Account Management (Pharos Cloud Education Edition)

Overview

The Account Management feature monitors printing expenses and resource usage within an organization. This feature allows printing costs to be allocated to specific projects or budget centers, such as in universities or corporate settings.

In Pharos Cloud, accounts are used to allocate printing costs. For example, in a university, administrators can charge printing expenses to different budget centers, treating each budget center as a separate account. This helps in tracking and managing printing costs by budget center for accurate budgeting and job accounting.

Account Management uses a point-based billing structure where accounts receive an initial allocation of points. Points are assigned to accounts, not individual users. Each user in an account gets their own points. For example, if the Math account at a university gets 100 points, each user in that account has 100 points for printing. When a user prints, points are deducted from their balance.

Notes

  • Account Management is available for OpenID authentication only.

  • Account Management requires a separate license.

  • Users can access multiple accounts, giving them flexibility in managing their printing resources. They can switch between accounts using the End-User portal or mobile app. The Print Scout provides a link to the User Portal for changing active accounts.

  • Direct Print jobs will be charged to the designated accounts if they are available, but users will not be able to change the account once the job has been sent.

  • Pharos Cloud 4.1 introduces the Copy Accounting feature.

User Access to Accounts

Users can be granted access to accounts in one of three ways: Global, Group, or User level.

  • Global Shared – Global shared accounts are accessible to all users in Pharos Cloud. Any user within the system can use these accounts for their printing needs.

  • Access by Users and Groups – These accounts are restricted to specific users or groups. For instance, an account can be made available only to a particular group, such as "Students," or to specified individual users. This type of account allows for more controlled and targeted allocation of printing resources.

Pharos Web Console

The Account Management sub-tab within the Users tab is used for managing accounts within the Pharos Cloud platform.

The Account Management view allows administrators to perform the following tasks:

  • View accounts – View accounts set up for use with Pharos Cloud.

  • Add accounts – Create new accounts for billing purposes.

  • Archive accounts – Archive accounts that are no longer needed or relevant.

  • View or update rates card – Modify the rates associated with each print attribute. Administrators can adjust printing rates as needed, allowing for flexibility in costing structures.

  • View archived accounts – View accounts that have been archived.

  • Enable Account Management on clients – Activate account management features on all Pharos clients such as Print Scout, User portal, and mobile app.

  • Edit account properties – Allows administrators to edit account properties.

The Account Management view includes the following action buttons:

  • Add – Use this action to create new accounts.

  • Archive - Use this action to archive unused accounts.

  • Rates Card – use this action to view or edit the costing structure for printing.

  • View archived accounts – Toggle the switch to ON to view archived accounts only.

Administration Workflow

  1. Create Accounts

    Administrators create accounts in the Account Management tab of the web console.

  2. Enable Client Setting

    Navigate to the Users > Account Management tab and enable the client setting. This will activate the accounts on user clients, including the user portal, mobile app, and Print Scout.

  3. Enable user portal for end users

    Navigate to the Secure > Settings tab, select User Portal Settings, and then enable User Portal for end users. The User Portal allows users to view or change their active account.

User Workflow

  1. The user submits documents to a secure queue from their workstation, mobile app, or Chrome Print app.

    1. Print Scout: The user receives a notification indicating that the document is ready for release. A tray notification displays the Active Account that will be used for printing and copying. It will also show the Change Account option as shown below.

      Clicking the Change Account option opens the End-User Portal, enabling users to select a different account to charge for the document.

    2. Mobile App: The document will be charged to the active account. Users can change the account to charge the document against before releasing the job.

    3. Chrome Print : The document will be charged to the active account. Users cannot change the active account from the Chrome Print extension but can use the User Portal to change the active account if needed.

2. The user can walk up to a secure printer and release the document.

Managing Accounts

Add Accounts

  1. Navigate to Users > Account Management tab in the Pharos web console.

  2. Click on the Add button.

  3. In the Account Properties, enter the following details for the new account:

  • Name – Provide a name that uniquely identifies the account within Pharos Cloud. It is displayed to users when they are selecting an account to charge.

  • Code – Assign a unique code to the account for internal identification purposes.

  • Status – Choose whether to enable or disable the account.

  • Start Date and Expiry Date – These fields are optional. Specify start and end expiry dates for the account if required. The Start Date specifies when the account becomes available for users.

Note: Expired accounts are kept for reporting purposes.

  1. Allocation per user: Allocations per user can be set to unlimited, or with a soft limit and hard limit. There are two options to choose from:

    • Unlimited – Leaving the soft limit and hard limit fields blank creates an unlimited account. An unlimited account imposes no restrictions on the amount of printing a user can do. For users, the allocation will display only the set number of points, without showing a hard limit value (e.g., 50 points instead of 50/100).

    • Soft limit and hard limit - The soft limit is the threshold displayed to users on the user interface. The hard limit is the maximum amount of points a user can use on an account.

