Running a print or mail shop means answering questions all day. Which jobs need attention? What does this customer have open? Who still needs to approve a proof? Getting those answers shouldn’t require another round of searching, exporting, and piecing information together.
That was the practical theme behind Print Reach’s recent product webinars for Midnight and Printer’s Plan. Both sessions covered 2026 releases, upcoming development, and live AI demonstrations focused on everyday shop work.
Hosted by Implementation Manager Becky Burden, the webinars featured Midnight Senior Product Manager Thad Wellington, Printer’s Plan VP of Product Development Paul Diangelo, and CTO Aaron Hodges. The takeaway: AI connections are available today, while new inbox tools, proofing workflows, and product updates are moving through beta and development.
AI you can use today: ask your shop’s data a question
Midnight and Printer’s Plan both have live MCP servers. MCP, short for Model Context Protocol, is a connection that lets AI assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, or Copilot work with the business data your software makes available.
Instead of starting with a report menu, you can start with a question. Ask about customer balances or available job information in plain English, then follow up to explore the answer.
There’s an important difference between the products:
- Midnight supports reading and writing through supported API functions. Its AI connection can retrieve information and perform supported actions, such as creating customer records.
- Printer’s Plan is currently read-only through MCP. Write capabilities are planned. Using the connection requires the SQL version and appropriate API access.
The connection works with data exposed through each product’s API. That means available functions matter: it isn’t an automatic connection to every screen, field, or scheduling tool.
For Midnight customers with API access, there’s no additional charge for the MCP server. Contact us to discuss API access and the setup that fits your shop.
From a prompt to a dashboard
The Midnight webinar showed what that connection can look like in practice. A short prompt produced a dashboard from available business data. A morning-briefing example highlighted anomalies worth investigating. Another demonstration showed a customer record being created through a spoken request to an AI assistant.
Each example starts with something familiar: wanting an overview, knowing what needs attention, or entering a new contact. The difference is how many manual steps sit between the request and the result.
For shop owners and managers, that’s the opportunity. You can spend less effort assembling information and more time deciding what to do with it. Watch the demonstrations to see the workflow and the capabilities behind each example.
Coming next: an inbox with customer context
Email is where much of a shop’s work begins. Quote requests, order changes, and proof questions can arrive in the same inbox, leaving staff to sort the messages and look up the relevant account or job.
AI Mail is being developed to connect those messages with shop data. The direction shown in the webinars includes identifying the type of request, displaying customer and job context, and drafting replies using that information.
The goal is straightforward: give the person answering an email the context they need without making them reconstruct the customer’s situation first.
Proofing with a clearer approval trail
Approval workflows get complicated when several people need to review a file. An outside stakeholder may need to sign off, a customer may request a revision, and production needs to know which version has approval.
Print Reach Drive brings a new approach to proofing across the portfolio, including multi-step approvals, outside approvers, and an audit trail. These capabilities are intended to make approval status easier to follow as files move through review.
Midnight’s proofing workflow is in beta with version 11.8. Printer’s Plan proofing is moving toward beta, including the ability to approve or reject from email.
Midnight: stronger control over pricing and billing
Alongside AI, Midnight’s 2026 releases address work that mail and direct mail shops handle every day:
- Global pricing management, live in v11.4: update service pricing across the system in one step.
- Invoice management and billing control, live in v11.6: use templates and customer defaults, with support for multi-order and postage-only invoices.
- Balance and transfer management, live in v11.8: move funds between escrow and earmarked balances without manual workarounds.
These updates give teams more control over how they maintain prices, bill customers, and manage funds.
The roadmap also includes Canadian payment support through Print Reach Pay and QuickBooks Online integration, with the accounting integration planned for December 2026. In-app notifications, updated scheduling, and a refreshed interface are planned for 2027.
Printer’s Plan: useful releases now, a new foundation ahead
Printer’s Plan’s recent releases include several improvements shaped by customer requests. Price by margin lets shops set pricing around a target margin for a job or customer. Custom delivery tickets let teams print only the items being delivered. A built-in email sender reduces email login hassles.
The SQL version is also live, with local installation options available, providing the foundation for new capabilities. Individual employee logins and multiple roles are coming soon, with preparation for multi-factor authentication.
Looking further ahead, Printer’s Plan Next is a ground-up, AI-native rewrite. The prototype shown in the webinar included a modern interface, global search, light and dark modes, and a built-in AI assistant. Future plans include the ability to migrate existing customer data into the new product.
Built with the people who use it
Customer feedback from events such as Level Up and Reach on the Beach helped shape many of these releases. Price by margin is one example of a highly requested feature that made it into Printer’s Plan.
Shared development across payments, Drive, proofing, and AI Mail also gives us a way to bring common capabilities to multiple products. Each rollout still follows its own product timeline.
Have a workflow you’d like to improve? Share it with the team. The most useful feedback starts with the task your shop needs to get done.
Frequently asked questions about our product updates
Does Printer’s Plan work with Claude, ChatGPT, or Copilot?
Yes. Printer’s Plan, our print management system, has a live MCP server that lets AI assistants like Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot work with your shop’s data. The connection is currently read-only, and write capabilities are planned. It requires the SQL version of Printer’s Plan and appropriate API access.
Is there a charge for the Midnight MCP server?
No. Midnight customers with API access can use the MCP server at no additional charge. Contact us to discuss API access and the setup that fits your print or mail shop.
What’s the difference between the Midnight and Printer’s Plan AI connections?
Midnight, our print and mail MIS, supports reading and writing through supported API functions, so an AI assistant can retrieve information and perform actions such as creating customer records. Printer’s Plan is currently read-only, so an assistant can retrieve information but not make changes yet. Both connections work only with the data each product makes available through its API.
When is QuickBooks Online integration coming to Midnight?
QuickBooks Online integration for Midnight, our print and mail MIS, is planned for December 2026.
Watch the recordings
See the live demonstrations, review the releases, and explore what’s planned for your product:
- Watch the Midnight Product Update + AI Features webinar.
- Watch the Printer’s Plan Product Update + AI Features webinar.
Ready to connect an AI assistant to your shop’s data? Contact us to ask about API and MCP server access for Midnight or Printer’s Plan.