course, corresponding material consumption standards must also be established.

Paper Consumption Estimation The paper consumption index should consider the loss part because the loss part cannot be the final product, but it will inevitably arise in the printing production. The waste product is caused by a printing error. The labor and materials it spends cannot be converted into income. This part of the cost should be accounted for separately and included in indirect costs. The loss is part of the specified index of the job and its cost is included in the production cost of the job. Waste products are not included in the plan and are not included in the budget of the job. If waste is produced, the fee can be included in indirect production costs or comprehensive indirect costs according to the printing company's principles.

Toner Cost The toner cost for a job is determined by the coverage and loss factor. Under normal circumstances, the coverage rate can be estimated based on experience, and the level of toner consumption should be included in the estimation standard of the printing process. When you are closer to the cost of digital printing and the cost per page they provide, you must be aware of the amount of toner loss inherent in each device. Since the cost of toner accounts for a very high proportion of the cost of the entire job, it is also important to calculate the cost based on the different coverage rates.

The cost of postpress operations Estimated cost of postpress for digital printing is basically the same as other types of printing. In the post-printing cost estimation, the key issue is to confirm whether all the costs are included, and whether the cost quota and the estimation standard are updated in time to reflect the actual situation.

Pre-printing cost estimates Printing companies do very difficult pre-press cost budgets and often contain a lot of guesswork. In terms of estimating costs, prepress service companies are usually more cautious than print companies because prepress work is their sole or major source of income and directly determines whether the entire company is profitable or loss-making. However, for today's equipment systems, as long as you can count it, you can estimate it.

Estimate prepress costs for digital printing of fixed or variable content, using the same method of estimating traditional printing methods and still extending it to determine the steps for prepress, proofing and document output. The first step is to check/test the readiness of the master file, including the contents, structure, and format of the attached data file; then conditionally insert the merged information fields that will be used to populate the text and pictures from the database. The proofreading and detection of data files with variable content before starting the merging operation can prevent loss and cause waste products; next, the information merging and output steps are performed in the same manner as the pre-boot preparation and on-press printing of the conventional printing method.

summary

Whether it is a short-lived job with fixed content or tens of thousands of live jobs with variable content, printers must account for all the costs when estimating and pricing. Careful analysis of operating costs is the prerequisite for obtaining sustainable benefits. However, it is also important that the printing company should also prove to customers that digital printing can provide high value-added printing products in a short time. These prints are characterized by personalized, flexible, timely, one-to-one marketing features and other traditional fixed-content printing methods. If digital printing companies are serious about formulating a high value-added product sales plan while paying attention to printing costs, the digital printing system will provide endless opportunities for printers and their customers.

(Zhang Jianmin)