Print job costing: the data your MIS needs to be reliable

01 /

A clear structure matters more than decimal places

BVDM describes its vocational costing materials as an industry-specific resource built on cost and performance principles. This public description supports a structured approach to print costing; it does not provide current hourly rates for your business.Evidence: [1]

Our recommendation is to start with your own costing foundations. Which costs does a machine hourly rate include? How many usable hours underpin it? How current are stock prices and makeready times? A precise result produced from unchecked assumptions is not a dependable basis for a decision.

02 /

Give each important job field an unambiguous meaning

Start with one common product group and ten completed jobs. Put the estimate, order confirmation, production information, supplier invoices and customer invoice side by side. When values differ, first check the unit, date and revision. A quantity without an indication of whether it means finished products or press sheets is not sufficient for this comparison.

Assign an authoritative source and an owner to each field. A change must not remain unnoticed in somebody’s personal inbox. Also record whether a value is estimated, confirmed or measured. This keeps uncertainty visible rather than allowing it to become apparent certainty in a report.

03 /

What is included in the rate, and what is additional?

IHK Darmstadt’s costing guidance includes other cost components alongside wages. It also addresses discounts and early-payment discounts in pricing. A wage figure alone is therefore not a complete costing basis, and a list price is not necessarily the revenue ultimately achieved.Evidence: [2]

Review the composition of your rates with the person responsible for commercial management. If a machine hourly rate already includes its operator, do not inadvertently charge the same activity again as labour. Conversely, necessary tasks should not disappear simply because there has been no suitable recording step for them.

We recommend making makeready, running time, prepress work, materials, outsourced services and delivery separately visible at first. Document which overheads are included in the rates. If utilisation changes, review whether the previous calculation basis still fits your plan. Do not copy somebody else’s hourly rate as a supposed industry standard.

04 /

Worked example: the same revenue, a different amount remaining

The €135 difference consists of €30 in additional materials, €60 in additional machine time, €30 in additional prepress work and €15 in extra delivery costs. The arithmetic alone cannot tell you whether the cause was a customer change, an unsuitable assumption or internal rework. You need the underlying records for that.

Do not label the remainder a net margin without checking. You must explicitly define which further costs are already included in the rates and which still need accounting for. The example shows a variance within a limited model, not the complete financial performance of a business.

05 /

Keep job costing results, contribution and profit distinct

The German government’s GründerZeiten 23 guide distinguishes cost types, cost centres, cost units and contribution analysis. It explains that contribution helps cover further costs. A positive difference at job level is therefore not automatically equivalent to the profit of the whole business.Evidence: [4]

For your reporting, we recommend a short definition sheet: indicator name, formula, included costs, excluded costs and the decision it supports. If one report uses allocated full costs and another deducts only selected job-dependent costs, label the results differently. Otherwise, a shared word such as margin conceals different calculations.

Agree these definitions with your finance lead or adviser. Use a consistent method for comparisons over time and document rate changes. Otherwise, it remains unclear whether the job has changed or only the way it is valued.

06 /

Connect the MIS without spreading data errors faster

CIP4 describes XJDF as an exchange format between a managing application, such as an MIS or production control system, and executing applications. The standard describes a data interface, not the commercial validity of your costing assumptions.Evidence: [3]

An MIS integration should therefore start with a specific data contract: which system provides each value, in which unit and at which event? Check available interfaces, versions and licences before committing to a transfer mechanism. Not every business needs a new MIS; sometimes a narrowly defined addition to the existing system is the better option to investigate.

• Test corrected jobs as well as new jobs.
• Ensure that a resent message does not create a duplicate entry.
• Check missing required data, unknown material codes and conflicting units.
• Make transfer failures visible and define ownership and recovery.
• Compare a transferred test job with its source all the way through to the final report.

07 /

Turn a variance into a specific decision

We recommend a short, regular job review involving sales, production and commercial management. Select a small number of completed jobs. Start by asking whether the data is complete, then investigate the largest variances. Do not use the report as a ranking of individual employees.

Connect each finding with an action: correct an estimating assumption, investigate alternative stock, change the approval process or agree additional customer charges more clearly in future. A one-off exception should not automatically change every standard time. Recurring variances, however, deserve a documented review.

Close the review with an owner and a due date. With the next comparable jobs, check whether the change actually helped or introduced other rework. This turns a retrospective figure into an operational improvement you can verify.

08 /

How to start without rebuilding the entire system

1. Select one product group

   Choose recurring jobs and collect complete records rather than selecting only unusually good or poor examples.

2. Agree data and calculation rules

   Define units, revisions, cost components and authoritative sources. Flag assumptions that have not yet been confirmed.

3. Trace one variance

   Follow it from estimate to billing. Decide whether the input, process, costing method or transfer needs to change.

4. Implement and check on a limited scale

   Trial the change on suitable jobs. Extend it only after a technical and commercial review and evidence of practical benefit.

A useful outcome may simply be to keep the MIS while agreeing firm rules for three inputs, one handover and customer changes. The technology should follow a clearly defined task.