How to create a print Pricing Schedule

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How to create a print Pricing Schedule

A Pricing Schedule is linked to the printing function and the copying function of a device. If the site has a number of similar printers whose unit costs are the same, it is likely that only one Pricing Schedule will be needed. Each Device will simply link to the same Pricing Schedule. If however, there are printers with different unit costs (e.g. a high quality colour printer and a medium quality printer) then different Pricing Schedules will need to be set up to charge different rates.

Pricing Schedules define a price for device capabilities. There are 3 types of Pricing Schedules. Choosing the correct type depends on the costing requirements for the Device. If it is only necessary to charge a price per colour page and a price per black & white page, then a Simple Pricing Schedule is required. Simple Pricing Schedules ignore paper sizes and duplexing. However, if it is necessary to charge a different price depending on colour, paper size and duplexing, an Advanced Pricing Schedule is required. On some printers (mainly large format printers) one may want to charge by area, in which case an Area Charging Pricing Schedule will be used.

The most commonly used Pricing Schedule is the Advanced Pricing Schedule (for A3, duplex capable devices). To create one, follow these steps:

  • Open Resource Manager.
  • Navigate to Device Management > Pricing Schedules.
  • On the right, click Add.
  • In the Pricing Schedule Type window, choose Advanced (print/copy).
  • Enter a descriptive name for the schedule (e.g. Regular Media Devices) in the Name text box.
  • Enter the default price for a colour page in the Default Colour text box. This should be the same as the A4 colour price. This price will be used if a job is printed with attributes that don’t match any of the detail records specified in the detail list below. If the printer is not capable of printing in colour, enter the same price as an A4 black & white page.
  • Enter the default price for a black & white page in the Default BW text box.
  • To add a price for an A3 page, click the Add button.
    • In the Paper Group drop-down choose Large (A3).
    • In the Colour drop-down, choose whether this price will apply to a Colour or Black & White page. Leave as < Any > to apply to both.
    • In the Duplex drop-down, choose whether this price will apply to a Single Sided or Double Sided page. Leave as < Any > to apply to both. Note: the Duplex price should be slightly less than the simplex price. This is to take into account the saving of one sheet of paper when a page is printed on both sides. Double this price will be charged for a sheet of paper printed on both sides.
    • Enter the price in the Price text box.
    • Click OK.
  • To add another detail record, click the Add button again and enter the relevant information in the same way as above.
  • Once a price has been set for all the device capabilities, click OK.

To create a Simple Pricing Schedule for an A4 only device:

  • Open Resource Manager.
  • Navigate to Device Management > Pricing Schedules.
  • On the right, click Add.
  • In the Pricing Schedule Type window, choose Simple (print/copy).
  • Enter a descriptive name for the schedule (e.g. Flat Rate) in the Name text box.
  • If you would like to charge a different rate for the first X number of pages in a print job, enter in the number of pages in the For the first text box.
  • Enter the values to be charged in the relevant text boxes. If the same price is to be charged for all pages, enter the same value in the Subsequently text boxes.
  • Click OK.

To create an Area Charging Pricing Schedule for large format printers:

  • Open Resource Manager.
  • Navigate to Device Management > Pricing Schedules.
  • On the right, click Add.
  • In the Pricing Schedule Type window, choose Area Charging (print/copy).
  • Enter a descriptive name for the schedule in the Name text box.
  • Enter a default price per unit for a colour unit and a mono unit. This price will be used if a print job is captured with attributes that don’t match any of the detail records.
  • Choose the Unit Type. The price will be calculated according to the dimensions of paper using the unit type.
  • To set a price for each device capability, click the Add button.
    • Choose the colour and duplexing options and enter a price per unit.
    • Click OK.
  • Once a price per unit has been set for all the device capabilities, click Save.

Now that the required pricing schedules have been created, we need to assign them to the print and/or copy function of a Device:

  • Open Resource Manager.
  • Navigate to Device Management > Shared Devices.
  • Double click a Device on the right to which you would like to link a Pricing Schedule. You can multi-select devices to link to the same Pricing Schedule by holding down the Shift or Ctrl key when selecting Devices and then clicking Edit.
  • Click the Function Settings tab.
  • To change the schedule for the printing function, select the pricing schedule from the dropdown in the Printer Function frame. If more than one device is selected, first tick the checkbox to the left of the Printer Function frame to enable Pricing Schedule for printouts drop-down.
  • To change the schedule for the copying function, select the pricing schedule from the dropdown in the Copier Function frame. If more than one device is selected, first tick the checkbox to the left of the Copy Function frame.
  • Click Save.

Now that the pricing has been changed, the PDServers and PDAgents will see the new settings the next time they refresh from the database. By default, this happens every 10 minutes. To force a refresh immediately follow these steps:

  • On the left, click the PD Servers node.
  • On the right, highlight all the servers. Right click and choose Refresh.
  • Now click the PD Agents node.
  • On the right, highlight all the servers. Right click and choose Refresh.

Document revision date: 2018/10/12

Software version: 2.2.49.3

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