Atlantic Print Audit is a highly customizable and very flexible print management solution that can fulfill the needs of businesses of all sizes.

Advantages

• Easy to install and configure the software, usually less than 4 hours. The solution is compatible with Novell Netware, Windows 2003 and Linux operating systems. Client software is compatible with windows 2000 and XP, and the Macintosh OS X operating system
• Client software can easily be pushed out to all workstations and tracks every print/copy/scan job, even those sent to a locally connected device.
• Does not require a server, simply requires a networked PC.
• User friendly, easy to use recovery system
• Invisible to end users and requires little or no training
• Software automatically detects all hardware and adds it to the database
• Superb customized report writing capability to show device utilization at peak and off peak times, as well as detailed activity by user, department and client billing code.

Atlantic Print Audit is a cost accounting and print management utility. The solution is designed for companies to monitor and limit the number of copies, prints, faxes and scans employees can make, and establish a rules-based print management plan to reduce printing costs.

There are three software modules in Atlantic Print Audit:

1. Recovery, Analysis and Reduction. Recovery is a cost accounting and chargeback tool that automates the process of billing clients for printing and copying.
2. Analysis is a document and job accounting tool that gives users an accurate picture of their print volumes and helps them to optimize their printing infrastructure.
3. Reduction is a job routing tool that enables administrators-to implement printing rules for employees, enforce individual printing limits and redirect expensive jobs to more efficient devices.

Atlantic Print Audit is nearly transparent for employees (it can run in the background) and is easy for administrators to use. The solution offers flexible authentica­tion: it can require employees to log in each time they print or authenticate them automatically upon network login. For walk-up jobs at an MFP or scanner, employees can log in at a stand alone terminal located near the MFP.
If a business bills departments/locations/clients for printing and copying expenses, Atlantic Print Audit's Recovery module can handle this task. Administrators simply create a list of department/location/client accounts, and after users print documents from their PCs, a pop-up window asks them to select the appropriate department/location/client; this information is then recorded and sent over the network to the firm's time and billing system.

Atlantic Print Audit includes two reporting tools that help users to understand and analyze their printing output. These tools let users design customized reports and export files according to the requirements of their existing accounting and reporting systems

More than 37 reports are available that break usage down by date, device, individual user or client account, to name a few. The reports can be customised to suit an organisation's specific needs and exported in several formats, including PDF XLS, XML and CSV. Atlantic Print Audit administrator and reporting tools can be installed onto any computer in the environment, allowing for central­ized reporting and administration.

How It Works
The management utilities for Atlantic Print Audit can be installed on any computer attached to the local network. This computer does not have to be a server, although the management utilities can be installed on a server if desired. After installing Atlantic Print Audit, administrators can push Print Audit Client software out to all the other workstations on the network, without end users knowing that, their print output is being monitored.

Atlantic Print Audit collects data on print jobs sent from each workstation before the data goes over the network; using the locally installed Print Audit Client. After the client has been installed on all of an office's workstations, Atlantic Print Audit automatically recognizes printers and MFPs, both networked and locally con­nected devices. The client automatically registers devices in the database one by one as employees send jobs to print. This frees administrators from the time-consuming task of finding hardware, noting down the device details (loca­tion, model) and entering them into the system.

Atlantic Print Audit consists of three modules that can be combined, or used sepa­rately, to meet the needs of many different businesses. These could range from corporate offices that want to reduce printing expenses, to law firms that do client chargeback, to copier dealers monitoring who monitor their clients' usage.

The Recovery module, which also includes the output tracking capabilities of the analysis module, enables pop-up windows for each print job. Before employees can print, they are required to enter a department, location, client or job number, so the document can be charged to the appropriate account.

The Recovery pop-up window can be customized to record as much informa­tion as needed on each job for authentication and billing purposes: This could include a user PIN code, client or project code, paper type, cost per page, printing device and document name, as well as other custom fields that are defined by the administrator. Recovery_ can automatically record job attributes, or require users to enter the data themselves from pull-down menus. The pop-up window can be deactivated if required.

The Recovery module also allows administrators to assign users declining balances in order to help control printing costs. In this case, each employee is credited with a monetary balance, from which the cost of each subsequent job is subtracted. When employees print, the pop-up window can be configured to tell them how much each job will cost or prompt them to change the job to reduce the cost. Users could also be prompted to 'choose an-output device with a lower cost per page.

The Analysis module handles output tracking and includes the Print Audit Analysis Reporting and Job Manager utilities. This module saves all print tracking data in the Print Audit Database and lets users develop a variety of detailed reports. These can help locate under and over utilized printers, peak printing times and high-volume users. The database can be stored in Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL. Atlantic recommends SQL for larger installations.

Whenever an employee prints from a computer that has the Print Audit Client installed the Analysis module records up to 25 attributes in the database These attribute fields include network and computer user name, application, output device, port number, color or monochrome, paper size, paper type, number of pages (or square footage for plotters), document name, exact date and time of job, copies per job, cost per page and total job cost, as well as custom fields for other variables.

The Analysis Reporting and Job Manager utilities help administrators develop reports from information stored in the database to identify equipment inef­ficiencies and bottlenecks. The utilities let administrators divide printers and employees into groups: these could include departments, floors, individual offices, device type, device brand, etc… By grouping users or devices, companies can focus on high-level usage issues rather than individual printers or users, and let patters emerge from the data

For example, a company may have several printers on one floor of the office. It could combine those printers into a group called "4th floor" and generate reports based only on those printers. Likewise, the company could also create user groups for each of its 10 departments, and analyze and report on printing costs based on its own internal structure.                                                           

Color Printing Breakdown report: helps administrators manage expensive color output
The Reduction module facilitates Atlantic Print Audit's reduction capabilities, such as restricting color printing, requiring duplex printing and enforcing printing limits for specific devices. This rules-based system lets administrators force users to print to specific devices or prevent them from printing to others.

Reduction enables administrators to set up print rules for users who print on networked devices and even locally connected hardware: It can prevent, selected employees from printing in color or prevent black and' white printing on color devices. In addition, administrators can configure Reduction to allow only duplex printing from specific devices and applications.

Taken as a whole, Reduction does its job; in part by making employees aware that all printing is being monitored. Awareness is the best way to reduce printing costs, and this component is designed to help change employees’ attitudes.

An optional external hardware appliance, Copy Audit, is also available for Atlantic Print Audit. This device which is generally installed on or near MFPs, enables Atlantic Print Audit to track copy and fax transactions, and lets walk-up users authenticate themselves and select the appropriate account to bill for the job. It supports the same authentication options as the rest of the system.

Copy Audit comes with a plug-in for the standard Atlantic Print Audit management utility, which lets users configure the hardware appliance. Once Copy Audit has been configured, Print Audit stores information for copy jobs in the stan­dard Print Audit database. The Copy Audit device can be configured to disallow copying if a user fails to enter a user name or billing code.