The user balance feature: prepaid printing credits for your organization

The user balance feature lets you give each user a prepaid credit balance that gets charged when they print. You can use it to enforce prepaid printing - where users must have enough credits before they can start a job - or as a usage tracking tool for billing and invoicing.

Table of contents

• Two modes: enforced balance vs. usage tracking
• Setting up the balance system
• How print costs are calculated
• How charging works during a print
• Starting balance
• Topping up users
• Auto-refill
• Discount rules
• Per-group overrides
• Exempting users from balance requirements
• Cancelled and failed prints
• What users see
• External integrations

Two modes: enforced balance vs. usage tracking

The balance system can run in one of two modes:

Enforced balance

Users must have enough credits to cover the estimated cost of a print before they can start it. If they don't have enough, the print is blocked. This is the default mode and the one most organizations use - it works like a prepaid system where users need credits to print.

Usage tracking

Print costs are recorded but never enforced. Users are never blocked for insufficient balance and can go negative. This is useful if you want to track printing costs for billing or reporting purposes without actually preventing users from printing. You can pull usage data via the API or webhooks and send invoices through your own billing system.

Setting up the balance system

1. Go to Settings > Organization.
2. Find the Quotas, limits & balance section.
3. Enable User balance system.
4. Choose your mode (Enforced balance or Usage tracking).
5. Configure the default settings (starting balance, auto-refill, etc.).
6. Save.

Default balance settings

When using enforced mode, you'll see these additional options:

• Starting balance - The initial credit amount new users receive when they join a group
• Auto-refill balance periodically - Automatically top up balances on a schedule (see Auto-refill)
• Require sufficient balance to print - Block prints when the user can't afford the estimated cost
• Skip users with insufficient balance in AutoPrint - AutoPrint picks the next eligible job instead of jobs from users who can't afford to print

How print costs are calculated

Print costs are estimated before a print starts, based on several factors:

• Material cost - Calculated from the filament usage in the Gcode file (converted to grams). Uses the price set on the specific spool if available, or falls back to the material type price, or a default cost per gram.
• Material markup - A percentage added on top of the base material cost.
• Machine run cost - A cost per hour for using the printer, multiplied by the estimated print time.
• Energy cost - Calculated from the printer's power consumption and the cost per kWh you've configured.
• Labor cost - An optional labor rate per hour.

These cost settings can be configured at the organization level, and optionally overridden per printer. You can find them in Settings > Print cost and in each printer's individual settings.

Using estimates as final cost

By default, SimplyPrint adjusts the final cost after a print finishes based on actual usage. If the print used less material or finished faster than estimated, the user gets a partial refund. If it used more, they're charged the difference.

If you prefer predictable, upfront pricing, you can enable "Always use pre-print estimates as final cost". With this on, the estimated cost calculated before printing is used as the final charge - no post-print adjustments.

How charging works during a print

Here's what happens step by step:

1. Before printing - SimplyPrint estimates the print cost and applies any discount rules. If enforced mode is on, it checks whether the user can afford it.
2. At print start - The estimated cost is reserved from the user's balance. The money is deducted from their available balance but held separately until the print finishes.
3. After the print finishes - SimplyPrint calculates the actual cost. If it's less than the estimate, the difference is refunded. If it's more, the additional amount is charged. The reservation is cleared.

Starting balance

You can set a starting balance that new users receive when they join a group. This is configured either in the organization-wide balance settings (applies to all groups) or in the quota policy for a specific user group (overrides the default).

When a user is first assigned to a group with a starting balance, the amount is automatically credited to their account. If you change the starting balance later, existing users in the group will receive the difference - so raising the starting balance from $10 to $15 would give existing users an additional $5.

Topping up users

Admins with the "Manage user balance" permission can top up any user's balance manually:

1. Go to the user's profile or the organization user list.
2. Use the balance management option to add funds.
3. Optionally include a reason (e.g. "Monthly allocation", "Lab fee payment").

You can also adjust a user's balance in either direction - adding or removing funds with a required reason for audit purposes.

Auto-refill

Auto-refill automatically adds a set amount to each user's balance on a recurring schedule. This is useful if you want to give users a regular allowance without manually topping them up.

Configure auto-refill in the organization-wide balance settings, or override it per user group in the quota policy editor:

• Amount - How much to add each period
• Period - Daily, weekly, monthly, or a custom number of days
• Anchor - When the refill triggers: calendar boundaries (start of month/week/day), first use, or when the user joined

Discount rules

You can create discount rules that reduce print costs for certain user groups or during specific time periods.

Each discount rule has:

• Name - A label for your reference
• Discount percentage - How much to reduce the cost
• Date range - Optional start and end dates (leave empty for a permanent discount)
• User groups - Apply to all groups or specific ones

When multiple discount rules match, the best (highest) discount is applied. Discounts are applied to the estimated cost before it's charged to the user's balance.

Per-group overrides

The balance system uses the same policy inheritance as quotas. You can configure different balance settings for different user groups:

• Balance mode - One group can use enforced balance while another uses usage tracking
• Starting balance - Different starting amounts per group
• Auto-refill - Different refill schedules and amounts per group
• Enforcement - Override whether balance is required to print, per group

Set these in the quota policy editor for each user group, under the "Balance" section. Check "Override organization default for this group" to set group-specific values.

Exempting users from balance requirements

You can exempt specific user groups from all balance requirements. Exempt users can print freely regardless of their balance - useful for staff, admins, or other groups that shouldn't be restricted.

Enable the Balance exempt option in the group's quota policy.

Cancelled and failed prints

What happens to the reserved balance when a print is cancelled or fails is configurable per user group:

Cancelled prints - By default, the reserved amount is charged (not refunded). You can change this, and optionally set a grace period:

• Grace minutes - If cancelled within this many minutes, the full amount is refunded
• Grace percentage - If cancelled before reaching this progress percentage, the full amount is refunded

Failed prints - By default, the reserved amount is refunded. You can change this to charge for failed prints if you prefer.

These settings are in the quota policy editor under "When a print is cancelled" and "When a print fails".

What users see

Balance in the quota status dropdown

Users see their current balance in the quota status area in the topbar. The display shows the balance amount alongside any active quotas and limits.

Transaction history

Under Account > Quota & balance, users can view their full transaction history with filtering by type:

• Top-ups - Manual additions by an admin
• Prints - Charges for completed prints
• Refunds - Partial or full refunds from cancelled/failed/overpaid prints
• Auto-refill - Periodic automatic balance additions
• Adjustments - Manual corrections by an admin

Each transaction shows the date, type (color-coded badge), a description, the amount (green for credits, red for debits), and the resulting balance.

Insufficient balance warnings

When a user tries to print without enough balance (in enforced mode), they're blocked with a message explaining why. In the print queue, items from users with insufficient balance show a warning icon visible to admins.

AutoPrint behavior

When configured, AutoPrint skips queue items from users who don't have enough balance for the estimated cost of that specific job. It picks the next eligible job instead, keeping your printers busy.

External integrations

The balance system is fully accessible via the SimplyPrint API. You can top up users, adjust balances, pull transaction history, and listen for real-time webhook events when charges, refunds, or top-ups happen.

This is particularly useful for connecting SimplyPrint to external systems like PaperCut, your own payment portal, or accounting software.

For details on API integration, see our article on integrating user balances with external systems via the API.

Updated on: 20/02/2026