Platen Pending
Platen Pending

A website lead in. A priced proposal out.

The front desk for shops that put a logo on things: screen print, embroidery, DTF, promo, engraving and signs. It reads the ask, prices it from your own catalog and price list, and builds three options. You read it and press Send. Nothing goes to a customer you have not seen.

Apply for a founding spot Watch a week

$199 a month, everything included. Founding shops pay $149, for as long as they stay.

Where it comes from

Built inside a working print shop, and used there every day.

The Print Shop, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Platen Pending runs a real shop: the orders, the proofs, the invoices, the website and the email. When something in it slows that shop down, it gets changed.

What it is for is the part of the job nobody likes: answering the website ask the same morning, writing up three options, chasing the quote that went quiet, and remembering the customer who has not ordered since spring.

A week with it

One job, Monday to Friday, at Fieldhouse Print Co.

Riverbend's hoodies from the ask above, followed through the week. Every screen below is redrawn from the app's real ones, and each one plays while it is on screen.

Fieldhouse Print Co. and Riverbend Rowing Club are made up for this page. The app is not.

Monday, 11:40 am

They pick one on their phone and pay the deposit.

The proposal opens on your own page, with their logo on the hoodies. They choose, pay half by card, and the job lands on your board.

The customer, on a page with your name on it

Their phone. Card fees are Stripe's, with nothing added.
Tuesday

The job walks itself across the board.

The proof goes out and comes back approved with one click. The blanks go on a SanMar purchase order at your cost. When it comes off the press and the balance is paid, the card says so.

You and the press, on one board

The board, the way the press sees it.
Wednesday, 7:00 am

Tomorrow's follow-ups are written. You get to say no.

A quote with no answer in five days, a proposal opened and not picked, a lead that sat a day: each gets a short, plain note. You see the list first, and Hold keeps any of them from going.

The rules, with you at the door

Each kind of follow-up has its own switch, off until you turn it on.
Thursday, from the truck

What needs you, and nothing else.

Home on your phone is a short list: asks to answer, proposals to send, emails waiting on you. Clear it between deliveries. When it is empty, it says so.

You, on your phone

Home, the inbox and proposals are built for a phone, not shrunk onto one.
Friday afternoon

One note to everyone who bought hoodies last fall.

Pick what they bought and how far back. See three real emails before anything goes. When you press Send there are five minutes to change your mind, and unsubscribe always works.

You, writing once

It goes from its own address, so order emails stay out of spam.

What is in it

One place for the whole shop

Everything below is in the one plan. Nothing is an add-on.

Inbox with Ask

Every work email in one place, with a reply drafted from the order it is about. You read it, change it, send it.

Proposals in three questions

Who it is for, what you are offering, and the price. Product photos come from the catalog.

Invoices and your pay page

Deposits, balances, part payments and reminders, paid on a page with your name on it.

Vendor catalogs

SanMar and S&S Activewear, with your costs, so a price is never typed from memory.

The board and proofs

Every job from art to pickup, proofs approved with one click, and a ticket for the press.

Your website and store

A storefront with your products and a quote form that takes their files.

Follow-ups by rule

Quotes with no answer, proposals opened and not picked, leads sitting a day. Each has its own switch.

Seasonal emails

Write one note to everyone who bought hoodies last fall, look at three real ones first, then send.

On your phone

See a lead come in, build the proposal, send it, answer a reply. From the truck if you have to.

The rules it keeps

It works for you. It does not talk for you.

You see it before they do

Every proposal, quote and reply waits for a person. Nothing Ask writes goes out on its own.

Auto send is earned, not assumed

A kind of reply can send itself only after ten clean approvals and you turning it on. Even then it waits five minutes, and you can stop it.

Prices come from your price list

Ask picks the product. Your price list sets the number, the same way it does for anything you quote by hand.

Marketing stays off your order address

Seasonal emails go from their own address, so order confirmations do not land in spam. Unsubscribe always works.

Price

One plan. Everything in it.

$199a month
  • Every part of the app, nothing held back for a higher tier
  • 5 people included, then $15 a month for each extra person
  • Unlimited quotes, proposals, orders and invoices
  • Ask included, for email, leads and questions
  • Month to month. Leave any time and take your data.

Yearly: $1,990, which is two months free. Card fees are Stripe's, paid by you, with nothing added by us.

Founding shops

$149a month, kept for as long as you stay

For the first 25 shops. We set it up with you, move your products and customers in, and get on a call once a month to hear what is not working. That call is the price of the discount.

Apply for a founding spot

For comparison: Printavo's Standard plan with its Merch storefront add-on lists at $353 a month, and it does not answer your email. From printavo.com/pricing, November 2026.

Founding shops

Apply for a founding spot

Tell us about your shop. We read every one and write back ourselves, usually within a couple of days.

We are looking for shops with one to ten people that print, stitch or press for teams, schools, businesses and events, and that are tired of answering the same quote email at 10 at night.

What you do
We use this to write back to you. Nothing else.

Questions

What shops ask

Does Ask ever email a customer on its own?

Not unless you decide it may. Every proposal and reply waits for a person. A kind of reply can earn auto send after ten clean approvals, and only once you switch it on. It still waits five minutes first, and you can stop it.

Where do the prices come from?

Your own price list, the same one you quote by hand from, applied to your costs from SanMar and S&S Activewear. Ask chooses the product and where it prints. It does not choose the number.

Do I have to move everything over myself?

No. Founding shops get set up with us: your products, your price list and your customers come in before you start.

Is there a contract?

No. It is month to month, or yearly if you want two months free. If you leave, your data leaves with you.

What does it cost beyond $199?

Extra people past five are $15 a month each. Card payments go through your own Stripe account at Stripe's rates. We add nothing to them.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. The parts you need away from the desk are built for it: a new lead, building and sending a proposal, and answering a reply.