Use this article when a paper, substrate, product, or option you expect to see is not available on a new quote, or when a calculated quote behaves as if the substrate is missing entirely. After this you will have identified whether the row is missing from setup, staged in Pending Changes, restricted by a customer brand, or excluded by a product-part filter — and you will know which per-cluster troubleshooting article carries the full fix.
Quick diagnosis table
Symptom | Check (where to look) | Fix (action) | Verify (what you'll see) |
The substrate is not in the substrate dropdown on a new quote. | Open Substrates in Estimate Setup and confirm the row exists. Read the Stock Type value. | If the row is missing, add it with Add or edit a substrate. If Stock Type excludes routine quoting, set it to the value that allows automatic selection. Apply Changes. | Recalculate the quote. The substrate appears in the dropdown and the substrate line of the price breakdown shows the expected paper. |
The substrate exists in Substrates but the route does not pick it. | Open Issue analysis on the quote and read the Excluded machines section. Open the product part and read which substrate Positions and tags it requires. | Open the substrate row and set the Position the product part requires; add the tag the product part and the press both expect. Apply Changes. | Recalculate. Issue analysis shows the press accepting the substrate and Excluded machines no longer lists it for substrate reasons. |
A product category or option is missing from quote creation. | Open the product category in Estimate Setup → Product Categories and confirm it exists and is active. Open the customer record and confirm the category is permitted on this customer. | If the category is inactive or not assigned to the customer, activate it or add the customer assignment. Apply Changes. | The new quote dialog now shows the product category and its options. |
A substrate I just added does not show up after saving. | Open Estimate Setup and read the Pending Changes count in the sidebar. | If the count is non-zero, open Pending Changes, review the staged substrate edit, and select Apply Changes. | The Pending Changes count returns to zero. Recalculate the quote and the new substrate appears in the dropdown. |
A brand-restricted substrate appears for customers that should not see it. | Open the substrate row and read the Brands field. Open the customer record and read its brand requirement. | A brand restriction belongs on the customer record, not on the substrate row. Remove the brand value from the substrate row and add the brand requirement to the customer record that needs it. Apply Changes. | Recalculate. The brand-restricted substrate appears only when the customer record requires that brand. |
Substrate import succeeded but the rows do not appear in the dropdown. | Open Substrates and read the import result panel for validation errors. Read Stock Type, Sheet Size, Weight, and Coat on each newly imported row. | Open the failing rows and set the required fields the import did not supply (most commonly Stock Type, Sheet Size, Weight, Coat). Apply Changes. | The validation panel clears. Recalculate a quote and the imported substrates appear in the dropdown. |
Example 1 — Newly added SRA1 substrate does not show up after saving
Northgate Press stocks a new Silk 130gsm SRA1 sheet and the operator adds it to Substrates. The row saves without error, but when the operator opens a new Stitched Book quote a few minutes later, the new substrate is missing from the dropdown — Estimator keeps suggesting the existing Silk 100gsm SRA1 row instead.
Diagnosis: The operator opens Estimate Setup and the sidebar shows a non-zero Pending Changes count. They open the panel and see the new Silk 130gsm SRA1 row staged but not yet applied. Until Apply Changes runs, the row exists in the Substrates table for editing but is not available to quote creation.
Fix: The administrator selects Apply Changes in Pending Changes.
Verify: The Pending Changes count returns to zero. The estimator recalculates the quote and the new Silk 130gsm SRA1 row appears in the substrate dropdown. Selecting it produces a substrate line on the price breakdown that reflects the heavier 130gsm weight.
Example 2 — Folded Leaflets quote on RA1 substrate gets "no valid combinations"
Northgate Press quotes a 2,500-run Folded Leaflets job on Silk 100gsm RA1 (the RA1 row in the substrates table). Calculation fails with Unable to calculate estimate and the Excluded machines section in Issue analysis lists both presses and the folder as excluded.
Diagnosis: The estimator opens Issue analysis and reads each exclusion reason. XL105 and HP Indigo are excluded with "sheet size out of range" — the RA1 row has a maximum sheet width that no press accepts for this finished size. Folder 1 is excluded with "no tag match" because the substrate does not carry the fold-coated tag the folder requires.
Fix: The administrator opens the product part on the Folded Leaflets category and confirms the finished size requires a larger parent sheet. They switch the substrate on the quote to the existing Silk 100gsm SRA1 row, which has the larger sheet size and already carries the fold-coated tag. (The longer-term fix is to add an SRA1 parent-sheet variant of the RA1 stock and tag it for folding — see Why a substrate is missing from a quote.)
Verify: The estimator recalculates the quote. View estimation path shows the route running on the SRA1 substrate, with both an offset press and the folder selected. Excluded machines is empty for substrate reasons and the price breakdown shows a fold line.
What if this didn't fix it?
If the substrate row exists, Pending Changes is clear, the product part accepts the substrate's Position and tags, the customer record's brand requirement matches, and the substrate is still missing or the calculation still says no valid combinations — the issue is in the route logic rather than substrate setup. Open a support request and include: the estimate ID, the substrate name as it appears in the Substrates table, the product part name, and the Excluded machines detail from Issue analysis. If the symptom is specifically that the wrong press is selected even though the substrate is available, see Troubleshoot missing or wrong machine route.