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Building Products - How-To Guides

Fab
by Fab 3 years ago
 
How to create Products that you produce in-house or outsource. Please review the guides before creating your Products to avoid this list of common mistakes.

Watch a building product demo

These guides MUST be followed exactly. Unfortunately we will not provide any assistance were a product has been created using a Workaround to achieve an outcome that is not intended or described in the articles below.

Getting Started

Overview: How do I add products for w3p? Overview: How do I add products for w3p?

Product not showing online? Avoid these common errors Product not showing online? Avoid these common errors

Product Group - Master Class Product Group - Master Class

Product Pricing & Available Products Filter Product Pricing & Available Products Filter

Linking Products to Templates Linking Products to Templates

Create your product (link) Create your product (link)

Stock Pick Products

Stock pick items & stock manager Stock pick items & stock manager

Technical Specification

What are Product Kinds? What are Product Kinds?

Single Sided or Double Sided; Colour Types Explained Single Sided or Double Sided; Colour Types Explained

Sorting & Searching (Product Tags)

Product Tags - Master Class Product Tags - Master Class

Examples of Popular Products Tags Examples of Popular Products Tags

Product Tags - Hiding products from Personal Catalogue Product Tags - Hiding products from Personal Catalogue

Customer Permissions

Setting up customer permissions Setting up customer permissions

Delivery charges

Advanced Features

Product Importer Product Importer

Product Options (Adding Finishes and Folds to Products) Product Options (Adding Finishes and Folds to Products)

Any size products Any size products

Any quantity products Any quantity products

Product Pricing & Available Products Filter Product Pricing & Available Products Filter

Allowing TemplateCloud Designs or just your products Allowing TemplateCloud Designs or just your products

Service Levels (Selecting turnaround times in Flyerlink) Service Levels (Selecting turnaround times in Flyerlink)

Supplieready Types Supplieready Types

Video Training

OpenSource training webinar OpenSource training webinar

InHouse training webinar InHouse training webinar

Pick n Pack training webinar Pick n Pack training webinar

Building Products - How-To Guides

How to create Products that you produce in-house or outsource. Please review the guides before creating your Products to avoid this list of common mistakes.

Watch a building product demo

These guides MUST be followed exactly. Unfortunately we will not provide any assistance were a product has been created using a Workaround to achieve an outcome that is not intended or described in the articles below.

Overview: How do I add products for w3p?

Overview:

A quick guide to creating Products and Product Groups.

  • Creating products
  • Product groups
  • Product kinds
  • Product tags
  • The final step

Creating Products

To create a New Product go to Workgroup > My Products > Products > Add New Product. Then enter your Product Details.

You'll need to give it a name, choose your product kind (see below), size and colour type.

Sizes are broken down into groups, with all A sizes like A4 and A5 in a group of all A-size flat products. If you can't find the right size for you, choose other sizes then custom size to enter your own size. You can also allow customers to choose their own size using an any size product.

The colour choice decides how many pages are available for the file and what colours should be expected, more details on colours can be found here.

Product Groups

Product Groups group together similar products, such as A4, A5 and A6 130gsm Gloss Leaflets.

This is an example of a Business card Product Group:

 We recommend naming the products within a group consistently to help both you and your customers.

This example is of a list of Products contained within a Leaflet Product Group (Notice Products are listed by Size and Colour Type):

 

Building products using product duplication

The quickest way to create your products is to create a single sided product first using the Full Colour Front Colour Type, then select Duplicate Product under Sorting & searching to create a double sided version (Identified by 4x4 in the above example).

Use Duplicate for all additional sizes and adjust your prices accordingly.

Remember to also change the Product Name, Colour Type and Product Size (under Technical Specification) for each new product you create/duplicate.

Product Kinds

Each product you create has a product kind.

You have 5 types to choose from each with different features.

Product Kind Explanation
Printed item

The product makes a physical printed good.
Requires a graphic file before job can go to Status 081

Electronic file The product makes an electronic item, like a press advert or graphic design.
Doesn't make a physical item, but requires a graphic file.
Stock pick item The product has been pre-produced, for you to pick and pack to your customers.
Physical item that doesn't need a graphic file.
Uses the Stock Manager to control stock levels.
Service The product is a service, like consultancy or training.
It's not a physical item and doesn't require a graphic file.
Can be used for Flyerlink's invoicing and TimeTracking features.

Products Tags

Product Group pages display products by Size and Colour Type.

If two Products share the same Size and Colour Type, Leaflets and Flyers for example. Product tags must be used to display them correctly online.

You can view your Products Tags here:
Workgroup > My Products  > Products > Edit

 Product Tag Order: 

  • Product Type (Flyers);
  • Substrate (Card);
  • Substrate Weight (Medium weight card);
  • Product Style (280gsm Gloss).  

Your product will not show online if the purple Substrate Tag is missing.

Each tag takes the customer down a different route to find the product they are after and should be unique.

For example:

Click here to view this page live.

A5 Leaflet Products Tags

Substrate > Substrate Weight > Product Style
Paper > Thickest Paper > 150gsm Gloss
Paper > Thickest Paper > 170gsm Silk

A5 Flyer Products Tags

Substrate > Substrate Weight > Product Style
Card > Medium Weight Card > 280gsm Gloss
Card > Medium Weight Card > 
280gsm Silk

Customer Permissions

When creating a Product  you are asked to set customer permissions to ensure the correct people can see your product.

3 options are provided:

Only customers I add to the list below

Only the Customer Account Codes you add to the list can see this Product.

Only customers from categories I add to the list below

Set your Customer permissions to Workgroup and use the Availbale Products Filter under Categories & Microsites to make specific products available to all customers in your selected category.

Only customers from workgroups I add to the list below

This option makes your products available to every Customer, Category & Microsite in your Workgroup.

Use the Available Products Filter on the Category & Microsite page to make specific products available to customer in this your Category/Microsite.

The final step

Once completed ensure you select the green ‘Make Product Active’ button, products that say ‘building' next to the product name and product code are not active. 

This screenshot gives you a sense of how these products appear under Workgroup > Production > My Products once completed.

Further Guidance

There's an online tutorial video under Online Training > Production here, which gives you an overview of this process.

