How the shop loop works

PrintProfit3D is most useful when you compare what you expected before production with what actually happened afterward. You can stop after any step. Checking an order is optional.

1. Add a product. You sell a printed dragon. Create a Product for the dragon. A name is enough to start. Add the numbers you know now; you can add more detail later. The Product holds the current estimate you use for future production records.

2. Check an order — optional. If someone wants several dragons, Quick Order Intelligence can show what that order should earn before you say yes. Nothing on the Quick Order screen changes the Saved Product, and Quick Order does not save a production record. If you change the order price or marketplace fee there and use Record production actuals, those order values can carry into the production record you confirm next.

3. Record production. Production Actuals is where the production record is created. When you confirm Create production record, PrintProfit3D saves a frozen estimate for that job. Opening the page is not enough. Editing the Product later does not rewrite what you expected for an older job. When the job is finished, open the production record and enter what really happened.

4. See what changed. Shop Learning compares production measurements such as filament grams, machine time, and hands-on time. Profit Leak compares financial results and shows where dollars came out higher or lower than estimated.

One run is history, not a pattern. Repeated comparable production of the same Product builds evidence: 1 is history only, 2 is an early signal, 3–4 is an emerging pattern, and 5 or more is an established pattern.

You decide. PrintProfit3D shows the difference. It does not automatically change your Product. If the history tells you your price, material estimate, print time, labor, or another assumption needs attention, you decide whether to edit the Product for future jobs. Past production records keep their frozen estimates.