Welcome to GelatoConnect One — Gelato’s MIS for print service providers. This guide is the step-by-step roadmap to switch on the MIS layer on top of the GelatoConnect Estimator and automated GelatoConnect you’re already running, and to start converting estimates into orders, invoices, and ERP entries in a single system.

This guide assumes you are already live on the GelatoConnect Estimator and GelatoConnect. If you are, what follows takes the platform you already use and extends it end to end — from quote, to job ticket, to production, to ship, to invoice, to your accounting system. This guide relates to the preview version released for pilot customers.

Key Benefits

Request Gelato team for access and link to the video (exclusive to GelatoConnect one customers for now). Recommended that you use the video and this guide together whilst getting started.

This onboarding plan is built for customers already using GelatoConnect Estimator and automated GelatoConnect. Assign a clear owner from your team — typically your MIS administrator — since the role needs a solid understanding of your machines, products, customers, and finance setup.

With the right owner in place, and working closely with your Gelato support team, onboarding can typically be completed in around 4 weeks.

Follow these eight steps to get GelatoConnect One up and running.

Goal: Switch your estimate export target to GelatoConnect One so estimates can be converted into orders inside the same system.

What You’ll Do: Open Estimate Setup → Settings →Connections. Where your estimates currently export to an external system, change the destination to GelatoConnect One. This unlocks the Convert to Order action on every estimate that reaches Job 1.

Next, define the fields the estimator must complete before an estimate can be converted. These act as a gate — no field, no order. Typical fields are PO number and required delivery date; add any others your operations or finance team relies on (customer reference, cost center, internal job code, and so on). The values you collect here flow directly into the job ticket and the order header, so set them up with the downstream use in mind.

Goal: Set up the upgraded shipping layer that now powers both estimates and orders, including (optional) real-time carrier rates.

What You’ll Do: Open Shipping Setup and review what migrated automatically — methods, destination zones and packaging rules should already be in place. Confirm everything looks right before moving on.

Then decide between static rate tables and live rates from real carriers via GelatoConnect Logistics (DHL, UPS, FedEx, DPD, Amazon Shipping, and more). Live rates make the estimator more accurate because the cost is fetched against a real address, not a region lookup. Two estimator inputs ship with this release: region-based quotes (rough estimate, no address needed) and address-based quotes (pulled from saved customer addresses, with real carrier prices). Both modes show in the estimator and can be edited at the order level.

Finally, review packaging rules (auto-select by product spec) and shipping rules so the right ship method is suggested by default. The cleaner the rules, the less manual overriding the team has to do later on the order.

Goal: Make sure every substrate you can quote is mirrored as an inventory SKU so stock is consumed automatically when orders are produced.

What You’ll Do: Open Inventory Management. The system has already created an SKU for every substrate in your Estimate Setup. Skim the list and confirm coverage. Assign the supplier for a substrate from the Substrate page or you can add them directly to the supplier from Add from Catalog → Substrate section.

Continue to maintain substrate prices and specifications in the GelatoConnect Procurement — that is the single source of truth, and it stays in sync with Inventory. You do not need to maintain prices in two places. Set initial stock levels and reorder thresholds for the substrates you actually hold. When a converted order moves into production, the required quantities are deducted automatically, and low-stock alerts surface against the orders that depend on them.

On the order page, the Substrate Needed card shows exactly what each job consumes and links straight into Procurement so you can raise a supplier PO against that order if stock is short.

Goal: Make sure the digital and printed job ticket reflects how your production floor actually works.

What You’ll Do: Open Job Ticket Settings and configure which sections and fields appear per product type. Trim anything your team doesn’t use so the ticket stays scannable on the shop floor.

The AI-generated job ticket summary is trainable — give the AI thumbs up/down feedback on the wording, and the system learns the phrasing your team is used to. Estimators can also add internal comments per production step at conversion time, so context flows downstream with the job.

Then decide how you’ll produce orders out of the gate. Two modes are supported, and you can mix them by product category:

A common starting point is paper tickets for 100% of jobs on day one, then incrementally automating the categories that benefit most.

Goal: Capture the suppliers who handle outsourced production steps so the system can generate POs and track outwork end-to-end.

What You’ll Do: Open the new Vendor Management area and add each outworker: contact info, the operations they handle (laminating, foiling, die-cutting, binding, and so on), and any account notes.

Maintain their rate cards in Estimate Setup — the same place the estimator already pulls from. This keeps one source of truth for vendor pricing and avoids drift between what the estimator quotes and what gets ordered.

When an estimate uses an outsourced step, a draft outsource PO is automatically created on the resulting order, linked to the right vendor. From the order page, send the PO, then mark it received when the work comes back. All outsource POs roll up under Procurement → Outsourcing, where the team can see what’s in flight, what’s late, and what’s been invoiced by which vendor.

Goal: Set up each customer with the contacts, addresses, and invoicing rules needed to run orders end-to-end.

What You’ll Do: For each customer, build out their contact list (sales, ops, AP/finance) and address list (delivery sites, billing address, invoice address). Specify which contact and which address are used for invoicing, and which address is the default for new estimates.

Set payment terms, invoice email, VAT or company registration number, and credit limit. These pull through to every invoice generated for that customer, so it’s worth getting the finance details right up front.

Choose the invoicing trigger that fits the relationship:

These settings carry through the full chain — estimate → order → invoice → ERP — so configuring them once per customer pays off on every order that follows.

Goal: Push generated invoices to the system your finance team works in, and keep customers and payments in sync.

What You’ll Do: Open ERP Integration. At launch, six systems are supported: QuickBooks, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics, Zoho, Fortnox, and HubSpot CRM (for contacts). The list will continue to grow.

Connect your system through the setup wizard — authentication, entity selection, field mapping, and review. The mapping is auto-suggested per ERP and customizable, so a non-standard chart of accounts or customer schema can still be mapped cleanly.

Decide what to sync and in which direction: invoices (Connect → ERP), payments (ERP → Connect), customers and contacts (both ways), and credit notes. Set the sync frequency (15 minutes, hourly, or daily) based on how live your finance team needs the data to be.

Your ERP remains the master for finance reconciliation — Connect mirrors the data, it does not replace it. The sync log shows every attempt with status, so issues are easy to spot and re-run without losing track of what went through.

Goal: Put it all together — convert an estimate to an order, run it through production, ship it, and invoice it.

What You’ll Do: When an estimate reaches Job 1 status, the Convert to Order button appears. Fill in the required fields you defined in Step 1, review the AI job ticket and add per-step comments where needed, then convert.

On the order page, an order progress bar tracks status through File Received → Proofing → Approved → Production → Ship. Early stages today happen off-platform (FTP for artwork, pre-press, email approvals); the system is your system of record, so keep statuses moving forward as work progresses.

When the order is ready, push to production — either by printing the paper job ticket or, for categories you’ve automated, by routing through the configured workflow and imposition. The order page also surfaces substrate consumption, linked procurement POs, and outsourced POs, so the production team has everything in one place.

Choose the ship method per order (carrier auto-picked but editable), then mark shipped. The invoice is generated automatically based on the customer’s invoicing rule (individual or consolidated) and pushed to your ERP.

Three order actions are worth knowing:

Estimate, order, and invoice always remain linked end to end, so traceability and reporting hold up across the whole lifecycle.