The appropriate method depends on the use case and will require some planning before implementation. For help using these options please contact your department's IT Professional Printing Administrators or Technology Services Printing for Departments (consult@illinois.edu).

The options listed here apply to printers which are configured for billing, and does not apply to printers that are only tracking jobs.

Understanding Printing Accounts

The printing system tracks every print job using different accounts. Which account is used and how it is configured determines if and how the job is billed.

Personal Accounts

Every user in the system has their own set of private Personal Accounts which are not shared with other users. Billing for a personal account can be to the UIN, IlliniCash, or not billed and only tracked. Every user has these Personal Accounts but not all of them have funds. You can see your list of Personal Accounts by logging into PaperCut, selecting "Summary", and looking at the "Balance" section.

Most Personal Accounts are not available on all printers. Departments choose which Personal Accounts are available on their printers and then when a job is billed to a Personal Account, this priority is automatically selected for the user. For example, a user cannot choose to apply their Engineering credits on a Library printer because the Library has chosen to not allow that Personal Account on their printers.

Shared Accounts

Users might have access to one or more Shared Accounts in the system. Unlike Personal Accounts, a Shared Account is shared for use by many users and a user might have multiple Shared Accounts. Billing for Shared Accounts can be with a CFOP or not billed and only tracked. You can see your list of Shared Accounts by logging into PaperCut and selecting "Shared Accounts".

Most Shared Accounts are not available on all printers or for all users. Departments can limit a Shared Account to a group of printers by placing the group name in the name of the account. Users might have a Shared Account selected for them automatically, or they might see a popup window after they print asking them which Shared Account they want to use for that job.

Shared Accounts have different types depending on how they are configured:

Tracking Shared Account: this is a Shared Account without a CFOP attached. Jobs printed using it will only be tracked and not billed.

CFOP Shared Account: this is a Shared Account with a CFOP attached. Jobs printed using it will be billed to the CFOP specified when the billing cycle for the month is run.

Individual Shared Account: this is a Shared Account that is assigned to a single user instead of a group of users. It can be useful for tracking jobs printed on behalf of someone else or providing department credits to a user that doesn't involve their Personal Account.

Credit and Billing Options

There are a number of options a department can choose for user credits and billing other than the default. Most of these options can be presented together to satisfy different use cases.

Scope - Department: this option is set for a group printers in a department.

Scope - Campus: this option must be set for all printers in the system.

MFP/Embedded Devices: multifunction devices (copiers/scanners/printing) running the PaperCut Embedded software.

Users: if the option applies to only users with a UIN or all users (guest, role based, etc) in the system.

PCClient/WebPrint: if the option requires using an extra client running on the workstation.

Billing Type - Personal: either UIN, IlliniCash, or credit depending on the user and printer.

Billing Type - CFOP: always billed to a Banner CFOP account.

Billing Type - IlliniCash: always billed to IlliniCash if the printer is IlliniCash enabled.

Billing Type - None: not billed, only tracked in the system.

Can Restrict: if the option allows setting a limit on the balance used.

Zero Charge & Discounted Printing (Department)

You can specify that some users on your department's billable printers receive no charge when printing. They will see a $0.00 charge for the job in their history. You can also specify that some users get a discounted rate.

• Scope: Department
• MFP/Embedded Devices: No
• Users: UIN
• PCClient/WebPrint: Not Required
• Billing Type: Personal
• Can Restrict Balance: No

Notes:

• Zero Charge & Discounted printing is enabled by Active Directory Group membership.
  • Zero charge printing support is provided by the common script running for all printers.
  • Discounted printing requires modifying the options passed to the common script to specify the groups and rates.
  • If the user is in multiple groups then the best discount is used.
• Zero Charge & Discounted printing only applies to jobs charged to their Personal Account. The system will charge the full rate for jobs charged to Shared Accounts.
• This option does not apply for printing done at other departments.

Credit Account (Department)

You can request a credit Personal Account for your department that is enabled on the department printers. The account will automatically be selected for users when they print using their Personal Account, but not be used if they select a Shared Account. Credits can be added to this account for users manually or on a scheduled basis (daily, weekly, monthly, semesterly, yearly). After credits are depleted normal billing processes will be applied.

• Scope: Department
• MFP/Embedded Devices: Yes
• Users: UIN
• PCClient/WebPrint: Not Required
• Billing Type: Personal
• Can Restrict Balance: Yes

Notes:

• A departmental credit account is added for all users in the system, but only enabled for the printers the department chooses.
  • If credits are added on a schedule, then Active Directory Group membership is used to determine who is adjusted.
  • Credit account printing support is provided by the common script running for all printers.
  • Credit account printing requires modifying the options passed to the common script to specify the account name.
• Credit accounts are only used when jobs are charged to a user's Personal Account. Users who have access to Shared Accounts and select one to charge their job to will not have their credit account charged.
• Credit accounts are not billed, charges are only tracked. A department making adjustments to a credit account does not need to transfer funds to back the credit account.
• This option does not apply for printing done at other departments.

