Manage consumables

Does anyone know if there is a way to accurately track consumables from when they are purchased to when they are deployed to a printer/faxmachine etc....

the reason I am asking is I created a group to categorize toner/ink when we purchase it but I am finding it difficult to assign it to a dept. when I mark it as "In Use" it wants to be assigned to a user or deplartment or asset but it will be assigned to that person or asset idefinetelly.

Is there any function with SDP that can act to track an item that is disposable after a certain amount of time. With all the toner that we go threw manually going in a retiring each toner cartridge would be very time consuming.

I hope I am clear enough.

thanks
J