Copy Report Automation - Shauna Call, Winter 2010

As an accountant for the BYU School of Music, one of my job responsibilities is to prepare journal entries each month. One type of journal entry stems from downloading the number of prints and copies each faculty/staff make and to charge their area accounts via journal entry. Because the School of Music is one of the largest departments on campus with over 100 copy codes and four major copiers/printers, I decided to create a program that would automate the data downloading and journal entry process as much as possible. (Note: a “copy code” is a 5-digit code given to faculty/staff/etc. to type into the copy machine when making prints. This is similar to using a Signature Card at a Pharos Station.)

Prior to this project, I would manually enter in the number of copies for each copy code per printer, and then summarize the data and manually enter in the total cost for each code and charge it to its accompanying account (via the Financial Services Journal Entry Template). Once uploaded, these charges would show up on their monthly area financial reports. This whole process was very tedious and took several hours to accomplish. Oftentimes, amounts and/or account numbers were mis-typed and corrections had to be made after-the-fact. Also note that some copy codes are for administration or ward use and aren’t to be charged via journal entry. Thus, there needs to be a distinction between which copies/prints need and don’t need to be charged.

Thus, my project involves an automated data downloading process (for only two out of the four printers because not all the printers allow it) and an automated journal entry population process for those copy codes that need to be charged each month. This has made it possible to reduce human error and to save a lot of time when performing this task.



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