Below is a training video cover creating products InHouse using w3p.

Use this guide in conjunction with the Flyerlink User Guide on w3pedia - Creating Products, page 87.

Product not showing online? Avoid these common errors

If your product fails to show online, you may have missed some important steps...

Follow this guide to ensure your products are set up correctly:

  1. Choose the correct Product Size for your product and pay careful attention to the bleed required.

  2. Use the correct Colour Type for your Product

  3. Don't forget to add Product Tags so that your product shows in the correct places online (Quick Quote/Template Details Page)

  4. Use the correct Customer Permissions for w3shop, w3client and BrandDemand.

  5. Make your products available online using the Available Products filter under Categories & Microsites > Available Products.

Product Tags - Master Class

Overview:

This article explains how Product Tags work on your products, and why they're useful.

When you make products via Workgroup > Production > My Products, you may have noticed a Sorting & Searching Section.



The highlight of this section is the ability to add Product Tags.
These help users distinguish between your different product options.

Please note: While on templates and the personal catalogue you can get away with just having 1 blue product tag. You need to add Substrate, Substrate Weight and Product Style to show on product group pages and your configure your printing page.

Using Product Tags with templates

Suppose you set up a Template for a customer, and it has two different products associated to it.

How do you tell the two apart?



Without any Product Tags it is impossible. They'd need to have different sizes or colour types, but then they wouldn't work with the same template!

Here's how it currently looks:




If you add a different Product Tag to each one...






Users can distinguish between the two products:




This tagging system is how all products are distinguished.

How many tags should I use?

Best practice is to add 1:
(Blue) Product Tag,
(Purple) Substrate Tag,
(Pink) Substrate Weight Tag, and
(Orange) Product Style Tag.


These provide different choices for users on the Quick Quote.




You can add as many Product Type Tags and Product Options Tags as you want. But only 1 of each of the other types.

Provided there is at least one difference in the tags, the Quick Quote will be able to tell the two products apart.

There is a hierarchy to tags.
The Quick Quote looks up Substrate tags first for the Printed on dropown menu. The Thickness dropdown uses Substrate Weight tags and the Finish uses Product Style tags.

You cannot skip tags.
Adding a Product Style tag without a Substrate tag will confuse the quick quote.

(Blue) Product Tags

Each Product Type Tag you add will list your product in another folder option on the Catalogue page.

You can remove all (Blue) Product Tags to hide your product from the product catalogue. However, you still need Substrate, Substrate Weight and Product Style tags otherwise the product won't show up against a template.

(Grey) Product Option Tag

Each Product Options Tag is visible as a tickbox on the Configure your printing page.

The idea is that Product Options can be toggled on and off
For this to work you will need

1 product with a Substrate, Substrate Weight, Product Style AND Product Option tag
And another product with the same details, the same Substrate, Substrate Weight, Product Style tags BUT NO  Product Option tag.

Try to avoid Product Option tags, as they can be difficult to remove for users.
You can use Product Style instead with as much information in to distinguish between products as possible.

Best Practice

Use the product stock as a way to distinguish products using the Product Style Tag. Maybe come up with your own system of what a "Thick Card" or a "Thin Card" is, or use the Product Style Tag as your own brand name for the product.

For more great tagging examples check out w3pedia article 5500.

Product Tags - Hiding products from Personal Catalogue

Overview:

This article explains:

  1. How to hide design work
  2. How to hide all jobs from one product
  3. How to use Product Tags to hide products from the Personal Catalogue.

Hiding Design Work

When you complete a job in Flyerlink, your customer can see the old design and reorder it.


For Electronic Files, customers can also Download the PDF

But suppose you don't want to show your customers the PDF they've made as a reorder? You can hide these files in Flyerlink.

Just go to Workgroup > Customers > View/Amend > Files & Images > Previous Designs
You'll see a list of that client's Previous Designs



If you delete one of the designs



It'll no longer appear in your client's My Orders page to be reordered.

Hide all jobs from 1 product

You may want to hide all the jobs created by one product. Like a design job or a service you invoice regularly. You may just want to reduce clutter from your client's My Orders page.

Hiding all jobs from 1 product is simple.

Go to Workgroup > Production > My Products > View/Amend for your chosen product.

In the Sorting & Searching section,  tick "Hide jobs from customers online?"

Then it'll no longer appear online.

Hiding Opensource Jobs from Personal Catalogue

Suppose you want to sell a template to your customers, so you make a new Opensource product for that very purpose.

You could give it a product tag of Do Not Order - Use Template.



And associate a template to just that product.



Then when a client logs in and goes to their catalogue, they see the PDF with a reminder to order from the template.



Then they go to the template.



But...wouldn't it be better if the Product was just hidden from the catalogue altogether?

Well now you can do that.

Simply go back to your product, and Remove the Product Tag.
Then Add a Substrate Tag so the Template Quick Quote knows there's a product it can show a customer.



What you'll find is the product is missing from the Personal Catalogue.



But you can still order it from a Template.


 

Examples of Popular Products Tags

Popular Products Tags

Product Group pages display products by Size and Colour Type.

If two Products share the same Size and Colour Type, Leaflets and Flyers for example. Product tags must be used to display them correctly online.

You can view your Products Tags here:
Workgroup > My Products  > Products > Edit

 Product Tag Order: 

  • Product Type (Flyers);
  • Substrate (Card);
  • Substrate Weight (Medium weight card);
  • Product Style (280gsm Gloss).  

Your product will not show online if the Substrate Tag is missing.

Each tag takes the customer down a different route to find the product they are after and should be unique.

For example:

Click here to view this page live.

A5 Leaflet Products Tags

Substrate > Substrate Weight > Product Style
Paper > Thickest Paper > 150gsm Gloss
Paper > Thickest Paper > 170gsm Silk

A5 Flyer Products Tags

Substrate > Substrate Weight > Product Style
Card > Medium Weight Card > 280gsm Gloss
Card > Medium Weight Card > 
280gsm Silk

Business Cards

Click here to view this page live.

