topic Local printing in Restaurant Operations

Local printing

Sandro — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 17:59:04 GMT

I need to be able to print orders for wine bottles to the printer assigned to the terminal.

Re: Local printing

rcmck — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 18:12:29 GMT

Are you saying you want them to print to whatever terminal they are sent from or just to a specific terminal printer?

Re: Local printing

Sandro — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 18:17:53 GMT

Yes, have them print from the terminal theyvare sent from. Thanks

Re: Local printing

rcmck — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 18:27:16 GMT

Where do they currently go? A bar printer? It's not really something that you can easily do, I can think of a way that would get it done using item routing but it will be complicated deepening on how many terminals you have. Can you share the reason you need it to print at the same terminal it is sent from, maybe we could come up with another solution.

Re: Local printing

Sandro — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 18:30:20 GMT

I am a server. I order a bottle of wine. I want to give a chit to the Sommelier

Re: Local printing

rcmck — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 18:46:25 GMT

If they already don't print anywhere else the easiest thing would be to just manually print a guest receipt and hand it to them. If they are currently printing somewhere else you can use non printing prep stations to stop them from printing wine bottles from terminals you don't want. Or pick the most centrally located terminal and send all wine bottle to that printer.

Re: Local printing

Sandro — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 18:50:22 GMT

I get it. Yet, not the most efficient when you start adding more bottles to the check, the same again or a different one. Server would have to circle/ highlight the bottle needed.

I feel this is a basic functions that major POS always allow.

Re: Local printing

rcmck — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 19:08:45 GMT

No it would not be a great solution, I think sending to the closest printer and maybe rerouting to another based on service areas (if you have multiple) to one closest in that area would be better. I'm not sure why it's not an option, maybe this post will get it some attention at least.

Re: Local printing

au79teahouse — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 21:05:43 GMT

It's doable with item rerouting. Just make sure you have permission to change the setting and menus in the back-end.

Re: Local printing

rcmck — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 01:14:12 GMT

They want to route right back to the printer next to the terminal it was sent from, do you know a way to do that with item routing easily? Only thing I could think of would be to create a unique revenue center for each terminal and assign them to each one, and create sperate item routes for each one, depending on how many they have that could be a mess and also would ruin the revenue center reporting.

Re: Local printing

au79teahouse — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 03:17:08 GMT

Theoretically, item routing will work if
1) we assign the terminal printer as a prep station and
2) create a ghost prep station with no ticket printer.
3) set items, that needs to be reroute to terminal printer, to print out from the ghost prep station.
4) Reroutes tickets by dining option from ghost station to terminal

I'm not sure if I miss anything. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm curious about how revenue center affects ticket printing. If you don't mind to share your tricks.

Re: Local printing

Sandro — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 11:42:37 GMT

This makes sense. However, how can this be configured if I have 4 terminals on the floor?

Re: Local printing

au79teahouse — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 16:34:29 GMT

On the top of my head, the only workaround would be using item modifier to identify which printer the ticket is going to. You will also need to set all 4 of your terminal printers as a prep station.

For example:

1) first create a menu item, let’s call, Chardonnay.
2) Point “Chardonnay” to a ghost printer so it doesn’t print out a ticket.
3) Under Chardonnay, create a mod group, called terminal (or whichever name works better for you)
4) under the mod group, we will create 4 modifiers that points to each terminal printer with corresponding name something like Btl-char T1 so staff can tell what the item is and which printer the ticket will be printed out at.

We actually don’t need to use item routing because we can set where the item ticket is going to just under the item.

Re: Local printing

rcmck — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 16:38:52 GMT

Sorry I meant to say service areas, the other option to reroute by. I don't see how they will be able to get it routed to a different printer depending on which of the four terminals it is sent from without having multiple dining options or service areas.

Re: Local printing

rcmck — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 23:24:48 GMT

I just set this up myself for fun and it worked perfectly, had no idea a menu item with no prep station would still go to a prep station if a selected modifier was assigned one. (makes sense now that I think about it) Now I need to find an reason to use this, cool workaround!