Copier service software: a buyer’s checklist

Start with your own workflow

Most poor software choices start with a demo rather than a list of problems. Before speaking to any supplier, map how work flows through your firm today, on one page:

1. How faults arrive: phone, email, customer, engineer, the machine itself.
2. How jobs are assigned and how engineers learn about them.
3. What the engineer records on site, and how it gets back to the office.
4. How meter readings are collected, checked and billed.
5. How toner is ordered and sent.
6. How invoices reach your accounts software and how payments are chased.

Then write down your five biggest problems, in order. “Readings are late every quarter” and “we cannot see what the engineer did on a job” are different problems with different solutions. The list becomes your scoring sheet for every product you look at.

The kinds of tool on the market

Software used by copier service firms falls into four broad groups. None is right for everyone.

Some products span more than one group. The question is not which group is best, but which combination covers your problem list without paying for a great deal you will never use.

Checklist: machines, meters and history

• Customers with several sites, and each site with several machines.
• Machines with make, model, serial number, asset ID and location in the building.
• Several meter types per machine (mono, colour, large format, scans), set per model.
• Readings from every source on one history: engineer, office, customer, remote monitoring.
• Validation: a reading lower than the last one, or far above normal use, held for checking rather than billed.
• The full service history of a machine on one screen, with parts fitted and time spent.
• Import of existing customers, sites and machines from a spreadsheet.

Checklist: contracts and click billing

• Contracts with rates per counter, included copies and what is covered (call-out, labour, travel, parts).
• A billing run that uses the machine’s meter readings and shows you the calculation and any warnings before you finalise it.
• Invoices that cannot be edited once issued, with corrections by credit note.
• Charges on service jobs from recorded labour, travel and parts, at the rates that applied when the job was logged.
• Quotes with approval by the customer, for work above a cost limit.
• Payment status, overdue lists and reminders.

Ask to see a billing run with a deliberate problem in it, such as a missing reading or a meter that went backwards. How the software handles the exception tells you more than how it handles the normal case. Our guide to meter billing mistakes lists the cases worth testing.

Checklist: monitoring and automation

• Which brands’ billing counters are read, not just the standard total.
• What the customer site needs: a PC that stays on, the device itself, or both.
• SNMPv3 support for secure networks, and outbound-only connections.
• Readings linked to machines automatically, by serial number.
• Alerts for jams, error codes and low toner, and how quickly they arrive.
• Whether a fault can open a service job by itself, with rules you control.
• Toner forecasting by days left, not only a percentage threshold.

If you already use a separate monitoring platform, ask exactly how readings will move from it into billing, how often, and what happens when the two systems disagree. See how remote meter reading works for the technical background.

Checklist: the engineer’s side

• Works without signal, keeping the real times of each step.
• Travel and labour time recorded from job status, not typed in afterwards.
• Parts from van stock, meter readings, photos and checklists on the job.
• Customer signature, or a recorded reason when there is none.
• A job sheet sent to the customer when the visit ends.
• Machine history and previous fixes for the same error code visible before setting off.
• Installed from an app store or used in the phone’s browser, and what that means for your devices.

Put the app in front of your most sceptical engineer during the trial. If they will not use it, the office will not get the data, and nothing else on this list matters.

Checklist: office and customers

• A service desk showing unassigned jobs, jobs waiting for parts and visits waiting for review.
• Priorities and response targets, with jobs at risk visible.
• Office review of completed visits before billing, with an audit log of changes.
• A customer portal where customers see their machines, calls and invoices, and report faults or order toner.
• Fault reporting by QR label on the machine, without an account.

Checklist: accounts and payments

• Which accounting packages are connected, and in which direction: invoices out, payments back.
• VAT on each line, and how customers are matched in the accounting software.
• Direct Debit and card payment options, and who pays their fees.
• Export to CSV or an API for anything not connected.

SubClik connects to Xero and QuickBooks Online, with GoCardless Direct Debit and Stripe card links; Sage is planned. See integrations.

Data protection, security and exit

Your system will hold personal data about your customers’ staff, so under UK GDPR the supplier will normally be your processor and you need a data processing agreement meeting Article 28. Ask where data is stored, how each firm’s data is kept apart, who at the supplier can see it, and how access is logged.

Ask the exit question at the start, not the end: how do you get all your data out, in what format, and at what cost? A supplier that answers clearly is one you are less likely to need to leave.

Running a fair trial

Use real data

Load three real customers, their sites and machines, and a quarter of meter readings. Demo data always works; your data is where problems show.

Script the scenarios

1. A fault phoned in for a machine at a multi-site customer.
2. A job opened by a monitored printer reporting an error code.
3. An engineer visit recorded with the phone in flight mode, then synced.
4. A return visit for the same fault a week later.
5. A quarterly billing run with one missing and one backwards reading.
6. The resulting invoice in your accounting software, and a payment coming back.

Compare the whole cost

Pricing models differ: per user, per engineer, per machine, per monitored printer, or a combination, plus setup, training, data import and integration charges. Model the cost for your current size and for twice your size, so the second year is not a surprise.