Report Restricted Printers

If company uses dedicated printers for certain reports, for example checks, labels, or invoices, then it is useful to prevent users from accidentally printing other reports to these dedicated printers. The Restricted report printers feature allows you to specify which combination of printers and reports in D365FO isn't allowed. You can do it from the printer perspective or from the report perspective.

Set up restriction by printer

To set up the reports restricted for a given printer, go to Docentric AX parameters > Print destinations > Printer print destination > Restricted printers > Set up by printer:

This will open the Restricted printers by printer form. On the left side select the printer for which you want to restrict the reports, then on the right side use the left and right arrow to move the reports between the Allowed reports and Restricted reports. Restriction exists between the printer selected on the left side (Check printer in the example below) and all the reports listed in the Restricted reports grid:

Based on the setup from the above image, only the Cheque_US report may be printed on the Check printer. Notice the following tokens at the top of Restricted reports list:

  • @NEW_REPORTS@: when a new report is added to the Docentric report setup, it will be automatically restricted for this printer.
  • @UNREGISTERED_REPORTS@: reports that are not registered for Docentric (in other words: are not found in the Docentric report setup) are also not allowed for this printer.

When used in this way, these two tokens guarantee that only check report can be printed on the check printer.

As a result of the above setup, the Check printer won’t be offered in the Docentric printer print destination for any report except Cheque_US:

This prevents the accidental printing of non-check reports to the dedicated check printer. But if you also want to achieve that the check report can be printed only to the check printer, then you need to make sure that Check_US report is in the Restricted reports list of every other printer. You can select one by one each printer in the Restricted printers by printer form and move the Check_US report to the Restricted reports list, but there is a simpler way to achieve the same result, by clicking the Restrict for other printers button. The selected report will be automatically restricted for all other reports and it will be presented by a lock icon by that report:

Another way to simply achieve the full bidirectional restriction is by setting the restriction by report.

Set up restriction by report

To set up the printers restricted for a given report, go to Docentric AX parameters > Print destinations > Printer print destination > Restricted printers > Set up by report (or optionally, from the Restrict reports by printer form click the Set up by report menu item):

This will open the Restricted printers by report form. On the left side select the report for which you want to restrict the printers, then on the right side use the left and right arrow to move the printers between the Allowed printers and Restricted printers. Restriction exists between the report selected on the left side (Check_US report) and all the reports listed in the Restricted reports grid:

Based on the setup from the above image, Cheque_US report may be printed only on the Check printer. Notice the following token at the top of Restricted printers list:

  • @NEW_PRINTERS@: when a new network printer is registered in the system, it will be automatically restricted for this report.

As a result of the above setup, in the Docentric printer print destination for Cheque_US report only the Check printer will be offered in the printers lookup.

Activate/deactivate the configured restriction

It isn’t enough to set up the restricted printer-report combinations, but you also need to activate the configured restrictions. Go to Docentric AX parameters > Print destinations > Printer print destination and use the below marked settings:

You can select a Restrict printers mode value to be used globally, and optionally override this global setting per company. The following Restrict printers mode options are available:

  • No restriction: any configuration made in Set up by printer and Set up by report forms is ignored. No restriction is applied.
  • Full restriction: restriction is applied to both Docentric printer and SSRS printer in the following way: printer lookup in the print destination is affected only in case of the Docentric printer, while for the SSRS printer it still offers all available printers. Runtime validation is performed in both cases, therefore if unallowed printer is selected as SSRS printer, runtime error will be raised.
  • Restriction for Docentric printing: restriction is applied only to Docentric printer.

You might have noticed a green stripe at the top of Set up by printer and Set up by report forms. They are there to provide a clear information if the restriction is currently active or inactive. The related help text reminds you where the activation/deactivation is made and a Go to Restriction options button will take you directly to the mentioned form:

And here is what you can expect when the restriction is inactive:

See also

How to Set Up and Use Default Printer >>
User Allowed Printers >>

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