Overview

 

In the print shop my friend Jerry and I opened in 1969, order tracking never graduated beyond the oversized cork board and pushpins on our shop wall. Not because a computerized tracking system would have been difficult to code, but because in all those years I never felt the need for it. There's some information that just works better on paper than it does on a monitor. We, of all people, should know that. We make our living putting information on paper.

Printing isn't the only industry where that's being recognized. The U.S. government has spent billions modernizing our air traffic control system. Yet when you board a plane for your next business trip, you're in the hands of Air Traffic Controllers who keep track of your airplane on strips of paper. The reason that time-tested system is still in place is not because the FAA hasn't tried to deep-six it. They just haven't come up with anything better.

 

 

Now, does order tracking work on a computer screen? Absolutely. It will work phenomenally well once we can shuffle jobs around with our index finger on a 10-foot wide touch screen, the way newscasters do on CNN. Until then, tracking orders on your desktop monitor is as good as it gets. But I'll confess, if I ever found myself running a print shop again, that big plasma touch screen would top my list.

 

How Orders are tracked

 

 

All orders are tracked as soon as you enter them. Tracking stops once the job has been invoiced. You don't need to initiate or terminate the process. That allows run-of-the-mill small jobs without a deadline to be along just for the ride. Most shop owners will agree that not every order needs to be shepherded through the production cycle.

 

What the Buttons do

 

Puts orders on hold. A toggle switch that either releases or activates the hold.

Marks orders as shipped, using today's date. Another toggle.

Marks orders as shipped, using a calendar.

The primary tracking button, opens the Job Control window.

 

 

The Job Control window is where you update the status of an order. Here you can also change the due date you set when you entered the order, or enter a new due date if the order wasn't promised initially.

 

 

See also
 

Showing Due Dates on Startup