From first proof
to what’s next.
We know how a job moves through a print shop. Together, we can turn that experience into a connected operation, more room to grow, and a product for our industry.
Our shop knowledge.
A software factory.
A practical partnership, built around real jobs.
FGS knows the shop from the inside. Fiction Factory can turn that experience into connected software and repeatable automation. Together, we improve the business we already understand and prove the foundations of a product other print and graphics shops could use.
The craft. The shop. The whole job.
FGS brings the detail that matters: estimating, prepress, proof approvals, production, shipping, and the handoffs between them.
A software factory.
Fiction Factory brings reusable tools, software development, simulation, and the ability to turn a working idea into a product.
Something we build together.
A stronger operation today, with a path to an industry-specific business tomorrow.
Start inside the business. Learn from the people doing the work. Let the product grow out of evidence.
PARTNERS, BUILDING TOGETHERKeep the job moving.
Keep the context with it.
One connected journey from the order to the customer’s door.
Our existing work connects orders, prepress, proofs, production handoffs, shipping, dispatch, and delivery. Removing the gaps in paper-based processes lets the next person see the right job information without starting the conversation over.
Context moves with the work.
A conceptual view of the connected workflow, not a live software screen.
Order
The job and its requirements
Prepress & proof
Files, checks, and approvals
Production
A clear handoff to the floor
Delivery
Shipping, dispatch, and completion
The operating flow is connected
The current work brings the order-to-delivery chain together and removes paper-process gaps. That gives us a practical base to test the next layer against the shop’s real work.
The next layer
- Simulation of the full job flow
- Exception testing and employee feedback
- Digital employees with clear approval boundaries
A rehearsal
for the whole shop.
Useful automation needs an operating model and a way to stop.
Simulation is the next step. We can model orders, proof delays, production handoffs, and delivery exceptions, then test proposed digital employees against those conditions before trusting them with live work.
Read the work
Use permitted data and a clear task. Keep the evidence attached to the proposed action.
Test the response
Exercise ordinary work and exceptions in simulation. Compare the result to what the team expects.
Respect the boundary
Ask for approval where required. Escalate uncertainty, exceptions, and consequential decisions to a person.
Validate in real work
Start within an agreed scope, record outcomes, and improve with employee feedback.
Proof coordinator
Track approvals, prepare follow-ups, and escalate changes that need judgment.
Production coordinator
Prepare handoffs and flag missing files, materials, or job information.
Dispatch assistant
Bring shipping and delivery details together for a human-approved plan.
Less chasing.
More room
to produce.
Capacity is more than empty machine time. It is the ability to move work through estimating, approvals, production, and delivery without the team becoming the bottleneck.
As the operation creates that capacity, Tommy can help fill it through focused sales and marketing, matching the right kinds of jobs to what the shop can reliably deliver.
Conceptual sequence · not a forecast or measured result
Improve our business.
Build a new one.
The business opportunity is bigger than a custom application.
What works for us can become the foundation of a focused industry product. The aim is to combine proven workflows with repeatable software, while keeping the industry-specific opportunity distinct from Fiction Factory’s underlying tools.
A print-and-graphics product
The job logic, print-specific workflows, and product shaped with FGS form the industry-specific opportunity. We can develop that product together as a distinct business proposition.
Industry-specific knowledge, workflows & IPFiction Factory’s reusable foundation
The software factory, reusable components, and general-purpose tools sit underneath. They can support multiple industries while we keep this product focused on our own.
Underlying reusable tools & technologyThis is a direction for our collaboration. Ownership, licensing, commercial terms, and responsibilities need a separate agreement; no percentages or executed terms are assumed here.
Ready for a world
where agents do business.
An interoperable future, with a reason to participate.
Imagine a customer’s agent bringing a complete print brief, checking requirements, and passing an order into a compatible supplier workflow. Our long-term opportunity is to make that exchange useful and interoperable.
Agent-to-agent commerce
Help customer and supplier agents exchange useful, structured information and coordinate work with clear authority and human oversight.
Free on the supplier side
The network vision is an interoperable supplier-side connection intended to be free, making participation easier across different tools and platforms.
A free nonprofit edition
Apply the same useful foundation to nonprofit work through a planned free edition. This is a future commitment to explore, not a live offer.
Make the software
bill understandable.
An illustrative 20-person print and graphics shop.
This public-price model uses shopVOX as a named MIS alternative. It is not FGS’s actual bill, a verified PrintOPS quote, or an industry average. Specialist production tools remain visible rather than being assumed away.
Illustrative, adjustable, role-based. U.S. dollars, before tax. Regular public prices checked October 10, 2026. Change licensed seats or plan choices below; headcount does not multiply every subscription.
shopVOX PRO · full users
$249/month includes 1 full user, then $49 per additional full user. Confirm contract term and role permissions.
