A master has two black machines, both of which have an A3 and A4 meter. The contract also has a minimum volume of 20,000 pages per month. A3 prints count for 1.5 A4 prints.
We set the master up with an A3 and A4 master meter. We also include a Total Black (Calculated) meter, but we do not set this to be a master meter. Similar to a standalone machine, we set the Total Black (Calculated) meter to be non billable, so that it charges standard billing at $0.00 (as the standard amounts are billed on the child machines). We put the unders, overs and minimum volume on this Total Black (Calculated) meter. We also specify the A3 meter to have an A4 Ratio of 1.5.
The master setup is as follows:
The machines only receive the black and black A3 meters:
The first machine receives a read of 31,000 for A4 and 6,000 for A3. The second machine receives a read of 55,000 for A4 and 8,000 for A3.
The first child machine job:
The second child machine job:
The master machine calculates that there were effectively (6,000 + 5,000) + 1.5 X (2,000 + 1,000) = 15,500 pages. The master then bills 4,500 under pages to make up the minimum volume of 20,000.
Further information: