Printing quotas and permissions

O&K Print Watch is a print control tool that combines the most useful features of popular print monitors and also adds a lot of new options. In addition to its extended print auditing capabilities, O&K Print Watch enables system administrators to restrict printing by corporate users based on various parameters. For example, the administrators can set limits on the number of pages, the cost of consumables, and paper format. They can also disallow one-side printing and/or color printing.

O&K Print Watch provides a flexible system of limits and quotas easily configurable via the application’s user-friendly interface, which makes it a perfect all-in-one print control solution. You can apply limits and quotas to individual users or to user groups in the corporate network. Among other things, this feature allows you to efficiently audit printers located in different departments of your company, taking into account each department’s specializations and common tasks.

For example, when configuring limits and quotas for different user groups, the system administrator should keep in mind that accountants in the Accounts Department and stylists in the Design Department use printing equipment very differently. However, users in the company network may belong to different user groups, and some limits and quotas may apply to all users in the company. Particularly, you can disallow printing of any files whose names contain specific character combinations.

Let’s take a look at an example that shows how O&K Print Watch controls document printing. Say, you need to limit the number of pages printed by a specific user in the corporate network. To do it, open the main menu of O&K Print Watch. In the general list of printers, computers, and network users, which is located on the application window’s left panel, find the user name. Right-click the name to open the context menu, so that you can access the user’s personal settings, and switch to the “Printing Quotas” tab. Now set a limit on the number of pages that the user can print within a specific time period. For example, 50 pages a day. In the same way, you can set a weekly or monthly limit.

Using the same menu (“Quotas”), you can define an action to be applied to a document sent to print when the specified quota is exceeded. Two options are available:

In the second case, the administrator won’t have to do anything at all: The application will automatically take a decision based on the specified quotas.

O&K Print Watch has another valuable feature: It allows you to set limits on color printing and paper format. For example, you can disallow the use of color printers for the “Accounts Department” user group in order to save expensive color toner, because most financial documents look fine in black and white. As a result, even if color printers are available in your company, the accountants won’t be able to use them without the administrator’s permission. You can also set limits based on paper format. For example, you can allow the accountants to use only the A4 and Letter formats. It means that these users won’t be able to use any wide-format printers or plotters connected to your local network.

O&K Print Watch has yet another useful feature: You can define the estimated cost of printing consumables via the application’s interface. Particularly, you can specify the approximate cost of one printed page or set daily, weekly, or monthly quotas on the cost of consumable materials for specific users, user groups, or the whole company. This feature is especially valuable for companies that use expensive consumables, such as high-quality photographic paper or special cartridges for color printers.

In addition to specifying the average cost of a printed page, you can create a flexible system of markups and discounts. For example, after defining the base cost, you can set markups for wide-format or color printing, and discounts for monochrome or duplex printing. Besides, to save paper, you can totally disallow one-side printing for certain users or user groups.

If used efficiently, the system of limits and quotas will save you a lot of consumables. As a bottom line, O&K Print Watch can save a lot of money for your company. Moreover, you can configure the application in such a way that all specified limits will be applied automatically, without the system administrator’s intervention. O&K Print Watch also provides “manual control,” meaning that the administrator can take an allow/disallow decision in each case.