Pay for print
Pay for print, charged page by page and only once it’s printed.
Commontray is pay for print software that people don’t argue with. They see every page and the price before they confirm. Color is detected page by page. And nothing is charged until the printer says it has finished, for the pages it actually printed.
Job 0522 · 2nd floorLetter · 1-sided
- Quoted
- 12 pages
- Printer reported
- 10 pages
- Black & white × 8
- $0.80
- Color × 2
- $1.00
- Printing credit
- −$1.00
Billed$0.80
Printed ✓
How it works
From price list to invoice line, without a spreadsheet.
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Set your prices
A price per page for black & white and color, for A4 and Letter. Not sure what to charge? Try the cost per page calculator.
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People see the price
Before confirming, they see every page, the color ones marked, what their credit covers and what’s left to pay. The price holds for 15 minutes.
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The printer reports back
Commontray follows the job until the printer says it’s done and how many sides it printed.
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The charge is recorded
Credit is used first. The rest is billed exactly once, even if the network drops mid-charge.
Charge for printing by the page, with color detected on every page.
A 20-page report with one chart in it isn’t a 20-page color job. Most systems charge it as one anyway, because the whole job was sent in color. Commontray looks at each page.
- Pages with no color are charged at the black & white price, even in a color job.
- Color pages are marked in the preview, so nobody is surprised by the price.
- Choosing black & white makes every page black & white, at the black & white price.
It’s the fairest way to charge for color printing, and it removes the most common printing complaint at the front desk.
Print billing that waits for the printer.
Most print billing charges for what was sent. If the printer jams, runs out of toner or never wakes up, the person has still paid, and someone at the front desk has to sort out a refund.
Commontray charges for what the printer reports it actually printed:
- A job that fails is never charged.
- A job someone cancels is never charged.
- A held document nobody releases is deleted, never charged.
- An emailed document nobody confirms is never charged.
And if a printer has a problem that stops printing, people see it before they pay, not after. See printer monitoring.
| What happened | Charged |
|---|---|
| Printer reports all 12 pages printed | 12 pages |
| Printer reports 10 of the 12 printed | 10 pages |
| Printer aborts the job, or goes offline | Nothing |
| Cancelled before printing | Nothing |
| Never released at the printer | Nothing |
Printing credits
Printing credits and allowances, always used first.
Many spaces include printing in a membership: 100 pages a month, or a printing bundle members can buy. Commontray takes it from credit before billing anything.
How credit is used
- The quote shows the balance, what credit covers, what’s left to pay and the balance afterwards.
- Color pages are covered first, because they cost the most.
- A person’s own credit is used before credit their team shares.
- Credit that expires soonest is used first, and only credit valid at this location counts.
- A job fully covered by credit adds nothing to the invoice.
Where the money goes
With the Nexudus integration, members already have printing credit from their plans and bundles. Commontray uses it, then adds what’s left to the member’s next invoice: one line per print type, kept up to date as they print, and written exactly once.
Not on a billing platform? Every charge is in the reports and the CSV export, one row per job with the amount, ready for your own invoicing.
Your price list
Four prices. That’s the whole setup.
Set a price per page for each paper size and mode. Leave one empty and that option simply isn’t offered.
| Paper | Black & white, per page | Color, per page |
|---|---|---|
| A4 | $0.10 | $0.50 |
| Letter | $0.10 | $0.50 |
Every printed side is a page, so two-sided printing counts both sides. Copies multiply the price. Admins can also cap the number of pages in one job.
Not sure what to charge? Our guide on how to charge for printing in a coworking space walks through the options, and the calculator works out what a page really costs you.
Questions
Charging and credit questions
When are people charged?
Only after the printer reports the job as finished. The charge is for the sides it says it printed, never more than the price shown before confirming. A job that fails, is cancelled or is never released costs nothing.
How does Commontray decide what’s a color page?
Every page is checked for color when the document is uploaded, and color pages are marked in the preview. If someone prints in color, pages with no color on them are still charged at the black & white price. If they choose black & white, every page is black & white.
How are double-sided pages and copies priced?
Every printed side counts as a page, so a two-sided sheet is two pages. Copies multiply the price.
Can members use a monthly allowance or prepaid credit?
Yes, through your billing platform. With the Nexudus integration, printing credit from plans, bundles or an admin is used first, and only what it doesn’t cover goes on the member’s invoice.
We don’t have a billing platform. Can we still charge?
Yes. Reports show what each person was charged, and the CSV export has one row per job with the amount, so you can add printing to your own invoices. See reports.
Can we charge different prices for A4 and Letter?
Yes. Each paper size has its own black & white and color price. Leave a price empty and that option isn’t offered, for example color on a mono printer.
Charge for printing without the arguments.
Set four prices and let the printer do the counting. The Space plan includes charging and credits.