Auto-Bill Settings in Argos Communication Service

The Argos Communication Service can be configured to auto-bill records that meet a certain criteria for number of pages, color/B&W, and/or media name. These jobs can either be billed to a specific project number, or sent directly to the Recycle Bin.
 
These settings are configured per Communication Service.
 

  1. Browse to c:\Program Files (x86)\Sepialine\Argos7\Communication
  2. Open AppServer.Communication.Service.exe.config in Notepad
  3. Adjust settings as defined below
  4. Stop and Start Argos Communication Service from Services.msc
  5. Repeat on any additional servers running Argos Communication Service

 

Auto-bill values

There are four values that can be defined.
 

  1. JobsAutoBillPageCount - This value is required to be higher than 0 for any auto-bill functionality to work. If you are planning to auto-bill only based on color or media, set it to something high, like 10000.
  2. JobsAutoBillColor - This value determines which types of jobs are automatically ignored. To ignore BW jobs only, set it to 0. To ignore regardless of color attribute, set it to 3.
    1. 0 = Monochrome
    2. 1 = Color
    3. 2 = Undetected
    4. 3 = Any
  3. JobsAutoBillMediaExpression - This value determines which media types are affected by the above rules, and uses regular expressions to define it. Regular expressions are a powerful method of defining a search criteria. Here are some examples:
    1. To affect all media, use .*
    2. To affect only the “Small” media, use ^Small$
    3. To affect any media with “Small” in the name, use Small
    4. To affect only the “Small” and “Large” media, use ^(Small|Large)$
    5. To affect any media with the word “Small” OR “Large” in the name, use Small|Large

  4. JobsAutoBillBillingCodeID - If you want to ignore the records meeting the above criteria and send them to the recylcle bin, leave this value blank. Otherwise, enter the SQL database ID for the Billing Code that the data should be assigned to. The IDs are stored in the ID column of the Argos7.dbo.ArgBillingCodes table. If you are unsure of how to access this, contact Sepialine Support for assistance.

 
 

Regular expressions, or Regex, are powerful and can be very complicated. There are a number of “Regex Tester” websites you can use to test your expressions to verify that they will match your desired media names. Sepialine Support is available to assist as well.


 
Common Scenarios

Here are a few ways our customers have utilized the auto-bill features.


How do I send black and white prints to my small format MFPs to the recycle bin, but still get the popup for BW prints to other small format printers?
 

  1. Create a new media specifically for the MFP devices (in this example, “Small MFP”
  2. Enter the following in the Communication Service JobsAutoBill settings:
    <add key="JobsAutoBillPageCount" value="10000"></add>
    <add key="JobsAutoBillColor" value="0"></add>
    <add key="JobsAutoBillMediaExpression" value="^Small MFP$"></add>
    <add key="JobsAutoBillBillingCodeId" value="2"></add>
  3. Restart the Argos Communication Service

 
 
How do I assign all print/copy jobs that are BW and under 5 pages to an overhead project?
 

  1. Locate the ID of your overhead project in the Argos7 database (in this example, it is “50”)
  2. Enter the following in the Communication Service JobsAutoBill settings:
    <add key="JobsAutoBillPageCount" value="5"></add>
    <add key="JobsAutoBillColor" value="0"></add>
    <add key="JobsAutoBillMediaExpression" value=".*"></add>
    <add key="JobsAutoBillBillingCodeId" value="50"></add>
  3. Restart the Argos Communication Service

 
 

 Once you have your settings defined, be sure to make a copy in a Notepad file and keep it safe. You’ll need to re-enter this information if you upgrade Argos to a newer version.

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