Papercut Topup Cards

[fiza]

Does anyone on here use Papercut with the topup card option? This is where you sell topup cards similar to PAYG topups (you print them yourselves) and students then activate these on their accounts to enable them to print.

 

if you do then can you let me know how its working out for you? We are thinking of doing this.

[localzuk]

We do it for staff, as we limit their printing and any extra is added by using the topup cards. Works fine.

[fiza]

We do it for staff, as we limit their printing and any extra is added by using the topup cards. Works fine.

 

Who prints the topup cards? What are they printed on - paper, card or other?

 

Do staff have to pay for the topup cards? Is it done per department?

 

Who issues the cards? Have you delegated this to, say, the LRC?

[localzuk]

We pre print them in batches of a couple of hundred on card, and they are handed out by one of our SMT.

 

There is no payment involved. It is used merely as a method to make staff justify needing more print credit.

[foofighterjim]

We did this with our sixth form, we would give them an acceptable amount of credit every two weeks (acceptable was defined by the head of sixth form). If they needed to print beyond this they would ask the head of sixth form for more credit as @localzuk says no money changed hands it was an exercise in awareness. We found it got the sixth form printing down by about 1/3rd.

 

We printed on normal paper the rest was up to the head of sixth form. I doubt that model would have worked on a larger scale though.

[fiza]

We pre print them in batches of a couple of hundred on card, and they are handed out by one of our SMT.

 

There is no payment involved. It is used merely as a method to make staff justify needing more print credit.

 

Silly question but do you have a special printer to print the cards on?

[localzuk]

Nope. Normal laser printer.

[fiza]

Do the cards come in A4 sheets like labels? Like this? Avery C32011-25 Business Cards, Quick and Clean Single Sided Matte Finish: Amazon.co.uk: Office Products

 

Sorry for all the dumb questions but I need to get a grip on all associated costs.

[localzuk]

The app produces a word document, which you print however you want.

[rj_mayer]

I'm not sure I understand why you don't just apply a credit on the Papercut admin interface, if you are charging users. Just give the person handling the cash the necessary rights, train them, and away you go... No need for printing vouchers, I would say. Sorry if I'm missing something...

[localzuk]

I'm not sure I understand why you don't just apply a credit on the Papercut admin interface, if you are charging users. Just give the person handling the cash the necessary rights, train them, and away you go... No need for printing vouchers, I would say. Sorry if I'm missing something...

 

Why make it an admin job when the user can do it themselves? Its more logical to make the end user do it rather than make a member of staff do it. Staff have other things they should be doing.

[Norphy]

We give our students a set amount of credit at the beginning of the year. If they exceed it, they either have to buy a PaperCut voucher with their ePurse or beg one from their tutors.

 

Works well enough here

[rj_mayer]

Why make it an admin job when the user can do it themselves? Its more logical to make the end user do it rather than make a member of staff do it. Staff have other things they should be doing.

 

It sounds like it is already an admin job, printing/dispensing these cards... At our place, we find that student printing is so minimal that we just absorb it, at no cost to the student. Staff can't print to personal accounts, but have to go through a host of shared budgets, according to the job in hand.

[Edu-IT]

It sounds like it is already an admin job, printing/dispensing these cards... At our place, we find that student printing is so minimal that we just absorb it, at no cost to the student. Staff can't print to personal accounts, but have to go through a host of shared budgets, according to the job in hand.

You can print a batch of cards, pop them in a draw, job done. If you were applying it for the user you'd have to sign on, find their account, add the credit.

[fiza]

manually adding the credit would be a longer job that you would have to train someone to do. Any staff member can sell a card. My plan would be to put the cards in the LRC and they sell them as they would stationary.

[Big_Ted]

The top up cards are handy things.

I have seen them sold next to mars bars in vending machines