You're in. Now let's get your first AI-built estimate live, today.
This is your single, self-serve hub for everything you need to set up GelatoConnect Estimator during your free trial. Walkthrough videos, step-by-step guides, the AI Configurator that does the heavy lifting, all in one place, in the order you actually need them.
Want to see it work first? Do this.
You don't have to finish configuration to feel the magic. Your account ships with a pre-built template, so you can create a real AI-generated estimate in your very first session.
Log in to GelatoConnect
Use the credentials from your welcome email and open the left-hand Manage Estimates menu.
Open GelatoConnect →Paste a customer email
Grab any recent estimate request. Paste the text into the AI chat. Press go. Watch fields populate in seconds.
How it works →Or upload a PDF / screenshot
Got a formal quote request? Drop the PDF in. Got a screenshot? Paste it. The AI reads images too.
Multi-product RFQs →Tweak markup, send it
Adjust the markup model (GP%, VA%, or VA/hour), then convert to an order or export to your MIS.
Pricing models explained →The template estimates won't be perfectly priced for your shop, and that's the point.
The quickstart shows you what the AI can do. Steps 3 and beyond on this page are how you make every estimate accurate for your machines, papers, and pricing.
Six steps from logged-in to live for customers.
Each step has a Loom walkthrough and a deep-dive Help Center article. Do them in order. You can pause between any of them, the system holds your progress.
Set up users and a test customer
Get your team into GelatoConnect and create a sandbox customer so you can experiment without touching live accounts.
- MIS User: can create and edit estimates
- MIS Manager: can also edit configuration and see analytics
- Enable Estimation Process on your test customer's Jobs & Estimations tab
Create your first estimate with the AI Assistant
Before you touch any configuration, experience the GelatoConnect Estimator with the pre-built template. This is the moment your team will believe.
- Copy-paste: drop in customer email text, the AI parses jargon natively
- Screenshot: paste an image of an email, estimate request, or spreadsheet
- PDF: attach a formal estimate request; the AI reads it and populates the estimate
- Multi-product: handle 2-item kits up to 100+ line tenders via Excel
Configure Estimate Setup & the AI Configurator
Everything moves into the new Estimate Setup page, one unified interface with AI assistance, pending-changes review, version history, and global search. No more Google Sheets juggling.
- Sidebar navigation + card/table view + global search
- Pending Changes queue: review, edit, apply, or discard
- Version history with full audit trail and rollback
- AI Configurator: Create, Update, Query, Remove, by chat
Substeps inside Step 3
- 3.1, Machines & Substrates: press types, finishing, binding, tags, units of measure. Open guide →
- 3.2, Products & Reference Data: categories, parts & production steps, field rules, conditional logic. Open guide →
- 3.3, Pricing Rules & Settings: customer-specific rates, volume tiers, exception logic. Open guide →
Create real estimates and validate
Run your top product categories at multiple quantities against your existing MIS or manual pricing. Exact matches aren't the goal, directional accuracy and explainable deviations are.
- Pick 5–10 popular product specs you estimate weekly
- Compare at 500 / 1,000 / 2,500 / 5,000 units
- Use the Comparison Matrix template to track deviations
- Tune machine rates and markups until you're comfortable
Let customers and website visitors quote themselves
Embed GelatoConnect Estimator on your site as a Self-Quote widget, or invite customers into their own GelatoConnect portal for personalized pricing.
- Iframe embed on your "Get a Quote" button, works on desktop & mobile
- Theme it from Settings → General Settings (colors, logo, hero image)
- Multi-language support: en, es, de, fr, it, pt, ja, zh-CN and more
- Customer portal mode for B2B accounts with personalized pricing
Export estimates to your MIS, BI tools, or storefront
When an estimate becomes a job, push the data downstream automatically. No manual re-entry. Triggered on status change (e.g., "Won") or fired manually with the click of a button.
- Define triggers, destination URL, and authentication once
- Add custom job fields (PO, delivery dates) that the estimator must fill
- Monitor every send in the Export Log; retry failed ones
Let the AI Configurator do 80–90% of the setup for you.
The AI Configurator is a conversational agent built into Estimate Setup. Upload your existing files, describe what you want in plain English, and it imports, maps, and configures.
Migration in days, not 12–24 months.
This is the single biggest reason setup feels effortless. Your MIS exports, paper inventories, supplier price lists, or even screenshots from your current system, drop them in and the agent handles the mapping.
- Create machines, substrates, products, or any configuration item from a file or a sentence.
- Update pricing, rates, or whole tables of finishing steps in bulk.
- Query your setup: "Am I underpricing my large-format jobs? What should I change?"
- Remove what doesn't apply, categories, machines, substrate lines, by chat.
Two concepts to understand before you go live.
Skim these and your estimates will be far more accurate from day one.
How each Price Adjustment Model works
Every estimate is built from six cost buckets, substrate, other material, labor, machine, delivery, outwork, and one of three pricing models: GP%, VA%, or VA per press hour. Pick the model that matches how you talk about margin internally.
