Disclosed is a method and a system for automatically outputting documents based on at least a users credentials. A highest billing tier for processing the image data from a plurality of billing tiers and which is based on credentials for the specified user is selected, and the image data is processed and output. Alternatively, if the highest billing tier selected is not authorized by a users credentials, then a next highest billing tier is selected in accordance with the credentials, and the job is automatically processed and then output. The credentials may be based on an available amount of credit in a users account (e.g., to print at billing cost) or a users authorization (e.g., to print color documents), for example. The tiers may be based on one or more thresholds, such as a percentage of color content in a document.