1. 400gsm Silk Business Card

Colour Type: Full Colour Both Sides





2. 400gsm Silk Business Card + Matt Lamination

Colour Type: Full Colour Both Sides

3. 400gsm Silk Business Card + Matt Lamination + Spot UV

Colour Type: Full Colour Both Sides + Spot UV Front

Both Business Card products use the same Product Tags, the Colour Type (under Technical Specification) is used to differentiate between the two products in the Configure Your printing menu.

Folded Leaflets

150gsm Gloss Folded Leaflet

Christmas/Greeting Cards

400gsm Silk Greeting Card

Booklets

130gsm Gloss Booklet

Colour Type: Full Colour booklet: 8 pages

Roller Banner Stands

Roller banner Stand with 170gsm Silk Film Poster

 

Roller banner Stand with 150 Micron Matt Film Poster

 

Product Group - Master Class

Overview:

This article gives advice for making the most of Product Groups.

Product Groups

Each product you create will belong to a Product Group.

Flyerlink will help you select a Product Group, by only showing existing groups for the type of product you select.

If you choose "Mini Brochure" you'll only see Folded Leaflet Product Groups.

 

Group Like Products Together

Product Groups are used to group together similar types of products.

We recommend naming Product Groups after the Substrate Weight (130gsm), Paper Stock (Gloss) and Product Type (Leaflets).

You can then name products within a group consistently to help both you and your customers

For example:

130gsm Gloss Leaflet :: A5 :: 4x0
130gsm Gloss Leaflet :: A5 :: 4x4

 

Product Group Descriptions

On Workgroup > My Products > Product Groups > View/Amend you have various options for how you describe your product groups.

You can choose a product group url-slugs, add a description and provide some google-friendly meta titles and meta descriptions.



The url-slug generates a new product group page for your products.



The price grid is automatically constructed using the product prices.
Each row shows the product size and colour type.



The Quick Quote uses tags (see Resource Article 4977) to help users find what they're looking for.
The images also come from those you upload to your products.



Finally, the Product Description comes from your product group description.

Product Pricing & Available Products Filter

This article explains how to adjust products and prices within your w3shop or private client microsites.

Contents

  1. Available products
  2. Price changes
  3. Product description changes
  4. Where do my price changes take effect?
  5. When will my price changes appear?

Available products

For each Category with an associated microsite, you'll see a menu option Workgroup > Customers > Categories & Microsites > Available Products. This option will not appear for printing.com studios.

By default all products are available.

 

To restrict the product selection:

  1. Remove the All Remaining Products option,
  2. Select only the Product Zones, Product Categories and Product Groups you want.

If you choose a Product Zone, you will list ALL products within that zone. If you restrict the product selection, you'll also need to re-add all the Opensource Products you've set up.

Price changes

By clicking the "edit pricing" link, a pop-up will appear and you'll be able to adjust the prices for that Product Zone, Product Category or Product Group.

From here, you can either:

a) Make changes to the fixed price or a percentage of the total product Selling Price (RRP), or

b) You can do the same based on the Transfer Price, which is how much you will be charged for the product.

Remember, any negative discounts (based on Transfer Price) mean that you'll be selling products for less than your cost price.

Price changes for Product Groups or Product Categories override those within the Product Zone. So you can increase all Flyers by, say £10, then choose one Product Group to increase by £20.

Examples of markup percentages for a specific Gross Profit Margin

Add 100% Markup => 50% Gross Profit Margin
Add 66.66% Markup => 40% Gross Profit Margin
Add 42.86% Markup => 30% Gross Profit Margin
Add 25% Markup => 20% Gross Profit Margin
Add 11.11% Markup => 10% Gross Profit Margin

Price description changes

For Product Groups only, you can also change the descriptions your customers see.

Simply click the "edit description" link.

Starting from your supplier's marketing, you'll be able to adjust the Product Group name, url-slug, description and Search Engine Optimisation settings to fit your branding.

Any changes to the text will appear on your microsite.

 

Where do my price changes take effect?

Your price changes and product restrictions apply across Flyerlink and your microsite.

In Flyerlink, any customers belonging to the microsite will only be able to create jobs for products available to them e.g if you've removed Business Cards, your client won't be able to order them.

On your microsite, only the Product Groups you've selected will show online and any price changes will appear across the entire site.

You will also only see online Templates compatible with the product range(s) you've made available.

When will my changes take place?

Price & description changes can take an hour before they are fully updated on your site.

Templates will update every day but you may have to wait for all the incompatible templates to disappear.

Please refer to Resource Article 4982 for any questions on update speed.

 

Linking Products to Templates

Mapping templates with in-house/opensource Products

When you build a Template via Workgroup > Templates > Create. You're asked what Product Size & Colour Type you want.

Every Product in Flyerlink also has a Product Size & Colour Type.

For a Product to be eligible to a Template, the Product Size & Colour Type need to match.

Product Types are groups of Product Sizes to help you find an appropriate size. If you can't find the Product Size you're looking for, you may need to change the Product Type.

Custom Sizes

Flyerlink has hundreds of Product Sizes to choose from when you're building your Template. But if your Template and Product are of an irregular size, or you can't find the right Product Size; you can chose a Custom size.

When you build a Product, the Custom size option enables you to add your own height, width and bleed.


Restricting products available to your template

Once you've chosen your Product Size & Colour Type. You need to choose how many Products you want to be available to your Template.

By default, all Matching Products will be mapped to your Template.

However, you can also restrict to just a few Product Groups, Product Categories or Product Zones.

Matching Customer Permissions

When you build a Product via Workgroup > My Products > Product > Create, you need to choose Customer Permissions.

You also need to choose Customer Permissions on your Template via Workgroup > Templates > View/Amend > Customer Permissions.

 

Provided there are matching Customer Permissions, you'll be able to see your Product in the filter for which products are available for your Template.

Create your product (link)

Link to: Creating your products on Flyerlink!

This link takes you straight through to how to where you can start building your products within Flyerlink!

Stock pick items & stock manager

Printed + stock pick items and stock pick items product kinds allow you to manage stock levels and prevent people being able to order products that are not in stock.

The stock availability of the product will show when you create a job or order in Flyerlink.

It also shows online to customers when they order.

The stock is only reserved when a job goes to status 081 and not when you create a job. If stock levels change before that and back ordering isn't allowed, you'll only be able to order stock that's available.

