Managing Printers and what they print

This article will help you set up a new printer as well as configure each individual printers settings.

Last updated 27 Feb 2024

Jump to:

• Introduction
• Adding a new printer
  • Replacing a broken printer
• What can you print?
  
  • Receipt settings
  • Docket and Summary settings
• Troubleshooting

---

Introduction

Printers. One of the most important, pieces of hardware in your venue. If configured correctly, printers can really increase the productivity and efficiency of your venue.

We provide two different types of printers:

• Thermal printers are fast and quiet, suitable for bar areas and for receipt printing
• Impact printers are quite loud, but also have the ability to print in multiple colours and utilise 2-3 ply paper, more suited to kitchen areas.

When it comes to setting up your printers, you should think about:

• Their location (must be close to a network Ethernet port and power),
• Their use: for receipts (from which tills), dockets (for what items), kitchen instructions

In order to access the settings in this article, you will need to have the permissions:

• Administration > Venues (Manage), and
• Administration > Hardware Management (Manage).

---

Adding a New Printer

Before we look at settings, you will need to add the printer to your Kobas account by going to Administration > Venues > Venue Details, and selecting the Preparation tab. Click on New Venue Printer, and you will see this popup:

Give your printer a Name and Description. We advise naming printers according to their location, for example, Kitchen Printer, Bar Printer 1, Bar Printer 2, etc.

Printers provided by Kobas are “Controlled by Server” – select the printer make and model in the Printer Type dropdown, and add the assigned IP address. If you are unsure of the IP address, contact the Support Help Desk. We no longer support USB printers that are "Controlled by Till".

You can select these options – hovering over the “i” symbol shows more information on these:

Replacing a Broken Printer

If you are replacing an old printer with a new one bought from Kobas, there is no need to change any settings on Kobas Cloud!

The printer will arrive pre-programmed to the previous printer’s IP address, and you will simply need to plug the printer in and connect all the wires – the power cable, the network cable, and any external items eg. a till drawer. Once this is complete and the printer is turned on, it will take the place of the previous printer on the network and work as needed.

---

What can you print?

• Receipts - printed and given to customers, either before (bills) or after (receipts) payment.

• Dockets - instructions for an order to be made, and can be directed to different places as needed within the venue (usually kitchens and bars).

• Order Summary - are similar to dockets but include all elements of the order, allergens, and customer information. These are useful for the collection window of takeaways.

---

Receipt Settings

Defining where and when receipt print

You can customise when and where your receipts print, as well as what they look like. This is completed within Administration > Venues > Venue Detail on the Tills tab.

You can choose a Primary Printer where your receipts go to for that till. If you do not define a primary printer, the till user will be able to decide where to print each receipt (useful for iPads on table service). Select your till, click Edit and scroll down to the Printing section of the popup.

• Print receipt when a tab is settled? – ticking this box will mean that a receipt is printed every time a tab is settled/paid.
• Print receipt when an order is settled? – ticking this box will mean that a receipt is printed every time an order is settled/paid.

We normally advise to keep these boxes unticked – it will save paper and stop any unnecessary receipts being printed for customers that don’t want them.

Defining how receipts look

To customise how your receipts look, again head back to Administration > Venues > Venue Details, and choose the Sales & Marketing tab.

1. Upload your logo under Header Image to include this at the top of your receipts.
2. You can also choose to omit your venue name from the receipt (useful if your image already contains your name)
3. Choose the layout of your receipt (Compact or Detailed) and decide whether to include tips. You can hover over the “i” symbol for more information on each of these settings.
4. If you are using the Kobas customer loyalty rewards system, points will be displayed in the footer of the receipt and can be activated/deactivated in: Kobas System Preferences > Show preferences in: Loyalty accrues points
5. You can update your physical address, telephone number or VAT number on a receipt here: Administration > Venues > Venue Details > Details or Administration > Venues > Venue Details > Financial Settings
6. To customise the text at the bottom of the receipt, add your preferred message into the text box. You can use the following HTML tags in this box:

