Printing is one of those costs that hides in plain sight. The invoices arrive in small amounts – a toner here, a service call there, a new machine every few years – and nobody adds them up. When somebody finally does, the number is usually a shock.
The good news is that most of the waste is fixable without making everyone miserable. Here is how to bring it down, in order of how much difference each step makes.
Start with a print audit
You cannot cut what you have not measured. A print audit is simply finding out who prints what, how much, and on which device. Most modern printers report their own page counts and toner levels; for older ones, read the counters and ask people what they use them for.
The findings are usually the same: a few people do most of the printing, one device eats most of the toner, and a surprising amount of it is single-sided, black-and-white pages that did not need to be printed at all. That last point is where the easy savings sit.
Change the defaults, not the people
Telling staff to print less rarely works for long. Changing the printer defaults does, because it happens automatically every time.
- Duplex (double-sided) by default. Halves paper use on most documents. People can still print single-sided when they genuinely need to.
- Black and white by default. Colour toner costs several times more than black. Reserve colour for the jobs that actually need it.
- Two pages per sheet for internal drafts. Halves paper again on things nobody keeps.
- Pull printing. The job only prints when the person walks to the machine and taps their card. Roughly one in five print jobs is never collected – pull printing stops them being printed at all.
These four changes alone typically cut paper and toner by a third, with nobody noticing except the person ordering supplies.
Right-size the devices
The most expensive mistake is not the cheap desktop printer – it is the big multifunction sitting in the corner doing twenty pages a day. Heavy machines are built for volume; run them too lightly and the service calls, drums and fusers cost more per page than the machine is worth.
The other extreme is just as bad: a $120 desktop inkjet doing five hundred pages a month. Its cartridges are eye-wateringly expensive per page, and it will not last.
The fix is matching the machine to the real workload, which the audit tells you. A busy device wants a leased multifunction with a cost-per-page plan. A quiet corner wants a small, cheap-to-run laser. Getting rid of the machines in between is where the money is.
Consider managed print
Managed print means a supplier looks after the devices, the toner, the service and the reporting for a fixed per-page price. For most businesses above a handful of staff it works out cheaper than buying machines and supplies separately, for three reasons:
- The per-page price is known in advance, so the cost becomes predictable instead of lumpy.
- Toner arrives automatically when it is needed, so nobody runs out or stockpiles ten spare cartridges.
- The supplier has a reason to keep the machines working, because they are paid per page, not per repair.
The catch is the contract. Check the minimum page volume, the exit terms, and whether you are locked into particular machines. A good managed print agreement should save money from month one, not tie you into something you regret in year three.
To lease or to buy
Buying outright is simple and keeps the monthly figure at zero, but it dumps the whole cost into one year's budget and leaves you carrying the repair risk. Leasing spreads the cost, usually includes service, and lets you upgrade without another big outlay. For a machine doing real volume, leasing almost always works out better on cash flow; for a light-use device, buying a modest laser is usually the cheaper call.
What it adds up to
Put a typical small business through this process – audit, defaults, right-sizing, managed print on the busy device – and the printing bill generally comes down by thirty to fifty percent. Not by printing less, but by printing smarter and owning the right machines.
Bold Media Group supplies and manages printers and copiers for Australian businesses, and we start every conversation with a look at what you actually print before we recommend anything. If your printing costs have crept up, have a chat with us and we will show you where the money is going.