by Diana L. Martin
Cutting costs is at the top of every business owner’s list - especially during the past year when revenue has been so drastically reduced. Supplies purchased for internal use can put a bite into the budget. One way to lower office expenditures is to be smart about how and when you print documents. Making a few simple adjustments and implementing them for all your office printers can positively impact your bottom line.
Here are six ways you can save money on your ink and toner purchases.
PRINT ONLY WHEN NECESSARY
Not everything needs to be printed. Whenever practical, save the file as a PDF to your desktop, where it is easily accessible and viewable.
PRINT ONLY IN BLACK
Color cartridges are expensive. If you print everything in color, you'll go through your ink and toner very quickly. Just as not everything needs to be printed, not everything needs to be in color. In fact, if you analyze your daily prints, you'll probably find that most documents can be printed in black only without any detriment. Set the default on all your employees' printers to black and have them change the individual print to color when needed.
PRINT IN DRAFT MODE
Your printer has multiple printing modes, each of which uses a different amount of ink or toner. Documents printed for internal use or things like packing lists, customer receipts and emails don't need to be high quality and should be printed in Draft mode. Making Draft mode the default on all your printers will save you money. You can manually change the setting as necessary for specific documents.
CHOOSE THE CORRECT TYPE OF PAPER
Your print options dialog box allows you to specify the type of paper you're printing on and this setting should not be ignored. The type of paper indicated in this box tells your printer how much ink or toner it needs to use to print the document. Most normal documents will be printed on plain, 20 lb. copier/printer paper (a.k.a bond paper), which uses the least amount of ink. Your default should be set to this type of paper and then you manually change it to other types that use more ink/toner (card stock, labels, etc.) as you need to use those types.
BUY HIGH YIELD CARTRIDGES
If the print count is high in your office, you should be using high yield cartridges. Yes, they cost more than standard yield cartridges but you will get more prints out of them before you need to replace them, which in turn saves you money. You buy in bulk at a warehouse club because the per piece price of the larger package is a significant savings over the per piece price of the smaller package. The same concept applies to ink and toner.
BUY GENERIC CARTRIDGES
If you're comfortable using remanufactured or compatible cartridges, you can save quite a bit of money. The trade off is the possibility of inferior products - all generic inks and toners are not created equal. Remanufactured cartridges are OEM housings that have been cleaned, had new components installed inside and were refilled with non-OEM ink. Compatible cartridges are brand new, but made by a third party company. The new housing is designed to be compatible with an OEM. The internal components are also newly manufactured by the third party company. Quality of remanufactured or compatible toners tends to be inconsistent, so you want to stay with well-known manufacturers. OEM manufacturers will try to scare you into buying only OEM by implying or saying that it will void your warranty if you use non-OEM cartridges but this is not only untrue, it is ILLEGAL. They cannot void your warranty because you didn't use their ink/toner.
Following these basic steps can help you reduce your printing expenditures. Call us with any other questions you may have - 877-795-2600 - we’re here to help!