Print Charging

The Print Charging Strategy

The term print charging refers to a print control strategy where users are required to pay for their printing upfront. Access to the printers is not allowed until the user has sufficient funds in their printing account.

One example could be that you want to set things up so that to print a page in color costs $0.40, while a page of grayscale costs $0.05. With PaperCut NG and MF, that’s all possible. Not only that, but you can get even more granular, and charge differing amounts for duplex or simplex print jobs - i.e. whether they’re double sided or single sided. With PaperCut MF you can charge for copies or scans too.

There are some great articles on Simple print charging and cost allocation with ideas on how to implement charging for print jobs, but also keep things simple at the same time.

If you’re in education, or any other sector that benefits from letting users manage how they add their own printing funds, then the Print charging in education with payment gateways article is worth a read too!

Combining Print Charging with Print Quotas

A charging strategy is often used in conjunction with a Print Quota solution where users are allocated an allowance – say $10.00 a week. If the user needs extra funds, they may be required to top up their account balance with their own money. This strategy is commonly used in primary schools and high schools, as well as universities and libraries.

If you’re interested in saving costs, and saving resources, then take a look through the article on Print cost control with charging and quotas. It’s a great way to help the environment and save money at the same time - without impacting productivity.

How to Implement

Wondering how to set this up? If you have PaperCut NG or PaperCut MF installed, head over to the Printers tab in the admin console, select a printer, and hop into the ‘Charging’ section - where you can set up Printer Differential Charging.

Other links:

• Set up differential charging
• Explanation of point-of-charging, canceled jobs, and automatic refunds
• Payment Gateway Guides