Toner inventory Database

[RabbieBurns]

I was just about to knock up a stock control MS Access database for our toner supplies.. But figured someone must have done this already...

 

Has anyone got one they would be willing to share please?

Edited August 26, 2010 by RabbieBurns

[webman]

I'm currently working on something like that for my degree project, using PHP/MySQL. Will let you know once it's finished.

[Flakes]

GLPI Helpdesk and inventory has one built in, put your toners into the Cartridges Inventory, and list your printers in the Printer Inventory, you then can say which toners are compatible with each printer then add and remove stock and, "install" cartridges into printers. its a really nice system, think ive made it sound more complicated than it actually is. GLPI - Gestionnaire libre de parc informatique

[CyberNerd]

database is a bit overkill?

We use a google docs spreadsheet/form.

[dgsmith]

I just have a printed list in the office with amount of each in stock, and when I use a cartridge reduce the number by 1. When I get to 0 I know there aren't any left. Keep it simple =)

[Flakes]

database is a bit overkill?

We use a google docs spreadsheet/form.

 

Think it depends on the size of the business/school, on a small scale it is overkill in a school with lots of printers it makes sense.

 

ours is set up to email a warning when stock of any toner gets to 2, then a new order is put in place. very useful.

[RabbieBurns]

We have a spreadsheet just now but its becoming unmanageable. Have 2 campuses to look after too.

 

Will have a look at your suggestion tomorrow, cheers flakes.

[Cache]

I started using GLPI since I needed to get a new asset management system anyway. If you go into all the details of it, handy for linking to suppliers and pricing to keep an extra track of things, but I'm only just starting with that.

[IKWeb]

I'm currently working on something like that for my degree project, using PHP/MySQL. Will let you know once it's finished.

 

I would be very interested to take a look at this when you have finished it, or even test it if you want feedback.

[localzuk]

I just have a printed list in the office with amount of each in stock, and when I use a cartridge reduce the number by 1. When I get to 0 I know there aren't any left. Keep it simple =)

 

How do you keep track of individual printer costs, to know if a model is costing a huge amount more than others?

[mac_shinobi]

I'm currently working on something like that for my degree project, using PHP/MySQL. Will let you know once it's finished.

 

Let me know as well - would be good

[maniac]

I have an in house solution that latches into our assets management which was also written by me in house, all PHP and SQL based. Anything on the assets database marked as a printer automatically appears in the toner management system, and then you can tell it what consumables each type of printer needs - you only have to do this once for each model.

 

Whenever you change a toner in a printer, get the asset number off the back, look it up on the list, click change toner - if it's a colour one there's an additional step to select which one, job done! It knocks one of the stock file and logs a toner change against that printer. It's dead handy for seeing how much toner a particular printer gets through.

 

On the front screen it alerts us to low stock scinarios, which it does by looking at the history of toner changes for that cartridge type, ad the number of printers requiring that cartridge and estimating how many we need in stock to cover us for the next 4 weeks - if there's less than 4 weeks worth in stock it alerts us. It's not 100% accurate yet, I'm still tweeking the algorithm for this. There's also a simple booking in system for when we get deliveries and a stock checking system as well.

 

Does the job for us!

 

Mike.

[CyberNerd]

 

ours is set up to email a warning when stock of any toner gets to 2, then a new order is put in place. very useful.

 

Good Idea! I might write a script so our Google spreadsheet sends an email...

 

we do have 50 odd printers, but I didn't really notice it being difficult to manage. Would be interested in the php/mysql as well.

[CyberNerd]

 

Good Idea! I might write a script so our Google spreadsheet sends an email....

 

Thinking aloud, I could probably get the spreadsheet to automatically generate an order requisition, and email it to our finance team as soon as the toner stock gets low.

Theres loads of info about these scripts here:

Spreadsheet Services - Google Apps Script - Google Code

 

/enthusiasm

[maniac]

I will share my PHP/MYSQL creation if anyone wants it, but it was never written for distribution and was developed in situ on the system it's currently running on, so there's a lot of references that point directly to parts of our system, very sloppy programming, but it works for us and I've never been bothered to go through and tidy the code up. Therefore it would be an absolute nightmare to get working on any other configuration.

[p858snake]

I will share my PHP/MYSQL creation if anyone wants it, but it was never written for distribution and was developed in situ on the system it's currently running on, so there's a lot of references that point directly to parts of our system, very sloppy programming, but it works for us and I've never been bothered to go through and tidy the code up. Therefore it would be an absolute nightmare to get working on any other configuration.

Share it anyway, People might fix it up and make it more flexible (depending on what license you give it).

[tmcd35]

database is a bit overkill?

We use a google docs spreadsheet/form.

 

LOL, I have a box in the server room were we dump the empties. Every half term I go through the box and order whatever is in there. No need of databases, spreadsheets or google docs forms

[RabbieBurns]

LOL, I have a box in the server room were we dump the empties. Every half term I go through the box and order whatever is in there. No need of databases, spreadsheets or google docs forms

 

Wow. We have a box of empty toners that we send to the recyclers every other friday ;p

[webman]

Print Master is now available for download.

 

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_hb6RYM32rvs/TJSVTvlqnBI/AAAAAAAADEU/A7IXMPrzme8/s400/dashboard.png

[IKWeb]

Stupid question how can i download this in one go? it lists the files one by one, which will take a while to grab. and the file path http://github.com/craigrodway/printmaster.git comes back with an error says file cant be found.

 

:confused:

[localzuk]

Stupid question how can i download this in one go? it lists the files one by one, which will take a while to grab. and the file path http://github.com/craigrodway/printmaster.git comes back with an error says file cant be found.

 

:confused:

 

Click the 'Download source' button in the top right of the page.

[webman]

Sorry, should have mentioned how to get it as a ZIP file Thanks localzuk.

[dgsmith]

Interesting project webman - very neat looking too. Will be giving this a whirl on Monday. I noticed at the bottom a "todo" of adding SNMP for printers - definately would be worthwhile. If this can also be used to track not only what consumables are available, but what are needed it's definately something that'll be worthwhile. Good work.

[john]

Looks nice and shiny well done mate Will point Pete to it next week if its quieter than the last 2 as it may help his stock control

[dgsmith]

What's the best way of importing the sql file without phpmyadmin? I have the mysql query and administrator installed though. Is there a command line? Google searching hasn't turned up anything useful..