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Users, notifications & settings
Everything under Settings: who can log in and what they can do, how and when MeterBeam notifies you, and the thresholds that drive alerts and fulfillment.
Users and roles
Add people under Settings → Users with an email, a display name, an initial password, and a role. Everyone gets their own login — please don't share accounts; the audit trail and 2FA both depend on it.
| Role | Can | Typical person |
|---|---|---|
| viewer | See everything. Change nothing. Run and export reports. | A customer's office manager, your bookkeeper, an auditor. |
| operator | Everything a viewer can, plus create and approve supply proposals and manage shipments. | Your supplies/dispatch person. |
| admin | Everything: sites, collectors, users, settings, billing. | Owner, service manager, IT lead. |
Dealers: accounts can be bound to a single customer organization, so a customer's staff can log in and see only their own sites. Use the New customer — onboarding wizard to create the org, its first site, an org-bound admin, and the installer link in one step, with an optional welcome email.
Changing your password
Under Settings → Password, enter your current password, then the new one twice, and click Change password. New passwords must be at least 8 characters and are checked against known breach lists. For safety, changing your password signs out every other session — if someone had your old cookie, it stops working immediately. Forgot it entirely? Use Forgot password? on the sign-in page for an emailed reset link.
Two-factor authentication
Any account can turn on TOTP two-factor authentication under Settings → Two-factor authentication → Set up authenticator. Scan the QR code with Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, 1Password, Authy, or any TOTP app, enter the 6-digit code to confirm, and save the recovery codes it shows you — each works once and they're the only way back in if you lose the phone. We strongly recommend it for every admin.
Notification channels
- Email — enter recipients (comma-separated), then either leave the transport as MeterBeam's (alerts arrive from
alerts@meterbeam.com) or supply your own SMTP host, port, user, and password so alerts come from your domain. Send test alert confirms delivery before you rely on it. - Telegram — create a bot via @BotFather, paste the bot token and your numeric chat ID. Handy for a tech who lives on their phone.
- Per-customer routing — a customer org can have its own recipients and Telegram chat. Anything not set per org falls back to the global channels. SMTP transport is shared; only recipients differ.
Weekly toner-to-ship report
Enable it, choose a day and hour, and set the ship window. Every week you'll get one email listing every cartridge across every site that will run out inside the window — including any already below the alert threshold. Many dealers run their whole supply routine off this one email. Send report now previews it.
Global thresholds
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Toner alert at | 15% | A cartridge at or below this is alerted and marked SHIP NOW. |
| Waste alert at | 10% space left | Waste toner container warning. |
| Offline after | 24 hours | How long a device can be silent before it's OFFLINE. |
| Check every | 60 minutes | Polling interval for collectors. |
| Service alerts | on, persisting 15 min | Jams, doors, service-requested, toner-out, tray-missing only alert if the condition persists this long — filters out someone clearing a jam. |
Site-level and device-level overrides (set on the site page or device detail) win over these. A high-volume production device might warrant 25%; a rarely-used desktop printer, 5%.
What sends notifications
Tick the event types you want delivered: toner low, paper jam, waste near full, service requested, device offline, toner out / cartridge missing, maintenance overdue, tray missing / output full. Anything unticked is still recorded and visible in the portal — it just won't email you. Collector-down and shelf-stock alerts always notify, because both interrupt monitoring for an entire site.
API keys
Admins can create API keys under Settings for integrations — pulling meter data into a billing system, or connecting an AI assistant via the MCP integration. Keys are sent as X-Api-Key or Authorization: Bearer; treat them like passwords and revoke any you stop using.