PaperCut MF

Introduction

PaperCut is an "on-premises" printing solution, which means it's running on your own server. For this reason, you need to go through several steps to integrate it with Office RnD.

The integration allows you to configure rules for giving your ORnD members access to your PaperCut devices. They will be able to use their ORnD credentials to authenticate in PaperCut without having to create separate accounts.

In turn, the integration will allow you to bill people through ORnD for their printing jobs
Below we'll go through the steps needed to initiate and configure the integration and then get familiar with the available functionalities.

Contents

1. Server Configuration

2. Integration Tool Installation and Initial Sync

3. Fees Management and Regular Sync

1. Server Configuration

This first step requires you to make sure your server configuration is ready for our integration.

• Set Printers as Unauthenticated → if “Popup authentication “ is not enabled the users will not be able to auth, respectively generate fees and etc.

  • Go to the Printers tab

  • Select [Template Printer]

  • Scroll to Advanced Configuration

  • Enable Unauthenticated printer

     

    

     

• Check printers charging. If the pricing for a particular printer is not set then members will not be charged. Each printer has its own configuration.

2. Integration Tool Installation and Initial Sync

The second step is to activate the integration in RnD and install the integration package on your server.

1. Go to Settings/Integrations. Under Printing integrations, enable PaperCut MF and open the configuration dialog.

2. Make sure that the PaperCut server URL and port are correct. Please, note that this port is a direct and mandatory requirement by PaperCut.

3. Download the installation.zip file by clicking on Generate & Download configuration file.
   
   
   Please note: The local host IP address should be fine however, if you set a different IP address above please make sure to set this on the Papercut server under Options>Advanced> Allowed XML Web Services callers or leave the default "*" configuration there, for example like this:
   
    

4. Create a folder on the PaperCut server machine, i.e. C:\OfficeRnD

5. Unzip the downloaded file inside C:\OfficeRnD

6. The folder structure will look like

   

   

7. Run installer.bat as an Administrator and wait for the installation to finish

   • During the execution, the installer will check for the installation folder of PaperCut server and if the folder doesn’t exist it will ask the customers to provide the correct installation folder.

   • The installation will automatically update PaperCut server configuration.

8. Go to the admin panel and close the dialog (click save) or refresh the page.

   • If there are some issues with the configuration there could be two types of errors:

     • the first type can be fixed from the UI and there is a Fix button

       

        

     • the second one requires the installation file to be executed again and check for some errors during the installation.

9. Since Papercut MF version 23 another step is required from Papercut described here: https://www.papercut.com/help/manuals/ng-mf/common/synchronizing-and-authenticating-user-and-group-details-with-custom-programs-executables/
   Please open the file located here: "C:\Program Files\PaperCut MF\server\security.properties" and edit it like this(if you have installed Papercut in C:\Program Files\PaperCut MF or use the corresponding path) : 
   
   
   
   save the changes and restart the PaperCut Application Server service. Note: enable your OS to show the file extensions, so you can make sure that you are editing the correct file.
10. You can click configure again and you'll see a new screen with the configuration for the integration. The first sync is a manual one so you can now configure the Member Management section to determine who will be synced initially.
    

11. When you are done with the configuration, press the "save" button and then click on the sync button. This action may take a long time (For instance, 5000 members would take ~20min to sync).

• Companies are synced as Groups.
• Members of companies are synced as users in those groups.
• Individual members are synced to a special group called [Individual Member]

There are 2 flows for the initial Sync:

- If the papercut database is empty, we'll simply create all entities that match your Member Management configuration.

- If the papercut database contains entries, we'll remove all entries that should not be there according to the Member Management configuration, assuming they are still a match for a user existing in RnD. If they should be there, we'll take those users and re-create them. They will keep their userName and balance. Everything else is lost. Any users that have no match in RnD will be moved to a group called UNLINKED_MEMBERS_TO_OFFICERND

Notes:

• If the PaperCut users have Card/Identity numbers associated with their profiles, they will be kept.

• All members that are not matched to a PaperCut User will be grouped in a Group called “Members not linked to OfficeRnD”.

• If there are members with duplicated emails in OfficeRnD, those will not be synced to PaperCut MF.

• After the initial sync is completed there will be a warning message displaying the emails of the members who have not been synced.

3. Fee Management Regular Syncs and Member Balance

This final step covers the fee management configuration of the integration and how the regular sync works.

Print and Pay needs to be enabled for the integration to communicate with PaperCut.

When the integration is enabled, it will automatically create a Papercut Fees plan in RnD, with the below details:

• Name: PaperCut fees
• Price: 0
• Locations: All
• Account: One-off Fees

It should be automatically selected but if it's not, you can select it.
The member balance allows you to configure what balance will be added to users in PaperCut and how often (daily, weekly, monthly).

The integration syncs automatically every day at 7:30 AM, it will check in PaperCut what the balance of users is. If the balance is negative, it will generate a fee in RnD equal to that negative balance. It will then adjust the balance in Papercut by the amount of the fee. (eg. you are at -7, a fee for 7$ is created in RnD and then the balance in PaperCut is adjusted by +7$). This way the balance is zeroed out.

If you want billing to be either free or managed in Papercut, you can click on the option at the bottom "Do not manage printing fees inside OfficeRnD".

Printing options

The Printing Options section has the following options:

Member Balance

The Member Balance section allows users to set up the following:

• Initial balance for each member - This is the initial balance all users will receive when the integration is synced for the first time. All newly created members who are pushed to PaperCut MF will also get the initial balance.
• Daily, Weekly, or Monthly add-on - The value each user will receive as an add-on.
• Set maximum balance -The balance in PaperCut MF rolls over to the next month so the maximum balance option provides an option to limit the total available balance for all users.

  • The Balance assigned to each user via the integration settings is always Personal and visible only in the PaperCut MF profile of each user. Members will not have visibility over their balance from the OfficeRnD Member Portal or Mobile App. (see screenshot below)

  • The balance is applied to all members when they are pushed to PaperCut MF.

4. Using Coins with PaperCut MF integration

Operators who are utilizing the PaperCut MF integration could also use Coins to provide monetary allowance to their members. More on this is available here: How to set up Printing Credits

For the coins to be automatically applied to Fees created by the PaperCut MF integration, they should be associated with the One-off plan used for creating the printing fees. The default plan used by the integration is PaperCut fees.

If the plan selected in the integration settings is used for granting coins to a member or a company the behavior would be the following:

• If the member has an available balance in PaperCut and available coins in OfficeRnD:

  • while the member has an available balance in PaperCut the integration will not push any data to OfficeRnD and each print job will result in deducting from the member's balance in PaperCut.

  • when the balance in PaperCut is depleted the member will be allowed to print and the balance in PaperCut will become negative.

  • when the integration pushes the amount of the negative balance to OfficeRnD to create a fee the coins available in OfficeRnD will automatically be applied to cover the fee, partially or fully based on the number of coins.

• If the member does not have an available balance in PaperCut but has coins in OfficeRnD:

  • the member will be allowed to print and the balance in PaperCut will become negative.

  • when the integration pushes the amount of the negative balance to OfficeRnD to create a fee the coins available in OfficeRnD will automatically be applied to cover the fee, partially or fully based on the number of coins.