Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. “Estimating is a repeatable process, a scientific process,” he says. “Pricing is an art. Different customers may warrant different pricing in different situations.” “An estimate from your estimating system, it represents the cost of doing business, paper cost, labor and profit,” says George DeMambro, VP of sales for ACME Printing. Discrepancies in estimating may occur when the science gets bogged down by human factors. Cone says that although an estimator should be able to take a project’s specifications and come out with the same price every time if the specs are exactly the same, it doesn’t always play out like that. “We all know that sometimes it won’t work that way in real life because emotions come into play,” he says. “An estimator can have a headache one day and that will affect the price. The estimator may be a little upset with the salesperson who is requesting the price, and that’ll affect the price. But in theory, estimating is a science, a repeatable process, day after day. Pricing is done after the estimate is done, based on the particular circumstances of that customer, when their job is due, their payment history, all of these other things that may come into play and may cause the job to be valued more by one customer or less by another or enable you to charge more or less from one customer to another.” Calculating price There are a myriad of ways printers calculate prices. Often, it’s a reflection of an overall business philosophy. Intelligencer Printing sales rep Donald LaClair says his company considers several factors. CANVAS P23