Production stages — shape them the way you work
No print shop works like the one next door. One has foil, another sends finishing out, another has a stage called "waiting for a proof". That's why PressCal's stages aren't locked.
What you get out of the box
Five stages, from how production actually runs:
Files → Printing → Cutting → Finishing → Delivery
Each with its own colour and icon, so the board reads from across the room.
How you change them
Stages are configured on the job board itself — not somewhere deep in Settings. Open STAGE SETUP and:
- Drag to reorder
- Click the name to rename it
- Click the colour to change it
- Add for a new stage
The shop that sends binding out adds "At the binder". The one with in-house lamination splits it off from "Finishing". The rule is simple: if work waits somewhere, it deserves a stage — because that's exactly where the customer asks you how it's going.
💡 Don't overdo it. Eight stages means eight columns, and on a laptop they won't fit. Five is five for a reason.
How a job moves
By drag & drop between columns, or by clicking the stage bar inside the card — handy when a job skips two stages at once.
Moving is always your decision. PressCal doesn't advance jobs on its own because "a file was uploaded" or "time passed" — the truth about where a job is lives on the shop floor, not in an automation rule. A board that lies confidently is worse than no board.
Every stage change keeps its timestamp, so you know how long a job has been sitting somewhere.
The first and the last
The first stage matters more than the rest: it's where every newly approved job lands. If your first step isn't "Files" but "Order confirmation", rename it — your flow will match reality from day one.
The end isn't a stage, it's an action: Done closes the job and sends the folder to the archive.
The jobs you already have
Renaming a stage doesn't disturb current jobs — the label changes, not their position. But if you delete a stage that has jobs in it, move them out first; otherwise you'll be hunting for where they went.