Use this article when your shop applies spot UV, spot foil, embossing, or another localised finish and you need Estimator to price the spot step on quotes that include it. After this you will have a spot finishing machine on the Spot Finishing table that prices correctly on quotes, with the spot step appearing on the price breakdown.
Steps
1. Add the spot finishing machine
Open Estimate Setup → Finishing Machines → Spot Finishing, then select + Add New. Fill in the fields below.
Identification
Name — recommended format is brand and model, so the machine is easy to recognise on quotes (e.g., "Spot Finishing 1").
Tags — link this machine to the substrates and upstream presses it can run after. Estimator uses tags to pair the spot machine with compatible work.
Sheets this machine accepts
Sheet sizes — the press sheet sizes that can be fed in. Select from the drop-down (e.g., SRA1, B1, RA1). The options come from your configured substrates, so to add a new sheet size you must first create a substrate with that size — it will then appear here.
Width (min/max) and height (min/max) — sheet dimensions in millimetres (metric) or inches (imperial). For example, 200–1100 mm, or 8–43 in. Only set these if you are not already restricting via Sheet sizes, to avoid double-constraining the same dimension.
Weight (min/max) — paper weight in gsm or lb. For example, 150–400 gsm, or 40–110 lb — spot work typically runs heavier covers.
Cost per area
Spot finishing prices on the area of the spotted region, not the whole sheet. Set the cost row for each finish you offer; leave others blank.
Spot UV Cost Per Area — material cost per square unit of spot-UV coating (tenant unit — typically per cm² or per in²). For example, €0.0012 per cm².
Additional spot-finish cost rows when your tenant exposes them (foil, emboss, deboss, drip-off) — same shape: cost per square unit. The product reference for the spotted area sets the area Estimator multiplies against this rate.
Speed
Sheets per hour — throughput on the spot machine when running a representative job. The output type is fixed at sheets for this machine class.
Cost
Machine rate per hour — all hourly running costs in tenant currency (amortisation, electricity, UV lamps / foil takeup, consumables).
Labor rate per hour — operator cost per hour. If the operator can do other work while the machine runs, enter a fraction of their full rate (e.g., 50%).
Minimum charge — floor amount. If the calculated spot cost is below this, Estimator applies the minimum instead.
Make-ready and spoilage
Make-ready labor per section — fixed labor cost added once per section to set the spot machine up (e.g., €50 per section on a foil run with plate make-ready).
Running spoils % — extra sheets consumed as a percentage of the necessary run quantity (e.g., 2–5% — spot work spoils more than flat printing).
Overs per section — extra sheets produced per section on top of the ordered quantity (e.g., 50–100 sheets on a registration-sensitive foil run).
Open the card view on the machine row to set additional details:
Run speed variations — override Sheets per hour for specific finishes — foil is typically slower than spot UV.
Volume markup tiers — tier the markup by quantity (e.g., 50% on small runs, lower on large runs).
Save the change. The Pending Changes count increments by one in the sidebar.
2. Connect the spot machine to the product
Open the product category that uses the spot finish (for example, Premium Business Cards or a cover variant of a perfect-bound book). The spotted area needs a product-side reference so Estimator knows how large the spotted region is on each quote:
Add the spot operation to the part's Production Steps.
Confirm the category exposes the spot-area input (or fixed area) the customer or estimator selects.
If you offer spot finishing as a tiered upgrade rather than per-area pricing, configure it via Conditional Steps with a price model instead — see How price models work.
Save the change. Pending Changes increments again.
3. Apply the changes
Open the Pending Changes panel in the sidebar and review the staged edits to the spot finishing machine and the product category. Select Apply Changes to publish them to live setup.
The Pending Changes count returns to zero and the spot finishing machine is now part of the active configuration.
Things to know
Spot finishing pricing depends on the area of the spotted region, which is set on the product reference — not on the machine row. If the spot cost looks too low or too high, check the spotted area on the product before re-tuning the machine cost.
A Spot Finishing (Legacy) table may appear on older tenants. New machines should use Spot Finishing — the legacy table is read-only on most tenants and exists only to keep historic quotes reproducible.
If your shop applies spot foil with a die that has setup material costs (the foil itself, plus a stamping die), set the die cost on the product reference rather than amortising it into the per-area material cost — this keeps per-job die cost visible in the price breakdown.