A common question that I receive is whether there is a way to accurately track copying and printing usage by individual users, departments or billable customers. The account tracking feature will require each user to provide a valid numeric password in order to use the equipment. Subsequently the copier will then track the usage by each password. This feature is especially helpful in offices where multiple companies or divisions share a copier and wish to divide the service/supply costs and also in law firms where there is the need to bill customers for the printing done on their behalf. Many customers have also found that by requiring passwords they will discourage employees from making long runs of color copies for personal use.
Many brands of business copiers allow you to enable Account Tracking
Once enabled Account Tracking will ask each user to input their numeric password each time they wish to make a copy or scan. When printing from a computer there is the option to have the password embedded in the printer properties so that the password doesn’t need to be manually entered each time a print job is executed. Another option is to setup account tracking so that whenever a user selects the “print” command a box pops up requiring a password in order to send the job to the printer. The prompt is helpful if you have a computer that supports multiple end users and also when there is a desire to code print jobs to various customer files or departments.
When account tracking is enabled the multifunction copier-printer will individually track the amount of color copies made by each user, the amount of black copies made by each user and the amount of scans made by each user. The person with Administrative Rights to the copier can view the usage log either at the machine itself or by logging in to the web interface that accesses the copier. Further the administrator has the ability to download the user log and even import it directly into an Excel Spreadsheet to create monthly billing and activity reports. The administrator can easily add and delete billing codes and passwords and can reset the usage logs at the beginning of each month or whenever a billing code is no longer needed.
Account Track features at a glance;
- Eliminate unauthorized use of your multifunction copier-printer
- Track copy. printing and scanning use to separate billing by individual user, department or billing code
- Track individual usage to discourage personal use of expensive color printing
- Export usage report into Excel Spreadsheet for easy billing by specific department or billing codes
In summary, the Account Tracking feature will allow you to control who is using your multifunction copier and exactly what that user is printing. Account tracking will allow multiple companies to accurately divide the expense from their copy and printing usage and it will allow law firms to track copies, prints and scans by each individual case to streamline the billing to each client.
