If you have started looking at software to run your shop, you have probably hit the term Print MIS and wondered what it actually means. This guide answers what is Print MIS in plain language, what one does day to day, how it differs from simpler print software and full ERP, and how to tell whether your shop needs one.
Print MIS stands for Print Management Information System. It is the central software that runs a print or sign business, connecting the commercial and production sides of the shop in one place. Instead of a quote living in a spreadsheet, the job living on a whiteboard and the invoice living in your accounting package, a Print MIS keeps them as one connected record from enquiry to payment.
Think of it as the operating system for the shop. Sales, estimating, production and accounts all look at the same information, so nobody is chasing a printout or rekeying numbers that were already entered once.
The value of a Print MIS is that a job carries its details all the way through. Here is the flow most shops recognise:
Because it is one record, you can answer the questions that actually matter: what is this job worth, where is it right now, did we make money on it, and what is our real capacity next week. Explore the full picture on the Krino features page.
Plenty of shops run on a patchwork: a spreadsheet for quoting, a calendar or whiteboard for scheduling, and an accounting app for invoices. That works until it does not. The gaps between those tools are where jobs get lost, prices drift and margin quietly disappears.
Simple print software usually solves one slice, for example an online quote form or a job bag template. A Print MIS ties the whole workflow together so information is entered once and reused everywhere. The difference shows up as fewer mistakes, faster quoting and a clear view of the business rather than a stack of disconnected apps.
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is broader software built to run every function of a large manufacturer, from procurement to HR to finance. A Print MIS is purpose-built for the way print and sign shops actually work, with quoting, imposition-aware estimating and job tracking at its core.
For most small and mid-sized shops, a full ERP is heavy, expensive and slow to implement. A modern Print MIS gives you the parts you need without the parts you do not, and it speaks the language of the trade out of the box.
You probably do not need a Print MIS if you are a one-person shop turning over a handful of simple jobs a week. The signs that you have outgrown spreadsheets tend to be clear:
If two or more of those sound familiar, a Print MIS will usually pay for itself in recovered time and protected margin.
Krino is a Print MIS built in Australia for print and sign shops, with a modern interface your team will actually use. It covers quoting, jobs, scheduling and invoicing on one flat price with no per-user fees, and it connects natively to Xero so accounts are not an afterthought.
What sets it apart is the AI layer. Krino uses AI to speed up quoting and scheduling, the fiddly work that eats a shop owner’s day, in ways no Australian competitor currently markets. That means a small shop can lift capacity and consistency without hiring more admin staff.
No. Accounting software handles invoices, payments and tax. A Print MIS runs the whole job, from quote to production to the point where an invoice is raised, then hands the finished figures to your accounting package. Krino sends that data straight to Xero.
A modern, cloud-based Print MIS like Krino can be up and quoting in days rather than the months a traditional ERP rollout takes, because it is built for the print trade and does not need heavy customisation.
No. It removes repetitive admin and rekeying so your existing team gets more done. The goal is capacity without extra headcount, not replacing the people who run your shop.