<b> </b> - any text between these tags will show as bold
<br> - adds a single line break
<center></center> - any text between these tags will be aligned in the centre of the receipt
<p></p> - text within these tags are treated as a paragraph. There will be a blank line above and below.
<strong></strong> - this is used to add emphasis. In this case, any text between these tags will show as bold

Where to find receipts

Receipts are stored in the Daily Sales by Order Report. You can find this report by navigating to Reports > Revenue Analysis > Daily Sales by Order. Once you’ve selected a date and venue, click on the View button to continue. Under the Receipt column, you’ll notice a green paper icon, which will display the receipt when clicked.

   

---

Docket Settings

You can control docket printing based on either EPoS Item Category (eg. food items to kitchen, drink items to bar) or Location (print orders from X till to X printer).

Define by EPoS Item Category

Go to Administration > Venues > Venue Details and choose the Preparation tab. Choose your printer and press Assign:

Here, you can assign entire Lead Types or Categories to this printer by ticking the box next to each one.

In the above example, this is a Kitchen Printer and needs to print all food items, however, Snacks are kept behind the bar. So we have stopped Snacks from printing at "Kitchen Printer", and we would instead choose this category to be printed at the Bar printer.

This can be overridden in each individual EPoS Item within the Item (PLU) Manager. Choose the item, then the Item Preparation Printers tab:

In the first dropdown, choose the venue at which you would like this item to print, and in the second dropdown, choose the desired printer. You can also remove a printer that has been automatically assigned to the category, for that individual item.

Define by location: Printer Suppression

Suppression rules control where work dockets are sent when an order is processed through a specific till. This is usually set up during the installation of a venue, but you may wish to change these settings.

Example: In your venue, Till 1 is in the bar and Till 2 is in the dining area. Both of these tills have printers attached to print customer receipts.

The printer on the bar is set up to print dockets for drinks items, and when an order is entered on Till 2 (dining area), the printer prints a docket to alert the bartender to make the drinks. However, when a drinks order is entered on Till 1 (on the bar), there is no need to print a docket as the bartender has taken the order directly from the customer.

In this example, we would suppress dockets being printed from Till 1 on the bar printer, but allow a docket to still print when a drinks order is made from Till 2.

To modify these changes, go to Administration > Venues > Venue Details and choose the Tills tab. Choose which till you would like to manage, then click on Manage Printer Suppression:

In the first dropdown, choose the printer at which you would like to suppress dockets from this till.

In the second dropdown, choose whether you would like to suppress these dockets at all times or at specific times.

If you choose the option At Specific Times, the popup will expand and allow you to choose days and times at which you would like the suppression to be in place. 

Summary settings

If you wish any of your printers to print a summary docket automatically for each order, you can select the appropriate setting in Administration > Venues > Venue Details > Preparation.

---

Troubleshooting

As with all hardware, it is unfortunately likely that you will encounter an issue at some point. Certain hardware malfunctions are often unavoidable, but taking care of your printers will help extend their already robust lifespan.

Keeping them clean, regularly emptying any paper clippings which may have built up and only using good quality paper/ribbons will do a great deal to prevent sudden jams or breakdowns during service.

Printers themselves do a pretty good job of telling you what’s wrong with them, so if your printer stops working you generally have a good idea as to why, but here are some basic steps you can follow to try and bring it back to life:

• Ensure the printer is powered on. Power it off for 10 seconds and then on again for good measure.
• Check for paper jams or paper outages.
• Discover if it is using USB or LAN, and ensure the cable is connected to the printer and till/wall correctly.
• If it is a USB printer, check that the, till it is connected to, is powered on and the EPoS is running correctly.
• Close and reload the EPoS for good measure.

 

If you need any more help with managing your printers, please don't hesitate to get in touch with our Support Help Desk.