Charging for use of the Printer

[congo5]

We allow Touring Companies use of a group of Computers (4). The Computers are linked to two computer, Mono + Colour.

 

We've tried everything to Charge them for use. is there any software anyone can reccomend that charge for use of a printer or a way that when they print

it sends an email to use or an invoice etc.

 

Many thanks in Advance

 

Tom

[Bryson]

Put your rental rates up by an appropriate amount. (Like, $3 per day, maybe?) Anything else will just be a hassle. Printing is a cost of doing business - treat it as such and include it in your general overheads.

[congo5]

Put your rental rates up by an appropriate amount. (Like, $3 per day, maybe?) Anything else will just be a hassle. Printing is a cost of doing business - treat it as such and include it in your general overheads.

 

 

We also offer Reprograhical services, but we can only offord to open the center until 2pm. most touring companies come in around 3pm. If anyone knows any software, please let me know.

 

I take what you said onboard, however we would like to keep our costs at a minimum.

[Bryson]

Bear in mind that software solutions have an ongoing cost in terms of support, billing and the general time you spend explaining why you're such a tightass why you charge for printing in the first place.

 

Joking aside, I'm deadly serious. The companies coming to your venue are probably paying several hundred, possibly several thousand pounds for the use of the venue. Are you really going to begrudge them 3 quid's worth of printing? I would find that embarrassing and worth a hell of lot more than 3 pounds in lost goodwill.

 

I know printing costs add up over the year, but in the grand scheme of things, then is it really worth it?

[the kid]

What are they printing? dont they have all they need?

 

But I'm sure you could network the printers to your office and charge that way.

[Jivemaster]

All the webcafes that I use charge you per page for printing so it is possible, -walk into a web cafe and ask them, or visit "TheRegister" webforum and ask for advice.

 

What scale of printing are you thinking of? colour pictures or pages of text. Possibly your printer has a page counter somewhere in the menu.

 

For occasional office use you could simply build the charge into the room hire fee, for thousands of pages of words and pictures then a counter may be a better option.

[Andrew C]

I suppose there is a question of scale; is it printing out a running order or two, or full colour fliers by the thousand, plus re-prints of a 150 page script?

 

There is software, but I doubt that it really warrants the set-up (of those I've looked at, all singing, all dancing linked to AD etc) As above, talk to your local internet cafe.

[AndyJones]

The immediate problem I see is that even if you get some sort of fancy software that tries to charge for printing, what stops touring personnel simply just unplugging the USB lead from the computer, and plugging it into there own laptops?

 

AndyJones

[Bryson]

If you must, your printer should have a page counter. Assign a cost per page, read the counter when they arrive and when they leave. Add the cost to the contra.

 

I still think it'll cost more money in staff time than you'll make.

[paulears]

I'm quite used to venues squeezing every last penny from visiting companies. Internet access at £50 a week, photocopies at extortionate rates - the year before last years panto cost the company hundreds of pounds in simple photocopying of extra scripts. Last year I bought a laser printer/copier from petty cash. It was quite cheap and I used £50 worth of toner - result! Not as quick as a clever copier, but what are ASMs for? (sorry).

 

Telephone calls all re-prefixed and recharged. I now travel with a portable office - printer copiers, computers, wireless 3G thingies and am fully self-contained.

 

Venue are attempting to re-charge as much as they possibly can. Extras that just a few years ago would have been included.

[bruce]

what stops touring personnel simply just unplugging the USB lead from the computer, and plugging it into there own laptops?

There are ways round that one. They usually involve putting the printer directly on the network, disabling the USB port in software, restricting the addresses that can print to it, and then locking the menus.

 

Or araldite.

 

Seriously, don't go there. Unless you're in an internet-cafe-type environment, or school/university/etc, the costs will be prohibitive. Just add a nominal sum to the hire. Treat it like electricity, or coffee, or any other consumable.

 

Are you really going to bill them 20 pence for printing out half a dozen pages?

 

I work in an environment where controlled/charged printing is a must. But it probably adds around 700 pounds to the cost of every printer, and a considerable management overhead.

[congo5]

Thanks for the Suggestions, However I have found the Answer

 

PAPERCUT

 

http://www.papercut.com/

 

Which is FREE

[bruce]

free if you have less than 5 users. And fairly trivial to bypass (unless you use the araldite trick)

[dbuckley]

PCounter is very good, but its a long way from free

[madorangepanda]

My university have spent a lot of time and effort in trying to charge for printing. In the current system you have to log on at a "print release station" by the printer. Supposedly only the print release station can authorise print jobs.

 

But a couple of minutes in an empty cluster room and me and a friend worked out how to bypass the system.

 

 

Things like this only work in an environment where you can constantly watch the printer.