Stock that's on order can be claimed by 081ing a job with stock that's available including what's on order, but only what's in stock will have our normal turnaround applied.

The stock is managed via the stock manager via Workgroup > My Products > Products > Stock Manager. The main purpose of the stock manager is to help you adjust stock levels. Stock levels can be shared between multiple products.

Awaiting picking shows how much of the product has been ordered and is ready to Pick"n"Pack.

You can reduce this by despatching jobs that are awaiting picking.

The available column shows how many products you have in-stock minus the amount awaiting picking.

The available stock amount

Adjusting stock levels

You can adjust stock levels in 2 ways:

  1. Order more stock
  2. Adjusting stock?

Ordering more stock

When you chose the Order more stock (+) option, a pop-up window emerges asking for your re-order quantity.

You then place an order, and will be given a pre-filled email template you can send to your supplier.

If you've set up an auto-replish job, the order more stock option will create a new job for you instead of giving you a pre-filled email template.

Manually adjusting stock levels

You can also change the stock levels by Manually adjusting stock using the Adjust stock? link.

There are 7 options to choose from, which allow you to either increase or decrease your stock level.

Some options also allow you to show Stock in transit, that you've ordered but haven't arrived yet.
If the stock is In Transit, you'll need to book it in once it arrives.

 
Option Adjustment In Transit?
Ordered by customer

Neutral

Decreases stock when Despatched to customer.

Increases stock when Recieved & added to stock

Despatched to customer - Decrease No
Reordered from supplier + Increase Yes
Received & added to stock + Increase Moves order from In Transit to In Stock
Written off (-) - Decrease No
Cancelled before received - Decrease Decreases order In Transit
Increase stock level (+) + Increase No

Share stock between products

You can share stock between two products in two places

1) On Workgroup > My Products > Products > View/Amend

Under the stock manger

Choose share stock and you can choose another stock pick product to share your stock with

2) On Workgroup > My Products > Products > Stock Manager> View/Amend

In the bottom section add another product to share this stock with

Specifying stock location

In the Parts section, you can add details to help you locate your stock when orders are ready for despatch.

Simply provide useful details about what the stock looks like or what shelf it's on

Then when you despatch the order via Workgroup > My Products > Pick"n"Pack or Production > Dashboard > Jobs to Despatch, you'll see the part location.

You can also add more parts for complex orders.

Repeat jobs when ordering stock

Flyerlink can automatically create new jobs when you order more stock.

Simply add a previous order for the stock you want.

Then a new repeat job will be created when you order more stock from the supplier.

Auto-replenish job and low stock emails

You can set a minimum stock level against you stock and set up an email address to receive a low stock warning

Once the available stock is less than the minimum stock level (available stock includes whats in order and physically present).

You can also use this to auto-replenish your stock as it creates a reorder of any auto-replenish jobs set up and auto081s this (provided correct files were uploaded to the original job)

A reference of the automated reorder job is stored in your stock history.

Allow back order?


The allow back order option allows you to choose whether customers can order you stock while you're stock levels are less than 0 or not.

If allow back order is ticked, customers can order the stock whatever your stock levels.

If allow back order isn't ticked, they can only order when you have a positive amount of stock available.

Hiding stock levels

If you don't want to use the Stock Manager to actively maintain your stock levels, you can simply hide the stock levels from your customers.

If you tick "Hide Stock Level From Customers"...

Then the stock level will be hidden from your clients.

 

 

What are Product Kinds?

Overview:

This article explains what the different Product Kinds are, and when to use them.

Product Kinds

Each product you create via Workgroup > My Products > Products > Create has a product kind.

You have 5 types to choose from each with different features.

Product Kind Explanation
Printed item

The product makes a physical printed good.
Requires a graphic file before job can go to Status 081

Electronic file The product makes an electronic item, like a press advert or graphic design.
Doesn't make a physical item, but requires a graphic file.
Stock pick item The product has been pre-produced, for you to pick and pack to your customers.
Physical item that doesn't need a graphic file.
Uses the Stock Manager to control stock levels.
Service The product is a service, like consultancy or training.
It's not a physical item and doesn't require a graphic file.
Can be used for Flyerlink's invoicing and TimeTracking features.
Printed & stock pick item The product makes a physical printed good.
It requires a graphic file to be produced.
It also uses the Stock Manager to control stock levels.
Main use case is a printed item which has a frame or stock element to it, eg fabric with a frame.
Subscription The product is the same as a service, like consultancy or training.
It's not a physical item and doesn't require a graphic file.
It can be used for recurring Subscriptions

Job Status 081

For Printed items and Electronic files, a job can only be changed to Status 081 when a Graphic File has been uploaded. If there's no graphic file, the Status 081 doesn't appear.

You'll either need to upload a file name matching the name and product size in your Workgroup > Jobs > View/Amend > Internal Brief via the FTP.

Or add your file by going to Workgroup > Jobs > View/Amend > Internal Brief > Files & Images. Add a file and choose the FileCheck All button to check the PDF and upload your files to your job.

Once that's done, you'll be able to change your Job Status to 081 and send the file to production.

Services & Stock pick items do not need a graphic file and can go straight to Status 081.

Stock Manager

For Stock pick items you are able to manage your stock levels via Workgroup > My Products > Products > Stock Manager.

The Stock Manager allows you to adjust the stock levels to match the number of products you have in stock.

You can use the Order more stock link to email suppliers and request more of the product.

You can also auto replenish orders when your Stock Levels fall below a certain level. This will create a new job of an original order.

Finally you can add details about the location your stock is kept at, which appears when they despatch the job via Production > Dashboard > Jobs to Despatch or Workgroup > My Products > Pick 'n' Pack.

Choosing Artwork

Since Services & Stock pick items do not require artwork, when a customer orders one of these product types they will not see the Artwork Options page on your microsite.

However, Printed items and Electronic files need a graphic file. So the Artwork Options page provides customers a choice of uploading their own artwork, or choosing a matching template.

Single Sided or Double Sided; Colour Types Explained

Creating Single Sided and Double Sided products

Colour Types are used to create Single Sided and Double Sided products. They also determine the number of pages to be supplied.

