PrintSmith Vision Reviews

We have used Printsmith since 1997. Although there have been many updates and changes to the program, I have always found it invaluable in running our business.
The ease at which you can create an estimate (utilizing comparable past jobs and estimates from any client account), seamless conversion to Job Ticket, Invoice and ultimately post to billing saves hours of work each week. Printsmith stores all of our Client Account History, allowing us to predict what our client base is likely to be ordering in any given month, and allowing us to them in advance to confirm upcoming orders.
The built in accounting in Printsmith allows us to easily track profit and jobs won or lost, allowing us to print out comprehensive weekly and monthly close-outs that make the work for our Accounting Firm go off without a hitch.

I have no complaints about the system in general. When the purchased Program PRINTSMITH converted to on-line PRINTSMITH VISION, it was a learning curve that we managed to overcome and move forward with the help of the PrintSmith online support staff.

I love the program as a whole. everything is clear and easy to use and accurate.

The cost is very high and it needs a website as part of it so everything is one place. i know you offer a web site add-on but its not cost effective for most small printers. I have a website that is not attached to the printsmith system that is very reasonable but it doesn't integrate into you product so i have to run separate books for it. I don't even have the web site customers on the printsmith software because its too tedious to double up work.

All the estimates and invoices located in one place makes PrintSmith very practical. Along with a Till function this is a very capable piece of software. The imposition tool allows any member of our staff to see how many items should be printed on any lay to achieve the required productivity.

When quoting large format work it would be great if the system could handle different sizes and orientations on a single printed board. As the system cannot handle this we have to guess at our production which is not always correct.

The best feature is the new ShipExpress integration. The ease of use over the years has gotten better for the experience Print industry professional.

Relying on Report Writer to create some of the basic operations that should be included in the working platform in the form of a dashboard. Report Utilities is an example of an improvement but as the information does not link to the next level of information that should be available, especially as you are trying to manage your AR.

I like that you can copy an invoice to a new one

I don't like that you can't just copy a line from an older invoice. I don't like that you cannot go back and change something after doing a close.

Emailing - Several variable data templates for; Invoices, Estimates, Post Payments, Cash Register, Purchase Order and Statements. Will list all contacts within an Account, allows you to CC yourself. When setup will add outgoing email tracking to customer Logs
Pending List Search - No more scrolling, you can search from the column titles. Uses predictive text so just a few letters typically finds what you are looking for.
Notify Customer - Much improved over Classic. Ability to create tasks for yourself and others, having reminders when you log in, and email functionality make this a very usable light CRM
Digital Assets - A Classic feature grown up. Easy to attach artwork to each job makes pulling job history all that much better. You can submit those attached jobs directly to a compatible Fiery Device and monitor production from the WIP window
Remote Access - No more VPN, Team Viewer, Go to My PC, Chicken of the VNC. The ability to access the system from any computer anywhere is a huge benefit. For Support people the ability to access the system dramatically improves support service delivery. It includes a true mobile application designed for Phones and Tablets goes even further to cut the cord.
Customized Screens are Back - Dashboard, Pending List, WIP list are now all custom to the User...thank you
Dashboard - In Fast Track this now becomes a truly usable overall look at the Center, whether by individual user or the whole Center, good ability to customize as well

There has been a considerable effort to convert to HTML (the years spent on Flash were very unsatisfying and IMO the wrong direction to have gone) has left behind many bugs. I hope after October there will be a pause in new functionality to fix many areas of the program.
Stock Definitions - Once a rock solid functionality now suffers from development moving too fast and not enough QA. The Job Details Stock picker is a great concept that needs additional attention as well as the new Stock Picker screen trying to squeeze too much in too small a space.

The html5 update was long needed and helped put PrintSmith ahead of the competition when it comes to user interface. We use the EFI-hosted option which makes it a breeze to access from not only anywhere in the shop, but also makes it so much easier to access remotely. There are also integration options for Fiery RIP's if you take the time to set it up.

PrintSmith does a terrible job with handling production processes other than digital and offset printing. The way it processes wide format and merchandise production is clunky at best and leaves you wondering if the engineers ever even bothered to take into consideration the way that shops actually handle pricing and production.

There are many strange (and often very cumbersome) quirks throughout the platform that make it seem like EFI doesn't care too much about refining PrintSmith to operate intuitively or smoothly and that they're more focused on making the platform simply appear versatile and easy.

PrintSmith Vision includes every element needed to manage our digital printing operation, including estimating, invoicing, stock management, scheduling, shipping and delivery, and more. I love the way we're able to prepare estimates quickly and easily, and then convert them into invoices for actual job production. Once you get good at using the software, you learn how to create estimates/invoices so they contain all of the information needed for: the invoice the customer sees; the job tickets that each department of your production staff sees; the info needed to order stock; the info needed to ship or deliver the job and create packing slips.

There's very little that I don't like about PrintSmith Vision. There is a lot to learn and setup, but that is because the software does so much.

Transfer of data from Classic to Vision went smoothly; overall user friendly design; allows for broad range of digital & offset print functions; tech support is helpful

lags if your internet connection is not stellar; forms & reports are difficult to create & standard forms are not designed optimally; having to switch to Legacy for some functions is slow & frustrating; still finding glitches which makes me question integrity of the estimates I'm producing, especially if pulling from previously filed jobs; stock definitions are not easily maintained

I appreciate that this product while it can stand alone and support a print shop. The most important thing about this software is that it integrates with MDSF which is our virtual print shop "front door".

My teams least favorite thing about the software is the limitations we have as it relates to making modifications for ease of use for an in Plant Operation.