Use this article when your shop produces pad-glued notepads or NCR sets — desk pads, branded notepads, multi-part receipt books — and you need Estimator to price the gluing step, the chipboard backing, and the per-pad assembly on every quote. After this you will have a notepads category that appears in the create-estimate product picker, prices an inner block of identical sheets and an optional chipboard back, and routes the pad-glue step to your pad-glue line.
Steps
1. Create the category
Open Estimate Setup → Products → Categories, then select + Add New. Fill in the fields below.
Identification
Name — the customer-facing product family (e.g., "Notepads", "Notepads Collate"). Use Collate in the name when each pad is a sequenced set of different sheets (e.g., NCR triplicate); use a single name when every sheet in the pad is identical.
Display Name — leave the same as Name.
Category Type — choose Pad Glue. This unlocks the Sheets Per Part field on the part rows, exposes the cover fields for an optional chipboard back, and tells Estimator to route every quote through a pad-glue step.
Calculation and imposition
Price Model — set to paper_calc. Estimator prices by parent sheet and run length, then assembles the pads from those printed sheets.
Price Adjustment Model — pick Gross Profit% for the common notepad case (mixed promotional and bespoke runs).
Bleed — default bleed in millimetres applied to each page (e.g., 5 mm). Notepads ship with a slightly larger bleed than commercial flat because the glued edge is trimmed last.
Flags
Allow Same Size Sheet — switch to Yes. Notepads are commonly ganged on the parent sheet with a same-size layout to maximise yield. Estimator uses this flag to allow the no-edge-trim economy path.
Mixed Production Enabled — switch to Yes. The pad-glue line routinely runs multiple notepad SKUs on the same parent sheet and trims them apart after gluing. Estimator uses this flag to allow the ganged route.
Markups
Labor / Machine / Material / Delivery / Outwork / Substrate — default markup percentages. Notepads ship with explicit material and substrate markups (e.g., 70% each) on top of the standard buckets, reflecting the chipboard back and glue cost.
Save the row. The Pending Changes count increments by one in the sidebar.
2. Define the parts
Open Category Parts for the new category. Notepads carry an inner pad of repeated sheets and an optional chipboard back.
Add an inner part row first:
Name —
inner.Is Cover — No.
Is Wraps Preceding — No.
Sheets Per Part — number of sheets in one pad (e.g., 50, 100). This field is the notepads-specific input that tells Estimator how many printed sheets make up one finished pad. Required for Notepads named categories — the field is locked to 0 when Is Cover is Yes on a row.
Production Steps — typically print → cut → bind (the bind step on this category is the pad-glue pass).
Tags — pair with the inner substrate and press (e.g.,
uncoated-text-80,digital).
If your notepad has a chipboard back, add a back part row second:
Name —
back.Is Cover — Yes. The chipboard back is treated like a cover by the binder.
Is Wraps Preceding — No. A pad back sits flat under the pad; it does not wrap.
Sheets Per Part — locked to 0 by Estimator when Is Cover is Yes, since the back is a single sheet, not a stack.
Production Steps — typically cut → bind. The chipboard usually does not print.
Tags — pair with a chipboard substrate.
Save each part row. Pending Changes increments again.
3. Configure the quote inputs
Open Finish Sizes, Page Limits, Page Colors, and Field Rules under Products.
Finish Sizes — add the finished pad sizes (e.g., A4 desk pad, A5 notepad, US Letter, 5 × 7 in).
Page Limits — for Notepads Collate (NCR-style sequenced pads), set the page limit to match your collation set (e.g., 2 sheets for duplicate, 3 for triplicate). For a single-sheet repeated notepad, Page Limits is not needed — Sheets Per Part on the part row handles the pad depth.
Page Colors — list the colour options. Most notepads run black-only or full-colour single-side on the inner, and unprinted on the back.
Field Rules — surface conditional inputs like perforated tear-off, full backing board vs. half-height backing, and corner rounding.
4. Apply the changes
Open the Pending Changes panel in the sidebar and review the staged category, parts, and quote inputs. Select Apply Changes to publish to live setup.
The Pending Changes count returns to zero, and the notepads category appears in the create-estimate product picker with the pad-glue step routed to your pad-glue line.
Things to know
Sheets Per Part is the notepads-specific number. It only appears on parts inside a Pad Glue category whose name is exactly NCR Forms — and on the inner part of any notepad category in general, where it sets the pad depth. If the field is hidden when you expect it to show, check the category Name and Category Type values first.
Allow Same Size Sheet and Mixed Production Enabled are both Yes on notepads because the pad-glue line gangs multiple SKUs onto one parent sheet and trims them after gluing. If your shop runs notepads one SKU at a time, switch both flags to No and Estimator will price them as single-job runs.
If a notepad quote prices the pad-glue step at zero, the most common cause is that this category is not assigned to the pad-glue binder under Pad Glue Categories on the binder editor. Open the binder and add the category to its accepted list.