Set up printers and the cash drawer

All plans

Printing works on every plan. A printer driven by a second device needs that device paired, which is part of Plus.

Brindola prints receipts, kitchen tickets and register reports on thermal receipt printers (ESC/POS) connected by USB, by network or through the computer’s print queue, and opens a cash drawer through a printer. Printing needs no internet.

Adding a printer

1. 1Add it
2. 2Choose what it prints
3. 3Set paper and characters
4. 4Test print
5. 5Connect the drawer

Before you start

You need	Why
Permission to change hardware settings	Printers is under Settings → Printing, on the main device; an owner or manager has it.
A USB printer plugged in and switched on, or a network printer’s address	A network printer prints its address on its self-test slip, or shows it on its own web page.
The roll width	80 mm or 57 mm.

If you chose a printer during first run, it is already there as a receipt printer.

1. Add the printer

Open Settings → Printing → Printers.

• USB or print queue: under Attached to this terminal, Brindola lists the printers plugged into this computer. Select Add this printer. Look again scans once more. Print queues are listed on Windows only.
• Network: network printers do not announce themselves. Select Add a printer, choose Network (TCP/IP) under How it is connected, and type the Host or IP address. The Port is 9100 unless the printer’s manual says otherwise.
• Office printer: for bills on A4 or Letter paper, choose Office printer (A4 or Letter sheets) and the Sheet size. See Office paper.

Give it a Name staff will recognise: Counter, Kitchen, Bar.

2. Choose what it prints

Under What it prints, tick one or more:

Role	Prints
Customer receipts	Bills and receipts handed to the guest.
Kitchen tickets	Order tickets, sent here by the stations that name this printer.
Register reports	X and Z reports. With no report printer, they print on the receipt printer.

A kitchen printer also has to be chosen for its station, under Settings → Hardware → Stations: set the station’s output to Printer or Both and pick the printer. See Set up a kitchen screen.

3. Set the paper and the characters

• Paper width: 80 mm or 57 mm, the roll the printer takes.
• Character set: select Identify on the printer’s row first. It reports the printer’s model and the font set it actually has. Then choose:

Character set	Use when
Latin only (safest)	Receipts in a Latin-script language. The default.
Transliterate to Latin	The printer has no font for your script. Georgian, Cyrillic, Greek, Armenian and Hebrew print in Latin letters.
Unicode — needs firmware that supports it	The printer’s firmware prints Unicode.
Code page 852 (Central European)	Central European letters on a printer with that code page.

If Georgian or another script comes out blank or as question marks, the printer has no font for it: choose Transliterate to Latin.

• Blank lines before the cut: 4 by default. Raise it if the cut eats the last line.
• Driven by: which device sends this printer its jobs. Whichever device is master suits a printer on the main device. A printer plugged into a paired terminal is driven by that terminal.

Select Add printer (or Save changes).

4. Test it

On the printer’s row:

• Test print prints a slip showing the paper width, the character set, a width ruler and your venue’s own text, and sounds the beeper. If the ruler runs off the edge, the paper width is wrong. If letters are missing, change the character set.
• Buzzer sounds the beeper without using paper.
• Identify shows the printer’s status: Ready, Offline, Out of paper, Cover open, Paper low.

5. Connect the cash drawer

A cash drawer plugs into a receipt printer, and Brindola opens it through that printer. Under Cash drawer on the same page:

1. Choose the printer in Kick through printer.
2. Under Kick on, choose when it opens: Cash tender (the default), Register open, Register close.
3. Select Test kick, then Save.

Staff open the drawer at other times with Open drawer on the Register page, which asks for a reason. The drawer never opens in training mode.

Receipts: what prints and when

Under Settings → Printing → Documents, the Receipt & bill tab sets the logo, header and footer lines and the Document language, which can differ from the screen’s language. Under When receipts print:

• Print the paid receipt automatically when an order closes (on by default).
• Print a refund receipt automatically when a refund is applied (on by default).

The bill before payment always prints on demand: Bill, then Print bill. To reprint a receipt, find the order on the Orders page and select Receipt; it prints marked as a copy. The Kitchen ticket tab has the kitchen’s own language and up to three copies.

Office paper

An office printer prints bills and receipts on A4 or Letter, on demand, from the bill preview and the Orders page; the automatic receipt at close always goes to the roll. It prints through the computer’s own printer setup. On Windows, a PDF reader must be installed.

Questions

The test print came out blank or with question marks. What is wrong?

The printer has no font for the characters. Select Identify, then choose Transliterate to Latin under Character set, or Unicode if the printer supports it.

How does an order taken on a tablet print in the kitchen?

Every device sees every order, and the device set in Driven by for the kitchen printer prints it. That device has to be on and connected.

A printer was off during service. Do the missed tickets print when it comes back?

Only jobs from the last ten minutes. Older tickets do not print automatically: reprint a kitchen ticket with Print ticket on the kitchen screen, or a receipt from the Orders page.

Can I use a Bluetooth or serial receipt printer?

Not today. Receipt and kitchen printers connect by USB, by network or through the computer’s print queue.

Is there a list of failed print jobs?

No. A failed job shows a message on the device that sent it. Reprint from the kitchen screen or from the Orders page.

Do I need a fiscal printer?

Only where your country requires one. It is set up separately, under Settings → Sales → Fiscal; the country guides under In your country say what applies.