Read the model breakdown →Grain direction (when it matters)
Bound books and folded products need grain parallel to spine / fold. Flat products don't care. GelatoConnect Estimator handles imposition with grain rules baked in, but you need to flag it on the substrate and category.
Read the grain primer →Every configuration field, explained
The full reference for every machine, substrate, and product setup field, purpose, accepted values, units, examples for metric and imperial.
Open the field reference →Common follow-ups, answered.
The questions our customers ask most, each with its own Help Center article and walkthrough video.
Multi-product estimates & large RFQs
Quote 2-item kits up to 100+ line tenders. Excel uploads supported. Choose separate or consolidated delivery.
Packaging: folding cartons & corrugated
Auto-calculated flat patterns, die library, folder-gluer rates, collapsed-dimension shipping.
Train the AI with Guidance
Category, Product, Suggestions, Knowledge, and Communication-style guidance, five ways to teach it your shop's rules.
Die-Cut: as a category or as a step
When the die is the product vs. when it's a finishing process. Examples for both.
Granular markup adjustments
Override markups at the substrate, machine, or component level, not just whole-estimate.
No-bleed option for economy printing
Lower-cost pricing path when the job sits on a same-size sheet (A4-on-A4, Letter-on-Letter).
Notepads: Repeat/Stack imposition
Specialised imposition that prices by physical leaves, not pages, no half-thickness confusion.
Access controls: MIS Admin vs. MIS User
Who can edit configuration, who can only estimate. Set the right access for each team member.
Create a new product category
Step-by-step for adding categories beyond the template (e.g., posters, postcards, custom kits).
Free-trial questions, answered straight.
How long does setup actually take?+
For most print service providers, a usable configuration takes 3–10 days of focused work using the AI Configurator. Full migration off a legacy MIS, typically a 12-to-24-month project, is compressed into days because the agent reads your existing files instead of asking you to retype them. You can be estimating with the template the same day you log in.
Do I have to use Excel/Google Sheets like before?+
No. The old Google Sheets workflow has been replaced by the unified Estimate Setup page inside GelatoConnect, with sidebar navigation, card/table views, pending-changes review, version history, and global search.
What file formats does the AI Configurator accept?+
PDFs (MIS exports, equipment spec sheets, supplier price lists), Excel and CSV (paper inventories, machine lists, pricing tables), screenshots and images (from your current MIS or supplier portals), and plain text (notes or copied data). If you're unsure, just upload it, most things work.
Which pricing model should I choose: GP%, VA%, or VA per press hour?+
Pick the model that matches how your team already talks about margin. GP% if you think in selling-price markups. VA% if you think in labor + machine percentage of the total. VA per press hour if you bench-mark by hourly press output. You can mix models, for example, VA% for commercial print and GP% for large format. Full breakdown in the pricing models article.
Can I embed the estimator on my own website?+
Yes, see Step 5. You add a click handler to your "Get a Quote" button, swap in an iframe loading your branded Self-Quote URL, and theme it from Settings → General. Mobile and multi-language support included.
How do I send won jobs back to my MIS?+
Step 6 covers this. You configure one outbound API connection, destination URL, authentication, trigger (manual or auto on status change), and any custom job fields. The system handles the export; you watch the Export Log if something fails.
Can my customers see different prices than walk-ins?+
Yes. Pricing Rules let you set customer-specific or customer-group-specific rates, volume tiers, product-category exceptions, and time-period rules. Set them up in Step 3.3.
What happens when my trial ends?+
Your configuration is saved on your account. When you convert from trial to paid, nothing resets, your machines, substrates, products, pricing rules, and team users carry over.
You don't have to do this alone.
Most teams finish trial setup on this hub alone. If you'd rather have a Gelato engineer walk you through, we'll book it.
Three ways to get help during your trial.
Pick whichever matches the kind of question you have. We respond to all support requests within one business day.
Book a setup call.
30 minutes with a GelatoConnect solutions engineer. We'll review your configuration, validate your first estimates, and answer anything still blocking you.
Request a demo → Email a solutions engineer →Where to go next.
Six places to dig deeper into GelatoConnect Estimator, before or after your free trial.
Print estimating software overview
The full pitch. How GelatoConnect Estimator quotes in 15 seconds, with 10 AI pricing models and 0.35% margin variance.
Interactive print estimator demo
Try it without logging in. Paste a request, see fields populate, watch the price land in seconds.
Print quote ROI calculator
Plug in your quote volume. See the hours, margin, and win-rate uplift in your numbers.
Customer stories
BSG protected GBP 750K. Ink n'Art saved EUR 700K. Hudson Printing cut quoting effort 65%. Read how.
Packaging quote software
Folding cartons and corrugated. Auto-calculated flat patterns, die library, folder-gluer rates.
See it in action (webinar)
A walkthrough of GelatoConnect Estimator with the team, with time for questions at the end.