Use this article when a quote calculated successfully but Estimator picked a press, finishing machine, or binding line that does not match what your shop would actually run. After this you will have identified which Estimate Setup record is causing the mismatch, applied the fix, and confirmed the recalculated quote routes the way you intended.
Symptom table
Symptom | Check (where to look) | Fix (action) | Verify (what you'll see) |
The wrong press was picked for the print step | Open See price breakdown → View estimation path → Issue analysis. Read the print step and the Excluded machines section beneath it. | Open the press the engine excluded in Estimate Setup → Machines. Check the tag list against the substrate row's tags. Apply the missing tag (on either the press or the substrate, whichever should carry it). | Click Recalculate on the quote, then re-open Issue analysis. The press now appears under the print step and no longer under Excluded machines. |
A finishing step is missing from the route | Open the price breakdown and read the steps listed. Compare against what the category should include. | Open Estimate Setup → Products → the category → included steps. Add the missing step. | Click Recalculate. The price breakdown shows the new step with its own make-ready, run, and machine line. |
A finishing step is duplicated in the breakdown | Open the price breakdown and find the two lines for the same operation. Note whether one is a category step and the other comes from a price model with conditional steps. | Open Estimate Setup → Products → the category → included steps, OR Estimate Setup → Price models → the price model's conditional steps. Remove the duplicate from whichever surface is wrong. | Click Recalculate. The breakdown now lists the operation once at the expected cost. |
The wrong substrate row was used | Open the quote and read the substrate field. If two rows share the display name (for example two SRA1 rows at different weights), confirm which row the dropdown selected. | Re-open the substrate field on the quote and pick the correct row by weight and coat. | Click Recalculate. The price breakdown's substrate line updates to the new row's price-per-ton; the route may also shift if the new row carries different tags. |
The cheaper option was not selected | Compare the option totals in the totals panel. Read the price breakdown for the unselected option to see which step is cheaper. | Decide whether the selected option is genuinely the right route (a cheaper digital option may be wrong for a long-run job that should go offset). If a pricing rule is forcing the wrong selection, edit the pricing rule in Estimate Setup. | After Recalculate, the option you expect carries the lower total OR the rule no longer applies; Issue analysis shows the route you wanted. |
Issue analysis has no data to show | Confirm the quote calculated successfully — the totals panel shows an option total. If not, the calculation failed. | Click Recalculate on the quote. If the calculation still fails, open the route-review concept article and re-run the spec sanity check from the top. | After a successful Recalculate, Issue analysis loads with the assigned machines per step. |
Example 1 — A Stitched Book routes to HP Indigo instead of XL105
Northgate Press quotes a 5,000-run Stitched Book on Silk 100gsm SRA1 (the 100gsm row in Northgate Press' substrate table). The route picks HP Indigo for the inner pages even though the run length sits well inside the shop's offset band on XL105.
Diagnosis: the estimator opens See price breakdown, clicks View estimation path, and reads the Issue analysis dialog. Under the print step, HP Indigo is assigned. Under Excluded machines, XL105 appears with the reason "no compatible tag on substrate."
Fix: the estimator opens Estimate Setup → Substrates, picks the Silk 100gsm SRA1 row, and adds the Offset-OK tag — the tag XL105 requires to take the substrate. They apply the change.
Verify: back on the quote, the estimator clicks Recalculate, then reopens Issue analysis. The print step now reads XL105. XL105 is gone from Excluded machines for that step. The price breakdown's make-ready and run lines have shifted to the XL105 cost basis.
Example 2 — A fold step appears twice on a Folded Leaflets quote
Northgate Press quotes 10,000 Folded Leaflets on Silk 115gsm SRA1. The price breakdown shows two fold lines, one routed to Folder 1 and one routed to an inline finishing step on the press. The total is roughly 20 % higher than expected.
Diagnosis: the estimator reads the price breakdown lines and counts two fold operations where the spec asks for one. They open Estimate Setup → Products → Folded Leaflets and confirm the fold is listed under included steps. Then they open Estimate Setup → Price models → the model used by Folded Leaflets and find a conditional step that adds the same fold operation whenever quantity ≥ 5,000.
Fix: the estimator removes the duplicate fold from the conditional steps in the price model and applies the change. (Either surface could have been corrected; the price-model rule was the redundant one because the included step in the category already covers every quantity.)
Verify: back on the quote, the estimator clicks Recalculate. The price breakdown now lists a single fold line at the expected Folder 1 cost. The total drops by the duplicate operation's contribution.
What if this didn't fix it?
If the route is still wrong after a clean Recalculate, the engine is reading a setup state you have not yet reconciled — usually a tag on a record other than the one you suspected, or a conditional step deeper in the price model than the obvious one. Open Compare route details to setup and walk every step's assigned machine and excluded machines through its Estimate Setup record.
If the comparison shows the route should match but Issue analysis still disagrees, open a support request with the estimate ID, the selected option, screenshots of Issue analysis and the relevant Estimate Setup records, and what you have already tried. The Gelato team will reproduce the route from the same inputs.