1. General Presentation

Advanced Professional Printing Management turns Dolibarr into a complete, specialised ERP solution for the printing industry. It is designed for professional print houses (offset, digital, screen printing, large format), communication agencies with in-house production, publishing houses and packaging manufacturers.

The module covers every commercial, technical, industrial and administrative activity of a modern print shop, from the customer request to the profitability analysis, and integrates natively with the standard Dolibarr modules (Third parties, Products, Stock, Quotes, Orders, Invoices, Shipments and Projects).

Target businesses

·       Professional and offset printing houses

·       Digital printing shops

·       Screen-printing workshops

·       Communication agencies with internal production

·       Publishing houses

·       Packaging manufacturers

·       Signage and large-format companies

2. Architecture

The module follows the standard Dolibarr modular architecture. It ships a descriptor class (modPrintingManagement) that declares the menus, permissions, dictionaries and database tables, a set of business object classes extending CommonObject, a generic list/card engine, a modern dashboard, a decisional reporting suite and a first-activation demonstration dataset generator.

Technical characteristics

·       18 dedicated business objects with their own MySQL/MariaDB tables (prefix llx_prt_*)

·       Full CRUD via the generic list and card engine, with column selectors and elegant filters

·       Self-healing schema (automatic ALTER TABLE for new columns on upgrade)

·       Module-unique language keys to avoid cross-module collisions (5 languages)

·       Responsive interface, Font Awesome 5 icons, PHP 8 compatible, Dolibarr 16 to 23

·       Optimised SQL, entity-aware (multi-company) queries, permission-gated pages

3. Detailed Functionalities

Printing clients (360°)

Advanced client management: type (agency, publisher, company, public sector, association, individual), business sector, usual format and paper, negotiated rate, order history and revenue.

Printing products catalog

Business catalog organised by category (commercial, administrative, edition, packaging, large format) with format, dimensions, paper type, grammage, colours, front/back and finishing.

Services & cost configuration

Print service configuration with automatic cost calculation: material cost, machine cost, labour cost, margin and sale price.

Printing quotes

Specialised quotes (flyers, business cards, brochures, posters, books, packaging) with detailed lines, validity and status lifecycle (draft, sent, accepted, refused, expired).

Production orders

Automatic transformation of an accepted quote into a production order, with product type, quantity, deadline and responsible person.

Fabrication jobs (dossiers)

A complete folder per production run: client, order reference, product, quantity, planned date, files, fabrication instructions and status.

Prepress & proof (BAT)

Reception and validation of client files, technical check and versioning; proof (BAT) management with status, corrections and history.

Work orders (OF)

Manufacturing orders: product, quantity, machine, operator, planned and actual time, with a production lifecycle (created, planned, in production, finishing, quality, done, delivered).

Production planning

Graphical workshop-load board showing work orders scheduled per machine, with colour-coded statuses.

Printing machines

Machine park (offset, digital, cutting, lamination, binding) with brand, model, year, capacity, hourly cost, availability and yield.

Paper stock

Dedicated paper management: type, grammage, format, colour, supplier, entries/exits, production reservations, alert threshold and stock value.

Inks & consumables

Inks, offset plates, films, glues, varnishes and packaging with consumption tracking, minimum stock and alerts.

Finishing

Finishing operations: cutting, folding, binding, stapling, lamination, varnishing, perforation; time, operator and cost tracking.

Quality control

Controls on colour, dimensions, finishing and quantity; conformity management, defects, rework and final validation.

Delivery

Delivery preparation, transport, address and delivery note; number of packages, weight and tracking.

Machine maintenance

Preventive and corrective maintenance: interventions, replaced parts, costs and next-due alerts.

Cost calculation & profitability

Industrial costing: material, machine, labour and finishing costs; total cost, sale price, margin and margin rate per work order.

Modern dashboard

A dedicated printing-workshop cockpit (not the classic Dolibarr dashboard) with commercial, production, stock, profitability and quality KPIs, a work-order kanban and four charts.

Decisional reporting

Sales, production, machines, paper stock, quality and cost reports, with CSV export and printing.

Automatic alerts

Late orders, low paper stock, machine maintenance due, expired quotes and blocked production.

 

4. Business Workflow

The end-to-end printing process supported by the module:

·       Client request → Printing quote → Order validation

·       Fabrication job creation → File preparation (prepress / proof)

·       Production planning → Material consumption → Printing

·       Finishing → Quality control → Delivery

·       Invoicing → Cost calculation → Profitability analysis

5. Permissions

The module defines eight permission groups (read / write / delete) mapped to the typical print-shop roles:

·       Administrator — full access to the module

·       Production manager — production, work orders, prepress, machines, finishing, maintenance

·       Sales — clients, quotes, orders

·       Stock manager — paper and consumables

·       Quality manager — quality control

·       Operator — read-only production consultation

·       Logistics — deliveries

·       Costing — costs and profitability

6. Dolibarr Integration

The module depends on and integrates with the native Dolibarr modules:

·       Third parties (Societe) — clients and paper/ink suppliers

·       Products — printing products and services

·       Stock — paper and consumables

·       Quotes / Orders / Invoices — commercial flow

·       Shipments — deliveries

·       Projects — complex productions and campaigns

·       Hooks, triggers and the standard permission system

7. Demonstration Data

On first activation the module generates a realistic, FK-coherent demonstration dataset (clients, suppliers, products, services, quotes, orders, jobs, prepress, work orders, machines, paper, inks, finishing, quality controls, deliveries, maintenance and cost records) so that dashboards, KPIs, charts and reports are immediately meaningful. A configuration page lets administrators reinstall or remove the demo data at any time.