HL-3450CN
FAQs & Troubleshooting |
Brother printers that use the optional HD-6G/HD-EX or Compact Flash memory can record job accounting information. This job accounting information can be viewed using a standard web browser or loaded into the Brother Analysis Tool software which can analyze the costs of your network connected Brother printers. There are three steps to using this feature.
Step 1: Formatting the Printer Hard Disc and Enabling the Job Log Feature
Having installed the optional HD-6G/HD-EX or Compact Flash memory into the printer, you must ensure that the printer is configured to save job data. If you do not configure this option, job data will not be recorded and it will be impossible to analyze printing costs. However, before you do that, make sure that the HD-6G/HD-EX or Compact Flash memory is formatted.
Formatting the HD-6G/HD-EX or Compact Flash Memory
Enabling the Job Log Feature
Having formatted the HD-6G/EX/Compact Flash memory, now you must ensure that the printer is configured to record the job accounting data. To do this, launch your web browser and connect to the printer. The printer homepage should display an icon indicating that the HDD or Compact Flash memory is installed. If you do not see any icon, make sure that you have formatted the HDD/Compact Flash memory.
The printer is now configured to store job accounting data to the optionally install HDD or Compact Flash memory.
Step 2: Retrieving the Job Accouting information using a web browser
Having formatted the printer hard disc and enabled the job accouting option, you must now retrieve the data from the printer hard disc. To do this, launch your web browser and connect to the printer. The printer homepage should display an icon indicating that the HDD or Compact Flash memory is installed. If you do not see an icon, make sure that you format the HDD/Compact Flash memory.
Select the 'View Print Log' option and then click the 'CSV (all)' option.
You MUST specify the 'CSV (all)' option if you wish to use the Brother Analysis Tool software.
By selecting the 'CSV (all)' option the printer will extract all data from the printer log and allow you to save it to your hard disc as a CSV file. This file can then be loaded into the Brother Analysis Tool software for later analysis. Click here for more information on loading the CSV file into the Brother Analysis Tool software.
Viewing the Information in other formats
If you select the 'HTML' option, you can view the job accouting information as formatted HTML. You can also view the information as a text file (TXT) or as a CSV file.
Step 3: Analyzing the print data using the Brother Analysis Tool Software
Having extracted the job accounting data to your PC hard disc, you are now able to load that data into the Brother Analysis Tool software for analysis. To learn how to do this, refer to the following:
Calculating the Cost Per Copy
If you wish to analyze the printing cost, select the User Settings | Configure option and then select the 'Costing' tab. Specify the currency you will use along with the model of printer. You must then enter the costs for the consumables available for that printer.
When you have entered the consumable costs, click 'OK' and the Brother Analysis Tool software will calculate the printing costs for all documents submitted to the printer. The data will be displayed in the 'Cost of Print Job' column which you can see by scrolling to the far right of the data in the main view.