Popular Colour Types are listed below:

Business Cards:

  • Full Colour Front
  • Full Colour Both Sides
  • Full Colour Front + Spot UV Front
  • Full Colour Both Sides + Spot UV Both Sides
  • Full Colour Front + Silver Leaf (Foil Blocking)
  • Full Colour Both Sides Front + Silver Leaf Front (Foil Blocking)

Leaflets:

  • Full Colour Front (1 page PDF)
  • Full Colour Both Sides (2 page PDF / 1 file containing 2 pages)

Folded Leaflets:

  • Full Colour Front
  • Full Colour Both Sides

Booklets:

  • Full Colour Booklets: 8 Pages (Creates an 8 page product)
  • Full Colour Booklets: 12 Pages
  • Full Colour Booklets: 16 Pages
  • and so on...

Banners:

  • Large Format: Full Colour Front
  • Large Format: Full Colour Both Sides

Clothing:

  • Embroidered

Greeting Cards:

  • Full Colour Greeting Card (Creates a 4 page product)

This options is required if using TemplateCloud Christmas Card designs.

NCR Pads:

  • 1 colour front
  • 2 colour front
  • 1 colour front :: 1 colour reverse
  • Full colour front

 

 

 

Setting up customer permissions

How to set Customer Permissions

When creating a Product or Template you are asked to set customer permissions to ensure the correct people can see your product or template.

3 options are provided:

Only customers I add to the list below

For Templates. Only the Customer Account Codes you add to the list can see this Template.

For Products. Only the Customer Account Codes you add to the list can see this Product.

Only customers from categories I add to the list below

For Templates. Only the Customers associated with this Category/Microsite Code can see this template (used for w3client and w3shop).

For Products. Set your Customer permissions to Workgroup and use the Availbale Products Filter under Categories & Microsites to make speicifc products available to all customers in your selected category.

Only customers from workgroups I add to the list below

For Templates. Do not use this option for templates.

For Products. This option makes your products available to every Customer, Category & Microsite in your Workgroup.

Use the Available Products Filter on the Category & Microsite page to make specific products availbale to customer in this your Category/Microsite.

Product Importer

Outline

This article explains how to use the Product Importer within Flyerlink to bulk update your Products and product options.

The Product Importer lets you:

  1. Download your existing product range;
  2. Upload changes to your products; and
  3. Upload new products

You can use the Product Importer to adjust your product groups, Products, and product options.

To start using the Product Importer, go to Workgroup > My Products > Import.

Product Groups

The first step to importing a new product range is adding a new product group.

Product groups are used to batch similar types of Products together, such as those using the same stock type but different sizes. See w3pedia article 4979 for more info.

All products must belong to a product group, so add a new product group first before your next group of products & prices.

For all Product Importer types you can either:

  1. Start from scratch; or
  2. Start from your existing range.

Start from scratch

To start from scratch download a blank example Excel file, or click the download advice link.

The download template explains what each column does.

It lets you know which fields are required, and what defaults will be given if you leave it blank.

Next change to Sheet-1, add your new product group details and...

... remember to save excel template as a CSV.

When you're finished, simply Upload your file.

Start from your existing product groups

If you're adjusting an existing product group, or making another group similar to an existing group, you can download your product range.

This will download all your existing product groups, but because it's a CSV file, you won't get any advice.

Delete any rows which you don't need to change - only leave new rows and product groups you want to update.

Finding your product category code

For the Product Group import, you'll need to add a product category code.

You can find a list of these in Flyerlink when you build a Landing Page or Product Category Search page for w3shops

Products & Prices

Once you've added product groups, it's time to upload your Products.

You can start from scratch, or from your existing product range again. When you import, only include rows you want to change or add - if you import the whole sheet, it'll take you longer.

With your products & prices, you're able to specify your:

Images

If an image is already hosted online, add a url to the image.
Flyerlink will download the image and use it for your Product.
No upload is required.

Production Methods

Your Product's production method must belong to the same workgroup as it's product group.

Product Size

Provide your Product's height/width/bleed and a matching size will be selected for you.

Product Tags

Add the name of the product tags you want to add, and they'll be added for you. Check out w3pedia article 4977 for more guidance on tags.

Service Levels

To add extra services, add a new blank line with just:
Your Product code and your prices for the new service level.

You don't need to duplicate every detail, just the product code and financial details.

Permissions

You can add permissions to either workgroups, categories or customers.

However you cannot mix-and-match your permissions between columns (for example to make it available to a Category as well as two different customers.)

Product Options

You can use the importer to make new product options, and then to add them to your existing Products.

You can start from scratch, or download your existing product options.

The import choices available for Product Options are identical to what you'll find on Workgroup > My Products > Product Options > View/Amend.

Read w3pedia article 5375 for more tips on how to use Product Options.

Adding Product Options to your Products

To add product options to your products, simply download your template or existing product options and add a new line for every option you want to add.

The option_group you choose will decide whether your product option is:

  • Choice - Part of a choice group
  • Optional - Auto-added, but removable
  • Mandatory - Auto-added and unremovable

Choice

To make your Product Option part of a choice group, add an option_group to more than 1 product option.

All product options in the same option_group will be visible as a choice to customers and/or your sales team.

Optional

To automatically add a Product Option while making it removable to your sales team, leave the option_group blank.

Mandatory

To make a Product Option mandatory, add it as a solo product option in a option_group. If there's only one product option in an option_group, neither your sales team nor your production team will be able to remove the product option.

It is advisable to start your mandatory product options using an option_group letters from the end of the alphabet, eg Z,Y,X.

Removing product options

To remove a product option, change remove_option from 0 to 1 on an existing product option.

For more on adding product options to your products, see w3pedia article 5382.

Internationalisation

The product importer is designed to work with Comma Seperated Values using the Unicode (UTF-8) character set.

If you're products will make extensive use of accents and special characters, we recommend opening your file in OpenOffice or Google Docs.

This will ensure your characters are preserved during the download and upload of your products.

Product Options (Adding Finishes and Folds to Products)

Outline:

This guide explains how to add Product Options to your Products.

Product Options can be used to provide a choice of finishing or styles.

For example you can use Product Options to add a choice of background colours...

Or a choice of how Products are folded.

They can also be used as an additional Production Step.

