Printer maintenance: keep your fleet running smoothly

SimplyPrint's maintenance feature gives you a complete system for tracking, scheduling, and managing printer maintenance. From routine nozzle cleaning to full quarterly overhauls, you can define procedures, automate scheduling, track spare parts, and keep a clear record of everything done to each printer.

Table of contents

• How maintenance works
• The maintenance dashboard
• The five building blocks
• Printer maintenance profiles
• Single-user vs multi-user accounts
• Permissions
• Account settings
• Notifications
• Integration with AutoPrint and 1-Click Print
• Related articles

How maintenance works

The maintenance system is built around five concepts that work together:

1. Task templates define what needs to be done - step-by-step procedures like "clean print bed" or "inspect nozzle"
2. Schedules automate when maintenance happens - based on time, print hours, filament usage, or failure counts
3. Jobs are the actual work orders - they contain tasks from your templates and track progress
4. Inventory tracks your spare parts - stock levels, low-stock alerts, and automatic deduction when tasks are completed
5. Problems let anyone report printer issues - which can then be linked to maintenance jobs

The typical workflow looks like this: you start by defining task templates for the maintenance procedures your printers need. Then you set up schedules to automate job creation. When a job is created (manually or by a schedule), it contains a checklist of tasks. Your team works through the tasks, and the system tracks progress, deducts spare parts, and logs everything.

The maintenance dashboard

The dashboard is your starting point. It shows:

• Stat cards at the top with quick counts - printers in maintenance, jobs due, open problems, and inventory status
• Printer status table showing all your printers grouped by maintenance state (in maintenance, overdue, scheduled, operational)
• Recent jobs with status and progress
• Active schedules showing your automation rules

If you're new to the feature, the dashboard shows a "Getting started" guide that walks you through the setup steps.

The five building blocks

Each building block has its own tab in the maintenance page and its own detailed article:

Task templates

Templates are reusable maintenance procedures. Each template defines a task name, instructions, category (cleaning, lubrication, replacement, etc.), estimated time, and optionally which spare parts it needs. Templates can have triggers that tell the scheduling system when they become "due."

Read more: Task templates: define reusable maintenance procedures

Schedules

Schedules are automation rules that create maintenance jobs automatically. You configure a trigger (every 30 days, every 200 print hours, after 5 failures, etc.), a scope (all printers, specific models, or specific groups), and which templates to include. The system checks every hour and creates jobs when conditions are met.

Read more: Maintenance schedules: automate recurring maintenance

Jobs

Jobs are the core of maintenance tracking. A job is a work order for one or more printers, containing a checklist of tasks. You can create jobs manually or let schedules create them automatically. Jobs track progress as tasks are completed, and optionally put the printer into maintenance mode.

Read more: Maintenance jobs: scheduling and completing printer maintenance

Inventory

The inventory system tracks spare parts - nozzles, belts, bearings, PTFE tubes, and more. Set stock quantities and low-stock thresholds, and the system automatically deducts parts when maintenance tasks are completed. You get alerts when stock runs low.

Read more: Spare parts inventory: track and manage maintenance supplies

Problems

Problems are issue reports. Anyone with the right permission can report a printer problem - either from the maintenance page or directly when cancelling a print. Problems can be linked to maintenance jobs, and they auto-resolve when the linked job is completed.

Read more: Reporting and resolving printer problems

Printer maintenance profiles

Every printer has a maintenance profile you can access from the maintenance page. The profile shows:

• Health metrics (days since last maintenance, print hours since last maintenance, prints since last maintenance)
• Job history for this specific printer
• Task completion history
• Parts consumed
• Open problems
• Activity timeline

This gives you a complete maintenance history for each printer, making it easy to spot patterns or recurring issues.

Single-user vs multi-user accounts

The maintenance feature works for both small and large setups:

Single-user accounts: You manage everything yourself. You create templates, set up schedules, complete tasks, and track parts. Permissions and assignment features aren't relevant since you're the only user.

Multi-user accounts: This is where maintenance really shines. You can:

• Assign jobs to specific team members
• Assign individual tasks to different users within the same job (enable "task assignment" in settings)
• Set default responsible users on templates, so tasks automatically get assigned
• Control who can do what with granular permissions
• Route notifications to the right people

Permissions

The maintenance feature uses five permission levels:

Permissions are configured in Settings > Users & permissions by your account administrator.

Account settings

You'll find maintenance settings under Settings > Maintenance. Available options include:

• Enable/disable maintenance - master toggle for the feature
• Max concurrent jobs - limit how many printers can be in maintenance at the same time
• Max jobs per week - cap on automatically created jobs per week
• Max jobs per month - cap on automatically created jobs per month
• Task assignment - enable per-task user assignment within jobs
• Notification recipients - choose who receives maintenance notifications
• Notification preferences - configure which events trigger notifications

Notifications

The maintenance system sends notifications for key events:

• Job assigned to you
• Job due soon
• Job overdue
• Job started
• Job completed
• Task assigned to you
• Spare parts low stock

Each user can manage their own notification preferences in their user settings. Account administrators can also set default notification recipients in the maintenance settings.

Integration with AutoPrint and 1-Click Print

When a printer is in maintenance mode (from an active maintenance job with "puts printer in maintenance" enabled):

• AutoPrint will skip the printer - it won't receive any automatic prints
• 1-Click Print will not include the printer in printer selection
• The print queue will not match items to the printer

This prevents prints from being sent to a printer that's being worked on, similar to the "out of order" behavior. The printer automatically exits maintenance mode when all its active maintenance jobs are completed or cancelled.

Related articles

• Maintenance jobs: scheduling and completing printer maintenance
• Task templates: define reusable maintenance procedures
• Maintenance schedules: automate recurring maintenance
• Spare parts inventory: track and manage maintenance supplies
• Reporting and resolving printer problems

Updated on: 01/04/2026