FooodPosWiki

Print log

The Print log, which took the place of Kitchen problems in 0.2.55. Needs attention at the top, the kitchen tickets that are not on paper, with Retry now, Print on another printer, It printed, Print again, Don't print, Print here and Dismiss all; under it, every print of the last 14 days on this POS, with All and Failed only, the printer, the search, Today's count, the details of each print and Clear log. On the Windows and the Android POS.

Who uses it:ManagerCashierWaiterKitchenWhere:Windows POSAndroid POS
On this page

The Print log is one screen for everything this POS has printed, or tried to.

  • At the top, under Needs attention: the kitchen tickets that are not on paper yet, each with the buttons to put it right. This part is drawn only while something needs a person.
  • Under it: every print of the last 14 days on this POS, printed or failed. Receipts, bills, kitchen tickets, readings, reports, test prints: everything that goes to a printer is written here, with the printer it went to and what came of it.

The log is kept on this POS only. It is never sent to the cloud, and each POS has its own.

Before you start

  • Everyone may open it. No right is asked to read the log.
  • Print again on a kitchen ticket puts a second copy in the kitchen, so it is offered only to someone with Reprint a kitchen ticket (under Kitchen Queue / KDS in the POS access groups).
  • At this outlet (the outlet's tickets that no POS is printing) is shown on a Main or Sub POS only.

Where to open it

There are three ways, and each opens the same screen:

  • Tap ⚙, then 🖨️ Print log, the first line of the menu. See The Settings menu.
  • On the red kitchen banner of the table screen or the sales screen, press Open.
  • Tap ⚙, Hardware, then Print log in the list, just under Printer. See Hardware.

A kitchen display has a Print log button in its own Settings, and a kiosk has it in its staff menu's Settings. There it is the log alone: they never had Kitchen problems. See Kitchen screen settings.

The kitchen banner, on the table screen and the sales screen: Open goes to the Print log.
  1. Dismiss: everything the banner shows goes, for good, on every POS of the outlet, and is not printed by itself again. Print it again from the bill's Reprint ticket if the kitchen still wants it.
  2. Open: opens the Print log, with the tickets at the top under Needs attention.

The screen, part by part

This is the Windows POS, with one kitchen ticket that did not print. The Android POS is below.

The Print log (Windows): Needs attention at the top, the log of every print under it.
  1. Close: back to the screen you came from.
  2. Needs attention: the kitchen tickets that need a person, with their buttons. Drawn only while there is something to act on; with nothing, the log has the whole screen. See Needs attention, ticket by ticket.
  3. Today: 152 printed, 3 failed: today's prints on this POS, since midnight. Printed counts every print that reached the printer or Windows; failed counts the failed ones and those Windows never confirmed.
  4. Kept on this POS only, the last 14 days: what the log is. Older prints drop off by themselves, and so do the oldest when there are more than 2,000.
  5. All / Failed only: every print, or only the ones that went wrong. On Windows, Failed only shows Sent, not confirmed prints too.
  6. All printers: choose one printer to see only its prints. The list holds every printer in the log: Receipt printer, and the others by name and how they are reached.
  7. Bill or ticket number: type part of a bill or ticket number, a table or a station. It looks in the For part of each print.
  8. Clear log: empties the log on this POS, after asking. See Clear the log.
  9. A print: the time (with the date for an earlier day), the paper and what it was for, and under it the printer and its connection. A failed print says why, in red: here the printer is switched off or unplugged. Tap a print to see all of it. See One print in full.
  10. The result: Printed in green (the printer took it), Sent in grey (handed to Windows, which does not say more), Sent, not confirmed in grey (still waiting in Windows when the POS stopped watching), Failed in red.

The newest print is at the top. The screen reads the log again by itself a moment after anything prints, so you can keep it open while you print a test.

There is no reprint button here. Every paper is printed again where it always was: a receipt from Last bill, a kitchen ticket from the bill's Reprint ticket, a reading from the day end.

