Preparing a Pre-Bill

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, August, 2001 by Dedra Smith

By tracking costs on a simple spreadsheet, publishers can spot and quickly rectify manufacturing invoice errors.

Examining manufacturing invoices may be low on anyone's list of fun things to do, but there are good reasons to check them diligently for each issue. Not only do printers sometimes make mistakes, but production directors who check bills carefully can become familiar with the details of the manufacturing plan as a whole--which will only make them smarter about production in the long run.

The best way to track costs is to build a pre-bill and compare it with manufacturing invoices as they come in. When an invoice arrives, the production director should be able to review it and resolve discrepancies in a timely manner. This is important from a contractual standpoint, since many printers allow a very limited period of time to notify them of any mistakes.

To create a simple pre-billing model, set up a spreadsheet that first enumerates and then calculates all the services that can appear on an invoice for the publication.

Most prepress line items must be handled mathematically from a per-page or per-color standpoint, and are fixed costs regardless of the pressrun. Prepress calculations can get quite complex, especially when magazines have versioning or unusual color usage. Still, the object is to translate the number of pages, or colors per page, to be received, pre-flighted, output, imposed, proofed, revised or otherwise treated by the vendor into a line item that matches something on the price list, so that costs can be accurately calculated.

Here's the easiest way to go about creating a pre-bill:

1. Make a list of the services described on the invoice in the first column of a spreadsheet. If the magazine uses different services in different issues, look at several vendors' invoices to make sure the most frequently used services are listed. (The odd eight-page gatefold can always be added later.)

2. Input the specific services used and plug in the run quantity involved, respectively, in the next two columns. This way, the model can be used over and over by changing the quantities and services as necessary. Most prices change only once a year.

Use the "create names" function in Excel for certain recurring quantities such as pressrun, subscriber run, newsstand run or whatever is needed for the title. This way, the names can be used as part of the multiplication formulas, and numbers will have to be changed only at a single location to calculate the next issue's quantities. For example, it's easier to tell a formula to multiply by "pressrun," which can be a variable, than to have to retype a hard number in every formula that requires the pressrun multiplier--right? This eliminates many opportunities for errors, too.

3. Enter the unit price that the vendor charges for fixed and variable prices, once services in use are flagged and quantities are listed. (I use "makeready" and "run" columns.) If the printer allows a discount for a second makeready or following form makeready for identical forms, columns will be needed for this pricing, as well. This covers the enumeration portion of the model.

4. Multiply the number of units by the unit pricing. Calculate makeready separately from running if the price list is set up that way--add either two or three columns matching those you set up for makeready, repeat makeready and run on the enumeration side. In the last column, add makeready and running together for a total.

5. Check to see that every form is properly calculated and that all the extra charges for press stops, bindery penalties, UV coating or any other operations used have been accurately multiplied. If the spreadsheet has been set up correctly, it will be easy to see when a charge does not match a calculation.

6. Ask the printer to express certain information on the invoice in away that makes it easier to rectify bills. Can hourly charges be converted to unit pricing based on an average? Tell the printer. It should, for example, be easy for your printer to separate makeready from run quantities, to indicate price per color per page, or to have paper expressed in pounds rather than dollars. After all, the printer has to calculate the bill using this data, too.

Dedra Smith is president of Printmark West in Boulder, Colorado. Contact her at dedra@pcisys.net.