root / pykota / trunk / docs / pkbcodes.sgml @ 2994

<!-- $Id$ -->

<chapter>
  <title>Manage billing codes with pkbcodes</title>
  <para>Last modified on $Date$</para>
  
  <para>
    Some people like lawyers for example need to be able to invoice their own clients
    for printouts. To address such needs, <application>CUPS</application> features
    the possibility to attach a particular billing code to each print job, and of course,
    <application>PyKota</application> can make use of it.
  </para>  
  
  <para>
    To use a billing code when printing, you have to pass an additionnal argument to the 
    <command>lp</command> command, for example for a client named <literal>smith</literal>
    this could be something like :
    <screen>
$ lp -o job-billing=smith the_file_to_print.ps
    </screen>
  </para>
  
  <para>
    For <application>PyKota</application> to be able to maintain statistics
    per billing code, you first have to add these billing codes to <application>PyKota</application>'s
    database. This is the main goal of the <command>pkbcodes</command> command line tool.
  </para>
  
  <para>
    But <command>pkbcodes</command> also allows you to add a textual description to each billing
    code, to delete them, to reset billing code specific counters, and finally to list
    existing billing codes.
  </para>
  
  <para>
    With the help of the <literal>unknown_billingcode</literal> directive in
    <filename>pykota.conf</filename>, you can decide what happens when a billing
    code is encountered when printing, and this billing code is not yet in
    <application>PyKota</application>'s database. Automatically adding it to
    the database is a common choice, which saves time for the <application>PyKota</application>
    administrator.
  </para>
  
  <para>
    Finally, the <literal>overwrite_jobticket</literal> directive in
    <filename>pykota.conf</filename> allows you to overwrite the job billing
    information at the latest stage of printing, for example if the application used to print
    doesn't allow end users to give a value to the billing code when submitting the print job.
  </para>
  
  <sect1>
    <title>Reference</title>
    <para>
      <cmdsynopsis>
        <command>pkbcodes</command>
        <group choice="opt"><arg>-v</arg><arg>--version</arg></group>
        <group choice="opt"><arg>-h</arg><arg>--help</arg></group>
        <group choice="opt"><arg>-a</arg><arg>--add</arg></group>
        <group choice="opt"><arg>-d</arg><arg>--delete</arg></group>
        <group choice="opt">
          <arg>-D <replaceable>desc</replaceable></arg>
          <arg>--description <replaceable>desc</replaceable></arg>
        </group>
        <group choice="opt"><arg>-l</arg><arg>--list</arg></group>
        <group choice="opt"><arg>-r</arg><arg>--reset</arg></group>
        <group choice="opt"><arg>-s</arg><arg>--skipexisting</arg></group>
      </cmdsynopsis>
    </para>
  </sect1>
</chapter>