Official pricingshopVOX PRO · mobile users
$19 per mobile user/month. These are limited mobile logins; schedule-only roster entries are not user logins.
Official pricingQuickBooks Online Plus
One company subscription at the regular monthly price. Up to 5 users; this example uses 2.
Official pricingQuickBooks Workforce Payroll
$50 base + $7 per paid employee/month. Payroll-only plan; hours supplied from the existing process. Extra jurisdiction fees excluded.
Official pricingAdobe Creative Cloud Pro for teams
$99.99 per license/month with an annual contract, billed monthly. Includes Acrobat for these same users.
Official pricingEnfocus PitStop Pro
$432 per seat/year, shown as $36/month equivalent. Specialist PDF preflight plugin; requires compatible Acrobat. Additional Acrobat licenses may be needed if preflight seats exceed design seats; not priced here.
Official pricingRoutific
Order-based pricing: free through 100; $150 for 101–1,000, then published marginal tiers. Unlimited drivers and dispatchers; SMS excluded.
Official pricingTeam, licensing, and scope assumptions
The 20-person example allocates 2 owner/office/accounting staff, 3 sales/estimating staff, 3 design/prepress staff, 10 production/finishing/install staff, and 2 drivers. Eight full MIS logins and twelve mobile logins are modeled; mobile permissions must fit the work. Two finance users use one company plan. Three design seats and two preflight seats overlap.
The MIS already provides basic CRM and proofing. No separate CRM is included by default, and Acrobat is included in the selected Adobe seats. Payroll does not include a time-tracking upgrade. Routific is billed by scheduled delivery orders, with unlimited drivers and dispatchers; the default assumes 500 orders per month.
Optional, only where a real gap exists: Salesforce Starter for four sales/manager seats adds $100/month; Pro plus API adds $500/month on annual billing. shopVOX Inventory adds $299/month and $999 setup. Webhooks add $250/month if the integration architecture requires them. None of these is included in the default subtotal. Equipment-specific RIP and preflight tools are not automatically replaced by our workflow.
What the subtotal leaves out
Annualized means twelve times the modeled monthly equivalent; it does not mean every plan is month-to-month or has an annual discount. Annual commitments and billing bases are shown beside each product. Introductory promotions are excluded.
Excluded unless separately stated: tax, payment processing, wages and payroll taxes, benefits, equipment and hardware, phones and data, postage, messaging, maps, API/connector charges, hosting, custom development, migration, training, support upgrades, and parallel-running costs. Any required quoted or unpriced item remains unknown, not zero.
Better workflow is the hypothesis. Real value is what we measure.
Public prices help us understand the landscape. They do not establish our current spend or what our product can replace. Before making a savings claim, we need actual invoices, a matched scope, the Fiction Factory proposal, retained subscriptions, and implementation and usage costs. Then we can measure re-entry, delays, exceptions, and usable capacity in real work.
Official sources & price notes · checked October 10, 2026
- shopVOX official pricing Base/additional full-user rates, included first user, CRM/proofing, onboarding and optional add-ons. Checked October 10, 2026.
- shopVOX official PRO user-types price graphic $19 mobile, $49 full, $0 schedule-only; access distinctions. Visually inspected. Checked October 10, 2026.
- QuickBooks Online official US pricing Plus $140 monthly list, five users, basic inventory and project profitability. Checked October 10, 2026.
- QuickBooks Workforce Payroll standalone $50 base plus $7/employee/month, excluding promotion. Checked October 10, 2026.
- Adobe official Creative Cloud for teams price comparison $99.99/license/month annual commitment; $1,199.88 annual prepaid; included creative apps. Checked October 10, 2026.
- Enfocus official PitStop Pro subscription pricing Annual/monthly subscription structure. Static prices are placeholders; localized US pricing is in the public endpoint loaded by this page. Checked October 10, 2026.
- Routific official pricing $150 for 101-1,000 orders; unlimited drivers/dispatchers; usage tiers. Search-index text was readable; direct page rendered incompletely. Checked October 10, 2026.
- Salesforce official Starter and Pro Suite pricing Starter $25 per user monthly/annually; Pro $100 per user annual contract. Checked October 10, 2026.
- Salesforce official platform add-on pricing Web Services API $25/user/month on Pro, billed annually. Checked October 10, 2026.
- Enfocus public pricing endpoint: United States record US annual $432, $36/month equivalent; monthly subscription $50. Retrieved read-only from public endpoint identified in the page JavaScript. Checked October 10, 2026.
A better way to run the job.
A new opportunity for the industry.
Connect the shop. Rehearse the work. Create capacity. Then build on what we have proved together.