Where do Product Options appear?

Product Options show in the Configure your printing menu, when you add your product to the basket.

Creating Product Options

Go to Workgroup > My Products > Product Options > Create.

Give your Product Option a name and choose it's Product Option Category as a way to group similar Options together.

Then on Workgroup > My Products > Product Options > View/Amend you can customise the Product Option to your heart's content.

Description Section

In the Description Section you can add notes and images about the Product Option.

The Specification is visible to your Customers;
The Special Instructions appear to your Sales Team in a Workgroup > Jobs > Notes > Finishing; and
The Production Instructions appear to your Production Team in Production > Jobs > Notes > Finishing.

You can also upload an image of your Product Option, that appears to your Customers, Sales Team and Production Team.

Nuts & Bolts Section

In this section you can change the Product Option Category, and choose how much of the Product Option is needed before additional costs or transfer days are required.

The Units of Production can be increased to change how much each Product Option costs when large amounts of associated Products are ordered.

The Adjust Turnaround options allow you to add additional turnaround times to your product. You can use Adjust Turnaround By to set additional turnaround times for all jobs using the Product Option, or you can add additional turnaround days when large job quantities are ordered using the For job quantities upto choice.

Financial Section

In the Financial section, you can add how much it costs to produce and how much you charge your customers.

The Selling Price is how much it costs your customers, and Transfer Price is how much you pay Grafenia for the Product Option. 

Transfer Prices are only used for products supplied by HubM. You can ignore them.

Suitable Products Section

This section shows you which products this Product Option is used on.

You can add more Product Options to Products via Workgroup > My Products > Products > View/Amend > Options > Add.

Product Option Categories

Go to Workgroup > My Products > Product Options > Product Option Categories to edit your Product Option Categories.

Product Option Categories are used to group together similar Product Options. If you have a choice set of Product Options that will apply to multiple Products, you can add them to the same Product Option Categories to help you remember them all when you add to Products.

Adding Product Options to Products

View the Product Options associated to a Product on Workgroup > My Products > Products > View/Amend.

Then add more on Workgroup > My Products > Products > View/Amend > Product Options > Add.

Every Product Option you add comes with a Choice Rule. The Option can be:

  • Choice - Allows customers one out of a set of finishes.
  • Optional - Automatically added to jobs but can be removed via Workgroup > Jobs > Notes > Finishing.
  • Mandatory - Automatically added to jobs and cannot be removed via Workgroup > Jobs > Notes > Finishing.

A Product Option will be mandatory if there is no alternative in their Option Group.

Once you've chosen your Choice Rule, there are other settings you can add to your Choice Rule:

If Free of charge is ticked, the Product Option financial details will be ignored. Otherwise each job will have a revenue line for the Product Option.

If Include in turnaround is ticked, the Product Option turnaround details will be added to the product, making the turnaround time longer.

If Show on Website? is ticked, customers will see the Product Option. This is advisable when there is a Choice of options, but not for Mandatory options.

If Only show for Production is ticked, the Sales team will not be able to adjust the option via Workgroup > Jobs > Notes > Finishing.

Any size products

Products in Flyerlink can allow customers to choose any size. Any size is especially useful for large format ranges of banners or the fabric display produced by Grafenia.

Creating any size products

To create a product with any size head to Workgroup > My Products > Products > Create

Choose the "Other sizes" group and then "Choose your size"

When you make a product with this size, you'll see new options for a minimum size, maximum size and default page size.

Your minimum size is the smallest possible size you can make with this product code.
The default size is the size a client sees by default. We recommend using 1000 x 1000mm ( 1 m² ). The default size is also used as the lowest possible price point, so you can include a size that covers all your set up costs for the default size.
The maximum size is the largest possible size a client can order.

Any size pricing

For any sized products, pricing for any-sized products is based on per m².

If you add a set up cost, we always add the set up cost to any size the customer chooses
Then we multiple the other costs by the size choosen

For example a job of 2000 x 2000 mm will make 4m².
If the set up = £5
Size = 4m²
Selling price per m² = £10
The cost will be £5 + (4 * £10) = £45

If you don't set a set up cost, the default product size you do will become the minimum amount charged to a customer

If set up = £0
Size = 0.2m²
Selling price per m² = £10
And default product size is 1m²
Then the cost will be £10

If you do add a set up cost, the set up cost becomes the minimum charged

If set up = £2
Size = 0.2m²
Selling price per m² = £10
And default product size is 1m²
Then the cost will be £2 + ( 0.2 * £10) = £4

Choosing any size on a job

Once you've created a product that allows any size, you can create a job with that product code.

When you do you'll see an any size option that lets you choose between the minimum size, default size, maximum size and custom size.

If you choose a custom size, you'll be able to enter your own size.

You'll see what the size you've chosen works out in m².

When you save, we will then recalculate the prices for the job.

Remember to save a job to see the new price.

Online ordering

It's also possible to order any size products online.

When someone views an any size product, they'll see a popup that asks what size they would like to choose within your minimum and maximum range.

They can adjust the size within the configure your printing page, product group page, and personal catalogue.

Any size products are not available for use on templates.

Any quantity products

For batch litho print, it's more efficient to let customers order products in batch amounts that can be ganged together and produced with similar jobs in a single run.

However, for other forms of printing, such as digital, you may want to allow customers the ability to order jobs in any quantity. This approach is possible through Flyerlink.

Setting your product to any quantity

To set your product to allow any quantity ordering, head to Workgroup > My Products > Products > View/Amend

In the Technical Specification section, tick "Allow any quantity:"

Then choose the unit you want to start from, and the batch quantity.
This can be from 1 to 1 if you want any quantity to be available, or you can use batches of 5, 25, 50, 100, 500.

The note after your tick box will explain what quantities will then be available.

The any quantity batch you use must be divisible by your units of production, and it's the units of production that you use to enter your prices.

Anything ordered upto the first Units of production will still cost the same as the first batch. This is because often the set up costs for a job are the same regardless of what quantity is ordered. Any quantity ordered above the first batch will then show the in-between price.