What is in the log

Every paper this POS sends to a printer is written down, through the one door every paper goes through:

PaperWhen
ReceiptA paid bill's receipt and its copy, a kiosk's receipt
BillPrint bill, and a Main POS's bill for its Sub
Kitchen ticket, Cancel slip, Master slip, Bump slip, LabelThe kitchen's papers
QR ordering slip, Queue slip, Kiosk order slipA table's QR code, the wait queue's QR, a kiosk order
Kept item slip, Deposit slip, Invoice, Payment receipt, Voucher slipKept items, deposits, Pay later, Give voucher
X reading, Z reading, ReportA shift's slip, the day end, POS reports
Card terminal slipA card terminal's settlement
Test printThe test prints of the printers
PaperAnything else

A cash drawer opening on its own is not a print, and is not in the log. Nothing of the paper's contents is kept: only what it was for, such as the bill or ticket number.

A paper asked for on a POS with no printer set for it is written down too, as Failed, with No printer is set for this.

One print in full

Tap any print. A window shows every part of it.

One print in full: here a receipt that did not print.
  1. Time: the date and time on this POS's clock.
  2. Paper: what kind of paper it was.
  3. For: what it was for: the bill and table of a receipt, the ticket, station and table of a kitchen ticket, the business day of a reading, the title of a report.
  4. Printer: the printer as this POS knows it: Receipt printer, or a kitchen printer's name.
  5. Connection: how it is reached: the Windows printer's name (and its port, once Windows has answered), or the printer's address on the network.
  6. Copies: how many copies were asked for.
  7. Result: Printed, Sent, Sent, not confirmed or Failed.
  8. Reason: why it failed, first in plain words, then as the POS and the printer said it, in English.
  9. Tries: how many times it was tried. A kitchen ticket is tried again by itself; a Try again pressed by a person is one more try.
  10. By: the person signed in, or this POS's code when nobody was.
  11. Took: how long it took, in milliseconds.
  12. Close: closes the window. A tap outside it closes it too.

Find a print

  1. Open the Print log.
  2. To see only what went wrong, tap Failed only.
  3. To see one printer's prints, choose it in All printers.
  4. To find one bill or ticket, type its number in Bill or ticket number, for example 000123.
  5. Tap the print to see it in full.

When nothing is left to show, the list says Nothing matches. Tap All, choose All printers and empty the search box to see everything again.

Clear the log

  1. Tap Clear log.
  2. The POS asks Clear the print log on this POS?, with Kept on this POS only, the last 14 days under it.
  3. Tap Clear log (red) to empty it, or Cancel to keep it.

Only this POS's log is cleared. Nothing is printed, nothing is undone, and the kitchen tickets under Needs attention stay where they are. After clearing, the list says Nothing printed yet, until the next print.

Needs attention, ticket by ticket

Needs attention shows three lists, each under its own heading. Each list is drawn only when it has something in it.

Needs attention (Windows): a notice, this POS's tickets, and the outlet's.
  1. Dismiss all: what the kitchen banner's Dismiss does, for everything listed here: it goes for good, on every POS of the outlet. The Print log stays open under it, and says Dismissed.
  2. Notices: what no ticket shows by itself, such as paper the cloud refused to record, or a void the cloud refused after its cancel slip printed. Each has Dismiss, and Print again when that ticket can be printed again.
  3. On this POS: the kitchen tickets this POS should have printed and did not, or may not have. Each shows its station, CANCEL or REPRINT for a slip of that kind, the ticket number and table, where it stands, how long ago, and the printer's own reason under it.
  4. It printed: the ticket is on paper after all. It leaves the list, and is not printed again. Marked as printed.
  5. Print again: prints it once more, marked REPRINT. Printing it again, marked REPRINT. Only for someone with Reprint a kitchen ticket.
  6. Don't print: the kitchen will not get this ticket from this POS. The POS asks first. It will not be printed.
  7. Retry now: tries the same printer again at once, instead of waiting for the next try. Trying it again now.
  8. Print on another printer: lists the other printers this POS can print on (Pick the printer to use instead.). Tap one: Printing on KP2 Bar. Cancel puts the list away.
  9. At this outlet: on a Main or Sub POS, the outlet's tickets that no POS is printing, or another POS could not: with where each stands, the POS that holds it, and how long ago.
  10. Print here: prints that ticket on this POS. Printing it here.
  11. Print again here: prints a ticket another POS holds and has not confirmed, here, marked REPRINT. Printing it again here, marked REPRINT. Only for someone with Reprint a kitchen ticket.

Which buttons a ticket on this POS has depends on where it stands:

Where it standsButtons
Printer not answering, trying againRetry now, Print on another printer, Don't print
Not printed (the POS stopped trying)Retry now, Print on another printer, It printed, Print again, Don't print
May have printed (the printer took part of it and stopped)It printed, Print again, Don't print
Waiting for the cloud, Taking it from the queuenone: it goes on by itself

Deal with a kitchen ticket that did not print

  1. Press Open on the kitchen banner, or open the Print log from ⚙.
  2. Under Needs attention, find the ticket, and read where it stands and the reason under it.
  3. Check the kitchen printer: power, cable, paper, cover.
  4. If the printer is fine again, press Retry now. If it cannot be fixed now, press Print on another printer and choose one.
  5. If the POS says May have printed, ask the kitchen whether they have it, then press It printed or Print again.
  6. The ticket leaves the list once it is dealt with. The banner goes when the list is empty.

Every press says what it did, at the top of Needs attention. When another POS dealt with the ticket first, it says Somebody else dealt with that ticket first.

When a paper does not print

Before a paper is sent, the POS checks the printer wherever it can: a printer that is switched off, out of paper or with its cover open is found, and nothing is sent to it. When a receipt, a bill or any other paper that is not a kitchen ticket does not print, a message comes up on the screen you are on, whatever it is:

  • The receipt did not print: the printer is switched off or unplugged. (or is out of paper, the printer's cover is open, the printer reports an error), with the paper and the printer under it in small letters;
  • Try again: the same paper to the same printer, once, now;
  • OK: closes the message.

The money is never held up by it: the payment is already saved. Kitchen tickets do not show this message: they go to the kitchen banner and Needs attention. Every one of these is in the log, as Failed.

On Windows

A printer that took the job but did not confirm it within about 8 seconds is still waiting in Windows' print queue. The message then says The printer did not confirm the receipt. It may still be waiting in Windows. with two buttons:

  • Cancel the waiting print: takes it out of Windows' queue, so it cannot come out later as a surprise: The waiting print was cancelled. It will not come out later. If it had already gone: It has already left Windows, so it may have printed.
  • Keep it waiting: leaves it in the queue, to print when the printer wakes.

In the log it is Sent, not confirmed until you choose; cancelled, it becomes Failed.

On Android

On Android the message is a window over the screen, with Try again and OK. A USB printer that has not been allowed on this tablet yet is said under Needs attention too, with Allow: tap it, then Allow when Android asks.

On Android: the Print log

The Android POS has the same parts, as a whole screen, with Close at the top right. Three differences:

  • Print log and Kept on this POS only, the last 14 days are at the top of the log, with Clear log beside them; Today: 152 printed, 3 failed is under them.
  • All and Failed only are two chips, the printer is a button that opens a list, and the search box is on its own line under them.
  • There is no Sent, not confirmed: a print is Printed, Sent or Failed, and Failed only shows the failed ones.

Needs attention lists in a slightly different order too: a USB printer that needs permission first, then On this POS, Notices and At this outlet.

The Print log on Android.
  1. Close: back to the screen you came from. The tablet's back gesture does the same.
  2. Print log and what it is.
  3. Clear log: after asking, as on Windows.
  4. Today: today's printed and failed prints.
  5. All / Failed only.
  6. All printers: tap to choose one printer.
  7. Bill or ticket number: the search.

In the full view of a print, Android says the connection in words: Network, 192.168.1.60:9100, USB cable, …, Built into this tablet, …, or No printer set up.

What if…