Shared Accounts - CFOP or Tracked (Department)

Users can be presented with a popup of Shared Accounts to use when they print. They can select among their enabled Shared Accounts, or select their Personal Account. If a Shared Account has a CFOP then it will be automatically billed, otherwise the charge will just be tracked in the system.

• Scope: Department
• MFP/Embedded Devices: Yes
• Users: All
• PCClient/WebPrint: Required
• Billing Type: CFOP or None
• Can Restrict Balance: Yes

Notes:

• Shared Accounts are enabled by Active Directory Group membership.
  • Users will need to be in a group that enables the Shared Account Selection, and a group that enables access to the Shared Account. You can use group nesting to simplify management of this.
  • Placing a user in the Shared Account Selection group disables automatic CFOP billing.
  • Limiting where Shared Accounts can be used is provided by the common script running for all printers.
• Limiting a Shared Account to a department is done by naming the account properly.

Individual Shared Accounts (Department)

You can request that the system create a "batch" or "set" of Shared Accounts, where each account is limited to a single user but otherwise acts as a normal Shared Account. Users will need to select their Shared Account at the time they print to use the credit, otherwise their Personal Account will be charged. This option can also be useful if you have a team who prints as themselves on behalf of many other users and you want to track the charges.

• Scope: Department
• MFP/Embedded Devices: Yes
• Users: All
• PCClient/WebPrint: Required
• Billing Type: CFOP or None
• Can Restrict Balance: Yes

Notes:

• Individual Shared Accounts are managed by Active Directory Group membership or a web service URL.
  • Credit periods can be defined in the administrative interface and users will gain or lose credits based on the period and their membership.
• Limiting an Individual Shared Account to a department is done by naming the parent account properly.

IlliniCash Billing (Campus)

All users with the "student" type are enabled for IlliniCash billing by default, but you can enroll other users with a UIN in IlliniCash print billing. If a user is enrolled for IlliniCash then it applies across the entire system on all billable printers that are IlliniCash enabled.

• Scope: Campus
• MFP/Embedded Devices: No
• Users: UIN
• PCClient/WebPrint: Not Required
• Billing Type: IlliniCash
• Can Restrict Balance: No

Notes:

• IlliniCash cannot be funded with a CFOP.
• This option enables IlliniCash billing when a Personal Account is used, but the other options listed in this article can still be available. For example, if the user has access to Shared Accounts and select one of those then the Shared Account will be charged and not IlliniCash.
• Large format printers and some departments in Fine and Applied Arts will still use UIN billing even if a user is IlliniCash enabled.
• Users can check if they are IlliniCash print billing enrolled by visiting PaperCut and clicking on "Review your billing method."

Automatic CFOP Billing (Campus)

You can configure a user for CFOP billing automatically, for all billable printers in the system. Each time a user prints the system will charge it to the CFOP instead of their personal account.

• Scope: Campus
• MFP/Embedded Devices: Yes
• Users: All
• PCClient/WebPrint: Not Required
• Billing Type: CFOP
• Can Restrict Balance: Yes

Notes:

• Automatic CFOP billing is enabled by Active Directory Group membership.
  • If a user is in multiple groups with automatic CFOP billing then the first one alphabetically will be used and the others ignored.
  • If a user is in a group that enabled Shared Account Selection then they cannot use automatic CFOP billing, but the CFOP Shared Account will be listed with their others accounts.
• Setting automatic CFOP billing will in most cases disable Personal Account billing. The exception to this is if they are in a group with Shared Account Selection.
• System wide Shared Accounts must have a CFOP attached.

Selected CFOP Billing (Campus)

Users can be presented with a popup of CFOP Shared Accounts to use when they print. They can select among their enabled CFOP Shared Accounts, or select their Personal Account. Charges will automatically be billed by the system to the selected CFOP.

• Scope: Campus
• MFP/Embedded Devices: Yes
• Users: All
• PCClient/WebPrint: Required
• Billing Type: CFOP
• Can Limit: Yes

Notes:

• Multiple CFOP billing is enabled by Active Directory Group membership.
  • Users will need to be in a group that enables the Shared Account Selection, and a group that enables access to the CFOP Shared Account. You can use group nesting to simplify management of this.
  • Placing a user in the Shared Account Selection group disables automatic CFOP billing.
• System wide Shared Accounts must have a CFOP attached.