Windows Print Spooler monitoring
[pages sent to print] | At scheduled intervals, monitors every print sent directly from a workstation to a printer via IP address, USB, or any other connection type. 
Only reports data from Windows spooler actively monitored by the agent!
Requires YSoft SafeQ Local Monitor service installed on the workstation / print server, available for Microsoft Windows NT4, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 2003/2003R2/2008/2008R2/2012 Server (all editions). Supports both 32bit and 64bit Windows platforms. The YSoft SafeQ license must include Local Monitor type device. Tracks the number of pages sent to print for any print job. Tracks BW and simplex per print job. Number of pages, BW/color, and simplex/duplex are read from Microsoft Windows Print Spooler without any changes made by the YSoft SafeQ Local Monitor service or by YSoft SafeQ. Properly functioning and configured Microsoft Windows Print Spooler service is required. Each job is accounted as A4 paper size regardless of the size of the paper currently used. Optionally, YSoft PCL parser integrated to YSoft SafeQ Local Monitor service can be switched on to increase print tracking accuracy for PCL5/PCLXL/HPGL2 print jobs. Enabling the YSoft PCL parser is recommended when YSoft SafeQ Local Monitor service runs on Windows Print server. With this configuration Local Monitor tracks BW/color and simplex/duplex per print job. If the job was printed to a file, information about BW/color and simplex/duplex is not available due to limitations of Microsoft Windows Print Spooler. All pages in that type of job are accounted as BW and simplex.
This method will not provide fully accurate report about all printed pages, due to the technology limitation and the fact that it only measures pages that has been released from particular workstation, not taking into account neither status of the device, its real output, nor other un-monitored prints.
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YSoft SafeQ
offline print accounting
[pages sent to print] | Monitors every print routed from a workstation to a networked printer via the YSoft SafeQ server in real-time, prior to printing.
Only reports print jobs routed via YSoft SafeQ server! With YSoft SafeQ, the YSoft SafeQ license must include the Offline Accounting option. If the license does not include Offline Accounting, it is not possible to select the Offline Accounting method for a device and all devices configured for offline accounting will be switched to no accounting as soon as the expiration of the license is detected. Available for any LPR capable system. Uses PCL [Y Soft] and/or PostScript [GhostScript] data analyzers. Tracks the number of A4/letter BW/color pages and A3/legal/tabloid BW/color pages and duplex usage for all pages sent to print for any PCL5+, PostScript, and HPGL2 print jobs. Optionally tracks per-page print area coverage and estimated usage of C,M,Y,K toners (based on job analysis). Monitoring printed pages, and especially their quality and color use, may slightly differ from the current output and information accounted by the printer, because printers can use different processing algorithms. The print job is always accounted completely, even if only part of it has been printed (for example if the user aborts the printing on the MFP panel).
This method will not provide fully accurate report about all printed pages, due to the technology limitation and the fact that it only measures pages that has been released from particular workstation, not taking into account neither status of the device, its real output, nor other un-monitored prints .
Example: A color page printed on a BW printer is printed as BW but accounted as a color page.
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YSoft SafeQ online print accounting
[pages really printed] | Monitors every print routed from a workstation to a networked printer via YSoft SafeQ in real-time, after printing is complete.
Only reports print jobs routed via YSoft SafeQ server! Documents routed directly to the printer may be reported as "anonymous prints" With YSoft SafeQ, the YSoft SafeQ license must include the Online Accounting option. If the license does not include Online Accounting, it is not possible to select the Online Accounting method for a device and all devices configured for online accounting will be switched to no accounting as soon as the expiration of the license is detected. Available for any LPR capable system. Available for any printer listed in the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).
Tracks the number of pages that have been really printed by the network printer. Using this method, the tracking accuracy is typically 95-98 per cent. Even with this method, YSoft SafeQ is unable to identify origin of various printed pages, such as: service pages, printer status pages, pages originated from printer web or USB drive, pages printed directly to the printer IP address, incoming FAX pages and pages copied without authentication. In order to achieve greater accuracy, it is important to follow the change management procedures when adding, moving or changing individual tracked devices and limit outputs without identifiable source. Tracked information varies per printer, but can include total number of impressions, total number of BW/color impressions (3-tiers where supported), total number of small (A5/A4/letter) and large (A3/11x17/tabloid) pages, duplex usage. Online accounting disables the MFP's multitasking capabilities (because with this accounting method, only one user at a time can operate the MFP). With online accounting, there is a delay of a few seconds between every printed document because of the accounting mechanism. The average network response speed from the printer to the server on SNMP query must be less than 200ms. Limitation: When printing duplex job with blank pages, for example 1BW page + 1 blank page + 1BW page, blank pages could be unconsidered and job could be accounted as BW duplex despite the fact that there are really two simplex BW pages. This depends on current MFP counters behaviour and how it handles blank pages, so it varies by MFP model and vendor.
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YSoft SafeQ online print batch accounting
[pages really printed] | Equivalent to standard online accounting. With YSoft SafeQ, the YSoft SafeQ license must include the Online Accounting option. If the license does not include Online Accounting, it is not possible to select the Online Accounting method for a device and all devices configured for online accounting will be switched to no accounting as soon as the expiration of the license is detected. The YSoft SafeQ system sends all queued documents to the network printer and provides output tracking/accounting for the entire batch instead of per individual document. This method is significantly faster when printing multiple print jobs for the same user and project; however it is not supported if per-document billing (based on credit/quotas) is required. One limitation is that for mixed (simplex/duplex) jobs, YSoft SafeQ is unable to correctly recognize usage of duplex.
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Device dependent accounting
[pages really printed] | At scheduled intervals, monitors every print routed from a workstation to a networked printer via the YSoft SafeQ server. With YSoft SafeQ, the YSoft SafeQ license must include the Device dependent accounting option. If the license does not include Device dependent accounting, it is not possible to select the Device dependent accounting method for a device and all devices configured for device dependent accounting will be switched to no accounting as soon as the expiration of the license is detected. (Some embedded terminals will be automatically reinstalled.) All accounting information received from MFPs is ignored. Available for any LPR capable system. Works only with PCL jobs with PJL headers and PostScript 2/3 jobs. Available only for the following devices (verify by checking the YSoft SafeQ HCL): Fuji Xerox MFPs with Accounting Logs option. Konica Minolta MFPs with OpenAPI3 account maps. Ricoh ESA with SDK4, 7 or 10. Sharp MFPs with OSA (MX-AMX3) module. Toshiba MFPs with Open Platform SDK. Xerox MFPs with Network Accounting (JBA) kit including 3-tier billing.
Incompatible with YSoft SafeQ external (hardware) terminals.
Tracks the number of pages that have been really printed by the network printer. Using this method, the tracking accuracy is typically 95-98 per cent. Even with this method, YSoft SafeQ is unable to identify origin of various printed pages, such as: service pages, printer status pages, pages originated from printer web or USB drive, pages printed directly to the printer IP address, incoming FAX pages and pages copied without authentication. In order to achieve greater accuracy, it is important to follow the change management procedures when adding, moving or changing individual tracked devices and limit outputs without identifiable source. Tracked information varies per printer, but can include total number of impressions, total number of BW/color impressions (3 tiers where supported), total number of small (A5/A4/letter/legal) and large (A3/11x17/tabloid/ledger) pages, duplex usage. 
You may have also seen the older term, "vendor-provided accounting".
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