The power behind PaperCut ChargeBack is its ability to report on printer usage in meaningful and useful way. In order to run reports, the PaperCut reports database must be generated first. The reasonsfor this, and instructions for doing so are explained in Chapter 6.

Access and HTML Reports

Since version 3.2, PaperCut ChargeBack allows you to generate reports in standard HTML, viewable in a web browser, or in MS Access. The same reports are provided in both HTML and Access format ¨C s o you do not require Access to view the reports, but if you do have Access installed, you are able to customise the reports to suit your needs.

The predefined reports

A predefined set of reports comes standard with PaperCut ChargeBack. When the Reports database is opened (in Ac cess, or HTML format), a form appears (Figures 18a and 18b) which allows these reports to be launched.

The following predefined reports are provided:

Custom reports (Access only)

Report customisation is possible if you have Microsoft Access installed. You may wish to customise the reports in two ways:

  1.Modify an existing report to use your organization's logo, fonts and/or stationery

  2.Create a new report to obtain information that is not available in the predefined reports

In both cases the recommended method for creating custom reports is the same:

  1.Generate the PaperCut reports database as explained in Chapter 6

  2.Create your custom report in that database. This enables you to create the report with real data collected form your s ystem.

  3.Export your new custom report to the reports template, which is found on the PaperCut primary server, so that when future reports databases are generated using the Report Generator, your custom report is included in the new database.

Step 3 is important if you wish to reuse your custom report. The Report Generator works by copying a reports template database from the primary server to the local computer, and importing ac count and job log data from each of the PaperCut servers. Thus, if you do not export your custom report to the reports template database, it will not appear in furture generated report databases.

The export processis outlined below. Your system administrator can help in this process.

  1.Copy the file PCEActTrk _Reports.mdb from the PCEData$ share from the primary server to a temporary directory your local hard drive.

  2.Remove the read-only file permis sions on the PCEActTrk_Reports.mdb file

  3. From within Microsoft Access, open your database that contains the custom report. Then select the report and export the report to the PCEActTrk_Reports file what was copied to a temporary directory on your hard drive in Step 1

  4.Repeat Step 3 for any other database objects (such as queries or forms) that your custom report depends on

  5.Copy back the PCEActTrk_Reports.mdb file to the primary server. This file will need to be copied back to the PCEData directory under the PaperCut installation on the primary server ¨C us ually c:\Program Files\PaperCut\PCEData. Your system administrator can assist in this process. (Note that the PCEData$ share is shared as read-only, so access to the primary server will be required.)

Tip:Be sure to c reate a backup of the PCEAc tTrk_Reports.mdb database so in case your custom reports version doesn't work , you can revert back to the original version.