When a user or device is subject to more than one quota at the same time, OptimiDoc uses an overlap strategy to decide how those quotas combine. This page explains the four available strategies, exactly how each one behaves, and how to choose the right one for your organisation.
Overview
In many organisations a single print job is covered by several quotas at once. A user might have a personal quota, belong to a department and a group that each carry their own quota, and print to a device that also has a device-level or tag-level quota. When that user releases a job, OptimiDoc must decide which quota — or which combination of quotas — governs the transaction.
The Overlap Strategy is a system-wide setting: it applies to every quota globally and cannot be set per quota or per user. Change it from the Quotas page by clicking the dropdown arrow next to the Add Quota button and choosing Overlap Strategy. The default is Most Restrictive.
How Quotas Are Gathered
Before the strategy is applied, OptimiDoc collects every active quota that applies to the job:
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The user's own quota.
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The quota on the user's department.
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Quotas on every group the user belongs to.
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The device's own quota.
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Quotas on every tag assigned to that device.
The overlap strategy then decides how this set of quotas is evaluated together.
Available Strategies
Most Restrictive (Default)
The job must fit within every applicable quota. As soon as a single hard quota does not have enough remaining balance for the job, the job is blocked; the tightest limit therefore always governs. The job's cost is reserved against all applicable quotas.
Example:
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Personal quota: 100 remaining
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Department quota: 4500 remaining
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Effective limit: 100 — the job is blocked once it would exceed the personal quota.
When to use: the safest option, and the best choice for strict cost control and compliance — no one can exceed any limit that applies to them.
Most Permissive (Least Restrictive)
The job is allowed as long as at least one applicable quota has enough balance, and it is charged against the quota with the most remaining balance. The user benefits from their most generous allowance. The job is only blocked if no quota can cover it (and at least one of those is a hard quota).
Example:
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Personal quota: 100 remaining
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Department quota: 4500 remaining
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Effective limit: 4500 — the job is charged against the department quota.
When to use: when quotas are assigned at several levels but you want users to benefit from the most generous one — for example, when a department allocation is meant to be the real control and personal quotas are only a fallback.
Additive (Sum)
All applicable quotas are pooled. Their remaining balances are summed, and the job is allowed while the combined total covers its cost.
Example:
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Personal quota: 100 remaining
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Department quota: 4500 remaining
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Effective limit: 4600 — the sum of both balances.
When to use: when allowances are meant to stack — for instance, a base personal allowance topped up by a departmental one — giving users the maximum possible allowance from every quota that applies.
Priority-Based
Only the single highest-priority quota is evaluated — the applicable quota with the lowest Priority number — and all other applicable quotas are ignored for that job. The job is then checked, reserved and settled against that one quota alone, exactly as if it were the only quota in play.
Each quota carries its own Priority value (set in the quota's create/edit dialog; default 100, lower number = higher priority). Give the quota that should govern the decision a lower number than the others.
Example:
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Personal quota: 100 remaining, Priority 10
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Department quota: 4500 remaining, Priority 100
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Effective limit: 100 — only the personal quota (Priority 10) is evaluated; the department quota is ignored.
When to use: layered quota hierarchies where one level is meant to override the others — for example, a personal allowance that always takes precedence over a departmental pool.
Tip: give every quota that can overlap a distinct Priority. Quotas that share the same number are tie-broken arbitrarily.
Version note: in 26.07 and earlier the Priority value was not stored, so this strategy evaluated an arbitrary quota and behaved unpredictably. Upgrade to a release containing fix OP-1355 before relying on Priority-based overlap; existing quotas receive the default Priority 100 during the upgrade.
Changing the Overlap Strategy
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Navigate to Printing > Quotas.
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Click the dropdown arrow next to the Add Quota button.
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Hover over Overlap Strategy to expand the submenu.
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Select the desired strategy. The current strategy is marked with a tick.
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The change takes effect immediately and is confirmed with a success notification.
Version note: from the release following 26.07 (fix OP-1528) the chosen strategy is stored in the system configuration, so it survives application restarts and is shared by all cluster nodes. In 26.07 and earlier it was held in memory only and reverted to Most Restrictive on every restart (upgrade, IIS application-pool recycle) — on those versions, re-apply it after each restart.
Strategy Comparison
|
Strategy |
How the job is evaluated |
Best for |
|---|---|---|
|
Most Restrictive |
Must fit within every quota; blocked by the first hard quota that is short |
Strict cost control, compliance |
|
Most Permissive |
Allowed if any one quota can cover it; charged to the fullest |
Flexible environments, generous policies |
|
Additive |
Combined remaining balance of all quotas must cover the job |
Stacking allowances from multiple sources |
|
Priority |
Only the applicable quota with the lowest Priority number is checked |
Layered hierarchies where one quota overrides the rest |
How Quotas Are Enforced During Printing
Quotas use a reserve-then-settle model, so a job is only ever charged for what it actually prints:
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Enforcement happens when a print job is released, and runs after the rules engine — so the estimated cost already reflects any rule that forced black-and-white, duplex or a redirect to another device. (If the estimated cost is zero, quotas are skipped.)
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OptimiDoc gathers all applicable active quotas (as described above) and applies the configured overlap strategy.
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For a hard quota that cannot cover the job, printing is blocked — the job returns to the queue and is not delivered — and the user is told which quota was exceeded.
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For a soft quota that cannot cover the job, printing continues but the quota's soft action is applied — notify only, force black-and-white or force duplex (the same output transforms the rules engine uses).
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If the job is allowed, a Reservation transaction holds the estimated cost, reducing the available balance so concurrent jobs cannot overspend.
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When the job finishes, the reservation is settled: on success it becomes actual usage and a ReservationSettlement transaction records the difference between the estimate and the real cost; if the job fails, the reservation is refunded in full.
Scope: this check governs print jobs at release. Walk-up copying and scanning performed directly at the device are not pre-checked or blocked by quotas.
Tips
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The overlap strategy is a system-wide setting; it cannot be configured per quota or per user.
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Consider how Apply to Members quotas interact with the strategy: a user who has a personal quota and is also a member of a group whose quota applies to members individually will have both evaluated together under the chosen strategy.
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Review the Quota History page to confirm the chosen strategy produces the behaviour you expect.
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