In-between price example

Using the example above of a product costing £30 for 10 units and £50 for 20 units, we can work out how much the inbetween prices are:

Price difference:                                                    £50 - £30 = £20
Quantity difference:                                            20 - 10 = 10
Price difference/Quantity difference:      £20/10 = £2

Then add the closest batch + the in-between price of the two batches.
If 16 was ordered, it would cost:                   £30 + (6 * £2) = £42.

Choosing any quantity

When you create or modify a job in Flyerlink that has any quantity activated, you'll see the first 100 inbetween in the quantity dropdown menu.

If you need to order any more, you can choose "Other quantities" and choose your amount.

This "Other quantities..." option also shows whenever a customer has the option to choose this product online.

For the product group page, we merge together multiple products. It's possible to show upto 2 clauses to the customer, such as "Enter quantity from 10 to 75 (in units of 5) or from 75 to 750 (in units of 25)"

However we only show a maximum of two to avoid confusion for the customer. If you're having a product that gets merged with lots of quantity breaks, try to make things as simple as possible by keeping the batches as similar as possibe.

Allowing TemplateCloud Designs or just your products

Outline:

This articles explains how you can quickly remove templates or products from your w3shop/microsite.

On your microsite, you can use the Available Products filter to choose exactly what products you want to show. But there's another way you can restrict the TemplateCloud Designs or Products on sale for your w3shop.

Allow TemplateCloud Designs?

All w3shops can list the TemplateCloud Design library, they just need to have "Allow TemplateCloud Designs?:" ticked on Workgroup > Customers > Categories & Microsites > View/Amend.

Then your Template Search page type will list all TemplateCloud Designs with a Matching Product.

If you only see a limited selection of TemplateCloud Designs, it's likely the Templates are the only ones that match products available in your Product Search page.

https://src.29degrees.co.uk/attachments/15457/Capture.PNG

If you untick "Allow TemplateCloud Designs?:", the only templates you'll find are those set up for TemplateCloud Match.

Only Allow My Templates and My Products?

If you want to completely remove all products made from the Production Hub, Network Partners or Marqetspace Sellers, simply tick "Only allow my templates and my products?" on Workgroup > Customers > Categories & Microsites > View/Amend.

Your Available Products filter will then only list the products you've created on Workgroup > My Products > Products.

And your w3shop or microsite will only list the products you've created as well.

 

Service Levels (Selecting turnaround times in Flyerlink)

This article explains what Service Levels are and how to add them to your products.

UPDATE from December 1st 2021

Due to sustained price rises within all our supply chains, Service Level costs will increase from this date.

Click here to read our w3pin post for more information.

Contents

  1. Service Levels
  2. Expected delivery date
  3. Customer collection
  4. Changes after status 081
  5. Grafenia Service Levels
  6. Custom Service Levels
  7. Available Service Levels

Service Levels

Service levels are designed to give your customers flexibility in the timeframe their job will be produced.

If you or your customer need a product immediately, you can use the SOS or Xpress service. If you can wait and want to reduce the normal printing cost, you can choose the Stand-by service.

The Service Level affects both the Sales price and the Transfer price of a job. To produce a job faster, it will cost slightly more. To produce a job slower, it will cost less.

Expected delivery date

This 3 working day product would be despatched from the Production Hub on the 2nd working day (03/10/14) to be delivered on the 3rd working day (04/10/14).

Customer collection

If Customer Collection is required, the job will be made available to collect on the 3rd working day (the same day we would expect to deliver it).

We cannot guarantee that Jobs will be available to collect on the "Expected Despatch" date (i.e. the day before it is expected to be with the customer).

Changes after status 081

Please note that you can only change the Service Level/Turnaround before setting your job to status 081.

After this time, your job is allocated to a print run alongside jobs with similar turnaround times.

Things to note

If your job has not yet been allocated to a print run (where the Progress bar is still grey), you can manually set the job status to 071change your Turnaround time > set the job status back to 081.

It is important to remember that pulling your job(s) back from status 081 will reset the turnaround time.

This means the new turnaround will start from the day that you make those changesnot the original date that you set the job to 081.

Update from 1st December 2021

We've recently introduced an in-flight upgrade service to give you extra flexibility if your deadlines change.

You can email support@worksmcr.com to request an upgrade and we'll do our best to accommodate you.

Has your order gone to print with the wrong artwork? Or does an order already in production need to be sped up?

If we're able to deallocate the artwork, you'll pay a service fee plus any material costs incurred.

If we’re able to speed up the turnaround, you'll pay a service fee plus the service level premium for the earlier despatch date.

Successful requests will be raised as charges against your Trading Account and appear on your Transfer Price invoices so we'd recommend passing those charges onto clients for the service.

Grafenia Service Levels

Service levels used by Grafenia all follow consistent behaviours, see the example below for a product that has a Normal turnaround of 10 working days:

Warning: The Flyerlink Product Bible will always show the slowest turnaround by default for a Product - you'll need to click on the faster options to see different prices.

Service Level

Turnaround

Sales Price

Transfer Price

(S) Stand-by Zero

At least doubles the 'standard' turnaround time

0%

-5%

(S) Stand-by

Doubles the 'standard' turnaround time

-5%

-5%

(N) Normal

'Standard' turnaround time

0%

0%

(R) Pretty Quick

10 working days becomes 9

10%

10%

(Q) Pretty Quick

10 working days becomes 8

14%

14%

(P) Pretty Quick

10 working days becomes 7

18%

18%

(X) Xpress

Halves the 'standard' turnaround time

25%

25%

(D) SOS

Print will be available the next day, if sent to print before 12pm (midday)

100%

100%

 

Custom Service Levels

You can add Service Levels to products you create yourself.

Head to Workgroup > My Products  > Products > View/Amend.

In the Technical Settings:

  1. For Is turnaround guaranteed?, choose "Yes, fixed despatch date",
  2. Then for Allow Service Levels, choose "Yes".

Once this is done, you'll have the option to add extra Service Levels in your Pricing section. You can choose how much markup or markdown from the Normal service you want for each level.

These can vary for every price break or you can set a fixed increase or decrease of £5 or £10.

Available Service Levels

The available Service Levels will depend on your normal turnaround time. If a product normally takes a long time to produce, you can add layers of Service Levels to speed up the process.

The following table shows which Service Levels you can add depending on your Normal turnaround for despatch.

