Departmental Printer Accounting Service

Heather Stevens

 

Have you ever wondered why you go through so much printer paper and toner? Are you interested in recovering some of those costs? SSNDS has recently upgraded the print management software in our student computing rooms. This software allows students to pay for their printing using the same debit cards that they use for printing and photocopying elsewhere on campus. This same software can also be used to both monitor and pay for printing on departmental printers.

A staff member who acts as a cashier for her department collects money from users and applies it to the user’s account. When the user sends print jobs to the designated printer, the user account is debited on a per page basis and the printing is released to the printer. If the user’s account does not have sufficient funds, then the print job is not printed. Departments have the option of starting off their users with a balance and once that is depleted, users can then add money to their printing account through the department cashier. Users can review their printing and deposit history through the web.

If you just want to keep track of printer usage for your department, the software can be set up for a printer without applying any charge for printing. Numerous reports can be generated by the software which can be used to charge after the fact or to simply keep track of printing costs and supplies.

If you are interested in monitoring or charging for printing in your department, please contact Heather Stevens (hstevens@uwo.ca, ext. 82152).