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Billing for Printing and Copies

I¹ve been watching the discussion on billing for lasers, colour outputs, etc. How does everyone track these costs? We used to have a sheet taped to the table beside the printer and asked designers etc to record their outputs by docket number å not very scientific and no way of knowing what is missed.

We have created a task for this å do you record the costs as PO¹s? Do the designer¹s do it? I wouldn¹t want to ask designers to use Accounts Payable!

Has anyone heard if any of the high quality high speed printers (like Canon, etc) have software in the printer set ups that allow the job to be charged to a job ticket during the print set up process?

Thanks,

Liz Love CSG Inc

Over the years I have tracked this type of information in many different ways. The way I like best and feel covers our costs completely, is as follows:

1. I read the meter on the machines at the end of each month. This tell me how many copies have been made. I deduct 20-25% for office copies.

2. I list the cost of each machine monthly (lease/pmt).

3. I add all the hard costs and the copies @.60 for black & white and 2.00 ea for color together and divide this total by client by revenue per month. The client with the highest revenue absorbs the higher cost.

I also watch the costs for paper to make sure my per page cost covers the cost of the paper.

I love it because its easy and you can be sure that all your costs are being covered.

Just a thought.

Jo Dee Massanari Controller Fuel

We have a color Cannon copier and it keeps track of all copies. You can program it with code numbers corresponding to clients or you can have the AD or Designer input the job number into the file. Works great.

Also, our Canon copier will track client numbers as long as you program that into it.

Mary McMurtrey

Use the "expense module". No cost just a charge for each copy.

Roxanne Cowan

We have a computer hooked up to the phone system with TAPIT phone tracking software. Every time you make an outgoing call you have to enter a call and you can print a report on demand that totals the call per client. For copies, printer and color copies- we just bought a Konica copier/printer that has a terminal attached to it. You have to enter the client code before you do your copying. For printers you are prompted for a code every time you send something into the print cue. And using Equitrac which is tracking software that Konica provided us with you can print a report that details copier, color copier, fax and printer usage. You can actually set a different cost per copy use for each printer/ copier. We have been using it for approx 3 months now and it has worked for us much better than depending on people to write down every time the do something. We figured the addt'l billing would pay for the cost. If you are interested in getting more info I can get our Konica rep's phone # from the office manager.

elaine ucciferri accounting manager H A R P E L L

We have a task for Color Outputs. Each designer enters their own as an internal charge.

Tina Hawkins Fricks/Firestone Advertising

MacLaser software from David Mars, Bristol & Deimos Joint Venture - Developers of MacLaser Biller Software (www.maclaser.com)

David Mars

We have a Fiery printer which keeps track of the names of files printed, quantity, size, color or B/W, and date. We require designers to title thier documents starting with the job number. The office manager pulls this report mid-month and before billing then inputs the prints in Internal Charges within expenses. In the expense table you can set up standard gross prices each and the cost to accrue for each for profitability reports. You can set up different prices for size, color, etc.

Our other printers don't have this report capability so we just have the standard log sheet next to the printer and the office manager inputs the prints the same way.

By using the internal charges/ expense feature your prints don't effect Gross profit...

Angela Lawrence