    Note: In this release, printing is not restricted even if the hard limit is reached.

  2. Choose whether the account is Global Shared or Access by Users and Groups.

  • Global Shared: If selected, the account will be accessible to all users.

  • Access by Users and Groups: If selected, users can have access to accounts by groups or by users.

    • Groups: Specify the groups that are allowed to use this account.

    • Users: Enter the individual users who are permitted to use this account.

Note: When a user loses access to an account (e.g. account expiry, group or user has been moved from the account). If the account is set up as an active account for the user, it will continue to be used for up to 12 hours after the change.

Note: When you add a new account in the Account Management tab, it will typically appear in the end user portal after the default cache period of 12 hours. However, if you want to see the new account immediately, you can click the "Upload" button to update the portal right away.

Activate the "Enable on Client" Setting

The "Enable on client" setting turns on the account management feature for Pharos Cloud clients, letting users manage their accounts easily across different devices and platforms.

  • Print Scout

  • User Portal

  • Chrome Print

  • Secure Release mobile app

Archive Account

You can archive accounts that will no longer be available for use.

  1. Select the account you want to archive

  2. Click the Archive button.

  3. The account will be removed from the active accounts list. To view archived accounts, click View Archived Accounts.

View Rates Card

The Rates Card defines the costing structure for printing based on various print attributes. Each combination of attributes such as paper size, color, and duplex assigned to a print job is given a specific point value, reflecting its cost. These point values can be adjusted as needed.

See Rates Card for more information

Active Account

An Active Account is the account to which print jobs are charged. When a user has multiple accounts, print jobs are typically charged to the active account, which is usually the account most recently used by the user.

Note: The initial active account is the first one listed alphabetically in the web console. For example, if you have two accounts named "Library" and "Science," the initial active account will be "Library."

Users can view the Active Account from the User Portal, the Print Scout, or the Secure Release mobile app.

View the Active Account from the User Portal

Open the User Portal. The active account is displayed next to the login account.

View the Active Account from the Print Scout

To view the active account from the Print Scout, right-click on the Pharos Print icon.

View the Active Account from the Mobile App

Launch the Secure Release mobile app, you can see the Active Account under Review Print Jobs.

Change the Active Account via the User Portal

Users can change the account for a job through the User Portal. A user can launch the User Portal in two ways:

  • Via the Pharos Print desktop app. Right-click the Desktop app and select the Open User Portal option.

When the User Portal opens, click on the "Active Account" option to change the active account.

  • Via the notification on the Secure desktop app. When you send a job, a notification pops up with an option to Change Account. Clicking the Change Account opens the User Portal and lets you change the active account.

Note: Changing the account via the notification will only update the account for the most recently submitted document. It will not affect the account for any previously submitted documents. However, all future jobs will use the newly selected active account.

Clicking the Change Account opens the User Portal and lets you change the active account.

Change the Active Account via the Mobile App

Open the Secure Release mobile app and click on the Active Account section to change the active account.

In the "Set Active Account to" window that opens, select the account you want to set as the new active account.

Accounts API

On the Analysis > API screen, you can connect to API endpoints that allow you to extract the Accounts data from Pharos Cloud and use them for purposes that may serve your organization.

The Accounts Application allows administrators to create and manage accounts.

To generate the Client ID and Client Secret:

  1. Click "Generate" to obtain the Client ID and Client Secret needed for interacting with Pharos Cloud account data.

Note: Make sure that you save the Client ID and Client Secret information because they cannot be retrieved later. However, if you lose your client application credentials, you can revoke them and generate new ones.

  1. After generating the credentials, the Status will display when the credentials were created.

Note: For further details on using the API, please refer to this API documentation.

Crediting a User Balance

The Account Management system enables crediting to a user’s balance. For instance, if a user has exceeded their allocated points (e.g., 210/200 points used), additional points can be added to their account via the API. When this credit is applied, the system reduces the used points and increases the available balance, helping the user return within their allocated limit.

  1. Open the API documentation to review available endpoints and their usage.

  2. In the Analysis > API tab, generate the necessary Client ID and Client Secret. These credentials are required for authenticating your requests.

Note: Make sure to select the correct scope: cloudprint:billing-accounts. This grants permission to modify billing-related activities.

  1. To credit the user’s balance, use the Activities section of the API and select the POST /{customer-id}/activities.

  1. Enter a customer ID.

  2. In the Request body, update the following values:

  • useremail - Enter the email address of the user whose account you want to credit.

  • accountId - Enter the account ID of the user you want to credit. Make sure to select the correct account.

  • activityType - Set this to credit.

  • quantity - Enter an integer value.

  • amount - Enter the number of points to credit the user, using a negative value.

    Example: A user has used 210 points out of an allocated 200, meaning they’ve gone over by 10 points. To correct this, apply a credit of -120 points. This reduces their usage by 120 points, resulting in a new balance of 90 points used out of 200.