(N) Normal (S) Stand-by (R) Pretty Quick (Q) Pretty Quick (P) Pretty Quick (Y) Xpress (X) Xpress (D) SOS
1 day 3 - - - - - 0
2 days 5 - - - 1 - 0
3 days 7 - 2 - 1 - -
4 days 9 - 3 - 2 - -
5 days 11 - 4 3 2 - -
6 days 13 - 5 4 3 - -
7 days 15 - 6 5 4 3 -
8 days 17 - 7 6 5 4 -
9 days 19 8 7 6 5 4 -
10 days 21 9 8 6 5 4 -
11 days 22 10 9 8 7 5 -
12 days 24 11 10 9 7 6 -
13 days 26 12 11 9 8 6 -
14 days 28 13 11 10 8 7 -
15 days 30 14 12 11 9 7 -

 

Supplieready Types

Overview

Flyerlink® Supplieready is a tool that enables a PDF file to be manipulated to meet a production specification that is different to our standard w3p hub printed formats. Supplieready is free to use, and is available on Open Source and In-House Product Groups.

How to use Supplieready

Supplieready set up

Flyerlink® Supplieready is quick and simple and to set up. We have set a range of Supplieready types that you can use. Once you have created your Product Group you can select a Supplieready Conversion Type in the Update Product section (Workgroup > My Products > Products >Product Groups > View/Amend).

Once you have chosen your Supplieready Conversion Type, click on Save Changes. Our default range of Supplieready types cover most scenarios of file supply for different types of production environment, the different types are detailed in w3pedia article 5097.

Custom Supplieready Types

If none of our standard Supplieready types are suitable for your production method, then we can develop custom types for you to use. Prices range from £250 to £2,000 depending on the complexity of what you need Supplieready to do, to get a quote on a custom Supplieready type please email us on supplieready@w3p.com

 

 

Supplier Ready - SR 01 Uncoated

Supplier Ready - SR 01 Uncoated  No Scale  No Trim Marks  No Bleed

Preflight code : B0

The Supplier Ready flow reduces the ink levels of the pdf to be less than 225% and resizes it to be the page size in flyerlink, if the file has crop marks they are removed

Supplier Ready - SR 01 Uncoated, Trim marks

Supplier Ready - SR 01 Uncoated  No Scale  With Trim Marks  No Bleed

Preflight code : B5

The Supplier Ready flow reduces the ink levels of the pdf to be less than 225% and resizes it to be the page size in flyerlink, if the file has crop marks they are removed

Adds trim marks

Supplier Ready - SR 02 Trim

SR 02a Coated + Trim Marks - Don't Scale - No Bleed

Preflight code : B

The Supplier Ready flow reduces the ink levels of the pdf to be less than 300% and resizes it to be the page size in flyerlink, if the file has crop marks they are removed

Adds trim marks

Supplier Ready - SR 02 No Trim 

SR 02b Coated + No Trim Marks - Don't Scale - No Bleed

Preflight code : B3

The Supplier Ready flow reduces the ink levels of the pdf to be less than 300% and resizes it to be the page size in flyerlink, if the file has crop marks they are removed

SR 03: Add Single Sided Overlay

Overview

The SR 03: Add Single Sided Overlay Supplieready conversion makes the following changes to a PDF when a job is set to 081:

  • Adds a vector shape set in a spot colour over the top of page 1
    of the PDF;
  • Sets the vector shape to overprint.

Example of pre-Supplieready 2 page PDF using SR 03

Example of post-Supplieready 2 page PDF using SR 03

SR 04: Add Multi Page Overlay

Overview

The SR 04: Add Mutli Page Overlay Supplieready conversion makes the following changes to a PDF when a job is set to 081:

  • Adds a vector shape set in a spot colour over the top of all pages
    in the PDF;
  • Sets the vector shape to overprint.

Example of pre-Supplieready 2 page PDF using SR 04

Example of post-Supplieready 2 page PDF using SR 04

Supplier Ready - SR 05 Trim Marks - 3mm Bleed 

SR 05 - Scale - Trim Marks - 3mm Bleed

Preflight code : MB

Adds 6mm to file size and adds crop marks

Supplier Ready - SR 07a 

SR 07a Add 2mm bleed, Convert to iso coated v2 (ECI), convert fonts to outlines, No Crops

Preflight code: EX

Redistills using exaprint profile

Adds 2mm bleed

Converts fonts to outlines

Converts colour to ISO Coated V2 (ECI)

 

Supplier Ready - SR 07b

SR 07a Add 2mm bleed, Convert to iso coated v2 (ECI), convert fonts to outlines, Crops

Preflight code: EX

Redistills using exaprint profile

Adds 2mm bleed

Converts fonts to outlines

Converts colour to ISO Coated V2 (ECI)

Adds Crop marks

SR 08: Convert RGB to CMYK, Reduce Ink & Add Trim Marks

Overview

The SR 08: Convert RGB to CMYK, Reduce Ink & Add Trim Marks Supplieready conversion makes the following changes to a PDF when a job is set to 081:

  • Converts all RGB bitmap and vector elements to be CMYK (greyscale elements are left unchanged);
  • Checks the ink levels in bitmap and vector elements. If they are found to be over 300% total ink, then it will adjust the levels to lower the coverage;
  • Adds trim marks in line with the Trim Box in the PDF.

Example of pre-Supplieready PDF using SR 08

 

Example of post-Supplieready PDF using SR 08

Supplier Ready - SR 08 

SR 08 Convert RGB to CMYK, Reduce Ink, Add trim marks

Preflight code: HT

Converts RGB to CMYK

Reduces ink to less than 240%

Adds crop marks

OpenSource training webinar

How to use OpenSource on w3p. 

A recorded training webinar detailing how to use OpenSource when adding your own products to Flyerlink! and w3shop.

InHouse training webinar

How to use InHouse on w3p. 

A recorded training webinar detailing how to use InHouse when adding items you produce InHouse to Flyerlink! and w3shop.

Pick n Pack training webinar

How to use Pick n Pack on w3p. 

A recorded training webinar detailing how to use the Pick n Pack stock management tool for your own products on Flyerlink! and w3shop.

 
 

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