Methods and systems for monitoring consumable item lifetimes for peripheral units

In an image-forming apparatus, a method of generating a notification associated with the lifetime of a consumable associated with operation of the image-forming apparatus, the method comprising:

• receiving input from a client of an image-forming apparatus;
• responsive to said client's input, defining a threshold value that provides a measure of remaining consumable that is associated with operation of the image-forming apparatus;
• monitoring the image-forming apparatus's use of a consumable that is associated with operation of the image-forming apparatus;
• and
• generating a notification for the client when the consumable that is associated with operation of the image-forming apparatus reaches the threshold value.

An image-forming system comprising:

• an image-forming apparatus configured to form images;
• a lifetime monitoring mechanism operably associated with the image-forming apparatus and configured to monitor the lifetime of an image-forming apparatus consumable that is associated with operation of the image-forming apparatus;
• a user-manipulable, threshold-defining mechanism operably coupled with the lifetime monitoring mechanism and configured to receive user input and responsive to said user input, define a threshold value for the lifetime monitoring mechanism;
• and
• a warning generator configured to generate a notification when the consumable that is associated with operation of the image-forming reaches the threshold value.