Maintenance jobs: scheduling and completing printer maintenance

Maintenance jobs are the core of SimplyPrint's printer maintenance system. A job is a work order for a specific printer - it has a title, description, priority, assigned tasks, and tracks progress from start to finish. Whether you're scheduling routine maintenance or responding to a reported problem, jobs help you keep your printers in good shape and your team on the same page.

Table of contents

• Creating a maintenance job
• Quick start from the printer's page
• Job lifecycle
• Working with tasks
• Batch jobs (multi-printer maintenance)
• Going on to the next job
• Auto-created jobs
• Creating a job from a problem
• Comments and activity
• Exporting job data
• Related articles

Creating a maintenance job

To create a new maintenance job:

1. Go to the Maintenance page and open the Jobs tab.
2. Click Create job in the top right.
3. Select the printer(s) you want to maintain. You can pick a single printer or select multiple printers to create a batch job.
4. Enter a title and optionally a description with more details about the work.
5. Choose a priority: normal, high, or urgent.
6. Set the schedule: start now, or schedule for a specific date. Quick presets like today, tomorrow, and in a week make scheduling fast.
7. Select task templates to include. These become the task checklist for the job - each template adds one or more tasks that need to be completed. See the task templates article for how to create templates.
8. Assign team members to the job (on accounts with multiple users).
9. Click Create to save the job.

The "puts printer in maintenance" toggle

When creating a job, you'll see a toggle called Puts printer in maintenance. When this is on, the printer automatically enters maintenance mode when the job starts (moves to "in progress"). While in maintenance mode:

• AutoPrint will skip the printer
• 1-Click Print will skip the printer
• Other users can see a maintenance indicator on the printer

This keeps the printer out of rotation while it's being worked on. When the job is completed or cancelled, the printer exits maintenance mode - unless another active maintenance job also has this toggle enabled for the same printer.

Quick start from the printer's page

When you're standing at a printer and want to get going, you don't need the jobs list. On the printer's page, open the Maintenance widget and click Quick start. It is there when the printer has no active job, for users with the Manage maintenance permission.

1. Under Link problems, every open problem on the printer is listed with a checkbox, all ticked by default. Untick any you don't want to link.
2. Under Tasks, pick the task templates for the job. Recommended templates are listed first.
3. Click Start maintenance.

The job is created and started straight away. The problems you left ticked are linked to the job and resolved when the job is completed. See Reporting and resolving printer problems.

Job lifecycle

Every maintenance job follows a simple lifecycle:

Scheduled > In progress > Completed (or Cancelled)

Scheduled

The job is planned but hasn't started yet. The printer is not in maintenance mode at this stage - it can still receive print jobs normally.

Overdue

A scheduled job whose date has passed shows as Overdue. Nothing else changes: you can still start, edit or cancel it, on its own or together with other jobs. The printer card shows an Overdue badge, and the start print window warns about it, but prints are not held back. A job due within the next 7 days shows a Due soon badge on the printer card.

In progress

The job has been started. If Puts printer in maintenance is on, the printer is now in maintenance mode and other users will see the maintenance indicator. Team members can start working through the task checklist.

Completed

All required tasks are done and the job is marked complete. The printer exits maintenance mode (if no other active maintenance jobs are keeping it in maintenance).

Cancelled

The job was cancelled before completion. The printer exits maintenance mode, same as with a completed job.

Reopening a completed job

If you need to go back and redo something, you can reopen a completed job. It goes back to the "in progress" state, and if the maintenance toggle was on, the printer re-enters maintenance mode.

Working with tasks

Tasks are the individual steps that make up a maintenance job. They come from the task templates you selected when creating the job.

Required vs optional tasks

Each task is either required or optional (set in the template). Required tasks must be completed before the job can be marked as done. Optional tasks can be skipped if they don't apply.

Completing tasks

Check off tasks as you work through them. The job tracks overall progress based on how many tasks are done.

How far a usage-based task has come

A task from a usage-based template shows how many print hours the printer has done since the task was last completed, against the template's threshold, for example "312 h of 500 h". It shows on tasks that aren't done yet, in a single job's checklist.

If the template counts nozzle or build plate wear, the line also names the wear modifiers that adjusted the count, and how many hours were actually printed:

"305 h of 500 h (adjusted: +20% wood-filled; 289 h printed)"

When a wear modifier needs a printer setting that isn't set, the line says so, for example "Nozzle type not set: counted as 1×". Set the nozzle or build plate in the printer's settings so later prints are counted with that rule.

When you add tasks to a job, the tasks that are due are listed first, with the same reason under each.

Skipping optional tasks

If an optional task isn't needed for this particular job, you can skip it. Skipped tasks don't block job completion.

Spare parts

Some tasks require spare parts from your inventory. When you complete a task that requires parts, the parts are automatically deducted from your spare parts inventory. See the spare parts article for more about inventory management.

Tool integration

Certain tasks can trigger actions directly on the printer. Depending on how the task template is configured, completing a task might trigger:

• Bed leveling
• Filament change
• Preheat
• Z-offset calibration
• Sending custom G-code

This lets you combine manual checks with automated printer actions in a single workflow.

Batch jobs (multi-printer maintenance)

When you need to do the same maintenance across several printers, batch jobs save time.

Creating a batch job

When creating a job, simply select multiple printers instead of one. Each printer gets its own individual job, but they're all linked together in one batch.

Batches from schedules

You don't have to build batches yourself. When a schedule makes several printers due within 2 days of the first of them, their jobs share a batch, even when the schedule created them at different times. A printer that comes due a little later joins the batch that is already open. The batch is named after the schedule.

A few things to know:

• Only jobs that haven't started are added to a batch.
• Once a round is under way, it takes no newcomers. A batch closes as soon as any printer in it is started, any job in it is completed, or any task in it is ticked. Printers that come due after that get a batch of their own, so a round you have already walked isn't reopened. Cancelling a printer's job on its own doesn't close the batch.
• A single job on its own doesn't get a batch.

To open a batch, go to Maintenance > Jobs and click it in the Batch jobs table. Batches are listed soonest first, and the Due column shows the day the batch is due, or a range of days when its jobs are due on different days. That's how you tell two open batches from the same schedule apart.

Working with batch jobs

Batch jobs give you a unified view across all the linked jobs:

• Unified task checklist - tick a task once and it is done on every printer in the batch. This works on scheduled and overdue jobs too, so you don't have to start them first.
• Start all - start every scheduled and overdue job in the batch at once.
• Mark all done - ticks every open task on every printer, after asking you once. Tasks that use a spare part still ask which part was used. It's there when more than one task is left.
• Complete all - completes every job whose required tasks are done, with an optional completion summary. The jobs don't need to have been started.

This is especially useful for scheduled maintenance like nozzle cleaning or belt tensioning that needs to happen on every printer.

You can also start several overdue or scheduled jobs from the jobs list: select them and click Start.

Going on to the next job

Every job and batch has a Next due button. It opens the open job with the soonest date, so you can go from one job to the next without going back to the list. If that job is part of a batch, the whole batch opens. Once the job or batch in front of you is finished, Next due is highlighted. When nothing else is due, it tells you so.

Auto-created jobs

You don't have to create every job manually. Maintenance schedules can automatically create jobs based on triggers you define - like time intervals, printer usage metrics, or failure counts.

For example, you might set up a schedule that creates a "nozzle inspection" job every 500 print hours, or a "general checkup" job every 30 days. Jobs a schedule makes due together are grouped into a batch, as described above.

See the schedules article for details on setting up automatic job creation.

Creating a job from a problem

When someone reports a problem with a printer, you can create a maintenance job directly from the problem report. The problem gets linked to the job, so you have full context on what went wrong.

When the job is completed, any linked problems can be automatically resolved - so the person who reported it knows the issue has been addressed. Quick start does the same for the open problems you leave ticked.

This keeps your problem tracking and maintenance workflow connected without extra manual steps.

Comments and activity

Each job has a comments section where team members can leave notes, updates, or questions. You can also attach files to comments - useful for photos of worn parts, reference documents, or anything relevant.

Editing and deleting comments

You can edit your own comments after posting them - hover over a comment and click the pencil icon to make changes. Edited comments show an "(edited)" indicator so the team knows the text was updated.

You can also delete your own comments by clicking the trash icon. Users with the "Manage maintenance" permission can delete any comment, not just their own. Deleted comments are permanently removed.

Activity timeline

The activity timeline shows a log of everything that's happened on the job: when it was started, when tasks were completed, who completed them, and other events. This gives you a clear history of the maintenance work.

Exporting job data

You can export your jobs list as a CSV file. From the Jobs tab, use the export option to download a spreadsheet with job details, status, priority, timestamps, and task completion data. Handy for reporting or keeping external records.

Related articles

• Printer maintenance: keep your fleet running smoothly
• Maintenance schedules: automate recurring maintenance
• Task templates: define reusable maintenance procedures
• Wear modifiers: nozzle and build plate maintenance that follows what you print
• Reporting and resolving printer problems
• Spare parts inventory: track and manage maintenance supplies
• Adding print hours from before SimplyPrint to a printer's runtime

Updated on: 22/10/2026