USA Practical Accounting for a Printing Company??

[lmh0613]

I recently took on a printing & engraving client. I am partly consulting regarding bookkeeping and Quickbooks because the books have never been very organized or clean. I realized last time I was there that inventory is not being tracked well at all, but I can also see why. It seems extremely difficult to track inventory (paper/ink) on an ongoing job-specific basis. The company is small, and so I am not looking for accounting regulation information so much as advice on ways to do practical accounting in this kind of situation. How can you keep your inventory and job-costing fairly accurate and up to date in a way that's not cost-prohibitive time-wise (so many minuscule supplies that each have their own cost that are used up on jobs in such vastly different ways.) Any advice/experience to offer?? Thanks!