PaperCut Integration

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Overview

The PaperCut Bridge Integration automatically synchronizes your coworking space’s customer data and printing credits between Nexudus and PaperCut, a professional print management system. This integration ensures that customers can print using their Nexudus account and printing balance, with usage automatically tracked and billed in Nexudus.

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What this integration does

The integration enables you to:

• Sync customer accounts — Automatically create and maintain PaperCut user accounts based on your Nexudus customer database
• Manage printing credits — Allocate printing credit benefits to customers and keep balances synchronized in real-time
• Track print usage — Monitor what customers print and automatically deduct from their allocated credits
• Charge overages — Automatically bill customers when they exceed their allocated printing credits using Nexudus products
• Maintain account details — Keep PIN codes, card numbers, and access restrictions aligned between both systems

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Who is this for

Printing operators who want to offer printing services as part of their coworking membership or as a paid add-on benefit. The integration is especially valuable if you:

• Use PaperCut (MF/NG) as your print management system
• Want printing costs to appear on customer invoices in Nexudus
• Need to offer printing credit as a membership benefit or product
• Want to track printing consumption without manual reconciliation

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How it works

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Automatic synchronization

The system continuously keeps Nexudus and PaperCut in sync through two mechanisms: Full location sync — Every 60 minutes, Nexudus scans all PaperCut users and matches them to Nexudus customers by email address. This regular scan is necessary because PaperCut doesn’t notify us when printing occurs, so we periodically check for any changes. Real-time customer sync — Whenever something changes about a customer in Nexudus, the system immediately updates their PaperCut account. This includes:

• Email address changes
• Printing option configuration changes
• Printing credit balance updates
• Contract or benefit renewals

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What happens when a customer is synced

When Nexudus prepares a customer for PaperCut, it follows this process: 1. Username generation — The customer’s PaperCut username is derived from their email address with the @ symbol replaced by a dot (for example: john@space.com becomes john.space.com) 2. PIN code — If the customer doesn’t have a PIN code, one is automatically generated 3. Card access — The system reads the customer’s physical card number from their Nexudus profile. If configured, it can use the PIN as the card number instead 4. Account creation — If the customer doesn’t exist in PaperCut yet, their account is created with their full name, email, password, card number, and PIN 5. Printing access rules — The system determines whether the customer should have printing access based on:

• They have free printing enabled, OR
• They have pay-as-you-print enabled, OR
• They have printing credits available

If none of these conditions are met, any existing PaperCut account is removed. This ensures customers without active printing benefits cannot print.

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Printing credit synchronization

Customers can have printing credits allocated through a mapped printing credit benefit. When credits are allocated:

1. Nexudus reads the customer’s current balance from PaperCut
2. It compares this with the last known balance stored in Nexudus
3. It calculates how many pages were printed (the difference)
4. The printed pages are deducted from the customer’s Nexudus printing credits
5. If all credits are consumed, customers can still print but overages will be charged

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Automatic overage billing

When a customer prints beyond their allocated credits:

• Nexudus automatically creates a billable charge on their account
• The charge uses the configured print usage product (set to $1 per page by default)
• The charge appears on the customer’s next invoice
• The customer can see the overage charge in their invoice history

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Before you set up

Before enabling the PaperCut integration, you need: PaperCut requirements:

• PaperCut NG/MF instance installed and running on your network
• The local IP address and port of your PaperCut server (typically 192.168.X.X:9191)
• PaperCut pricing configured in cents or whole credits (example: $0.15 per print = 15 credits)
• An API key configured in PaperCut’s advanced settings

Nexudus requirements:

• A printing credit benefit configured (an extra service marked as “printing credit”)
• A print usage product for charging overages (recommended price: $1)
• The Nexudus Bridge Agent installed and registered on the machine running PaperCut

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Configuration checklist

The integration requires these steps:

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Configuration options

After enabling the integration, you can configure: Printing Credit Type — The extra service benefit that represents printing credits. This is what customers receive when they purchase printing credit products. Keep the price at $1 per credit. Print Usage Product — The product charged automatically when customers exceed their allocated credits. Recommended price: $1 per print for clarity. Location (optional) — Limit synchronization to customers invoiced by a specific location. Leave blank to sync all customers. PIN as Card Number (optional) — If enabled, the customer’s PIN code is used as their PaperCut card number instead of a separate physical card number.

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Key behaviors and edge cases

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Validation before syncing

Before updating a customer in PaperCut, Nexudus validates:

• The customer and location exist
• The integration is enabled with all required settings
• Mapped benefits belong to the business
• No contracts are due for renewal
• All benefit renewals have been processed

If validation fails, syncing stops and a warning is logged. This prevents incomplete or corrupted data from syncing.

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Handling customer status changes

The integration automatically handles:

• New customers — Accounts are created on first sync
• Inactive customers — Their PaperCut accounts are removed if they have no active printing access
• Renewed benefits — Printing credit balances are updated in real-time
• Deleted customers — Their accounts are not removed automatically from PaperCut. Ensure PaperCut access is removed before deleting customers in Nexudus by suspending the customer’s account or removing all printnig credit and unrestricted or free priting options.

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Account conflicts

If a PaperCut card number is already assigned to another customer, Nexudus will not reassign it. This prevents accidental data loss and ensures physical cards remain tied to their original owners.

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Multiple customers with the same email

In some cases, multiple customer records in Nexudus may share the same email address (for example, team accounts or duplicate records). When this happens, the PaperCut Bridge handles them as a unified customer:

• Single PaperCut account — Only one PaperCut account is created for the shared email address
• Preferred customer selection — The system automatically selects a “preferred customer” using this priority:
  1. Customer with a linked user account
  2. Active customer
  3. Individual customer type
  4. Oldest customer (by creation date)
• Aggregated benefits and access — The PaperCut account is created using the preferred customer’s details but includes:
  • All printing credits from all customers with that email
  • Printing access if any of the customers have printing options enabled
  • Benefit renewals are processed for all customers with that email before syncing
  • All cards and PIN codes are validated across all customers
• Shared balance — Printing usage is tracked against the aggregated credit balance from all customers with that email

This approach ensures that customers won’t be locked out of printing due to fragmented account records, and all their credits are pooled together.

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Important implications

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Real-time updates

Unlike older integration methods, changes now sync almost immediately. When a customer:

• Purchases printing credit, it’s available in PaperCut within minutes
• Renews their membership, benefits are updated automatically
• Changes their email, their PaperCut account username is updated

This real-time behavior means customers experience fewer delays and discrepancies between Nexudus and PaperCut.

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Printing without credits

Customers who have the Unrestricted user in PaperCut option enabled can print without allocated credits. Their usage will still be tracked and charged as overages.

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Loss of Printing Access

Customers will lose their ability to print immediately if:

• The customer does not have the setting Unrestricted user in PaperCut or Free unlimited printing enabled in their settings.
• Their last printing credit benefit has expired.

The system removes their PaperCut account automatically, preventing unauthorized access.