My POS Printer Blog | Point of Sale Receipt Printers |
July 28th, 2008 — Dot Matrix Receipt Printers, Kitchen Printers, Product Reviews
The SP700 impact printer is the latest addition to Star Micronics’ robust line of printers. Built specifically to work in environments where heat and humidity can erode the type on the kitchen order, the SP700 is an ideal solution. This fast, two-color printer offers crisp, clear type for easy viewing, clamshell design for easy paper loading and an embedded power supply for space efficiency. Continue reading →
March 20th, 2008 — Dot Matrix Receipt Printers
Thermal printers are not always the best choice for a receipt printer. You could not tell that by the number of thermal printers sold. But it is a true statement that a thermal printer is not always the best possible choice as a receipt printer.
I know that this goes against contemporary thinking but when you look closer at what a receipt printer can be used for, it becomes clear that a dot matrix printer is a much better choice in certain applications.
When Duplicate Receipts are Necessary
Dot matrix printers can run single, double or even triple copy paper through the printer at once. This paper is known as NCR paper or no carbon required. This special paper will make an exact duplicate for 1 or 2 copies of the receipt. You can use this for:
Journal Printers
There are times when you need a journal receipt tape for security purposes. An electronic journal is not the best possible solution if you need to reproduce a physical copy of the day’s transactions. In those cases there is no substitute for a printed journal tape.
The only way to get a printed journal tape is with a journal printer. Problem is, there aren’t thermal journal printers. The only way to get a journal printer is to have a dot matrix printer, double copy paper and a journal take up spool.
Ticket or Check Validation
Validation takes place when you slide a document into a special slot on the printer and the printer then prints on the document. Most often this is a ticket or a check. Thermal printers cannot do validation as the documents being validated are not printed on thermal paper.
On the ticket you generally print a single line validating that the transaction was properly completed. The date, time, cashier name and amount are generally what is printed for validation purposes.
Validating a check can be more than a single line. Generally check validation will be multiple lines and take the place of a deposit stamp. It can include deposit information such as verbiage for “Deposit Only” and the account number.
Long Lasting Receipts Needed
Ever see what happens to a thermal receipt in the summer sun? They turn brown just before they turn black. Not good for customers who want to see what they bought or return for store credit or refund.
Another problem with thermal paper is that it does turn brown over time. The print fades and becomes nearly impossible to read. This is without excess summer heat.
This is another reason people don’t use thermal printers for a journal tape. The printed receipts just don’t last for years. If you need to keep records for tax purposes you will not want to keep thermal paper receipts.
Don’t be mesmerized by thermal printers spitting our receipts at 30+ lines per second. Speed is important but sometimes the quality of the receipt must be considered. In addition you must think of how you are going to use the receipt. In those cases a dot matrix printer may be the best possible choice for you and your customer.
March 11th, 2008 — Dot Matrix Receipt Printers
The original cash register was created as a theft deterrent. In an age where businesses only hired family to work in the store cash registers were invented to stop family members from stealing from one another. Even in the beginning these earliest cash registers had a printer to record the transaction. This internal printer became known as a journal printer and can still be found on point of sale systems today.
Even though most point of sale systems have an electronic journal that records the transactions on a hard drive, there are still times when a printed journal tape is necessary. A journal printer is the perfect answer when you need to view exactly what was printed on the customer receipt as it is a mirror image of that document.
Not too many years ago we installed a simple point of sale system in a diner. The owner felt that he was losing money but could not pinpoint the source. He felt that installing the point of sale system might slow the theft, he never dreamt that he would find the source and completely eliminate the problem.
The restaurant used hand written tickets to take and process the orders. The kitchen prepared the food from these tickets and the same ticket was used by the customer when it came time to pay. So as to not interrupt the flow of the restaurant we decided to continue to use these hand written tickets and use the point of sale system to add the total for the order and validate the hand written ticket with the total amount paid by the customer.
This validation was a single line printed on the back of the ticket that showed the date, time, cashier name and amount paid by the customer. Each ticket entered required a validation of a ticket before the next ticket could be entered.
After a month of use the owner called asking for some assistance in understanding some of the tickets he had. It seems that some of the tickets had multiple validations instead of the single line that should be on them.
We took the tickets for a single day and compared them to the journal tape for the same day. The journal tape showed every transaction for that day and we easily matched the majority of the tickets to the sales recorded on the journal.
We found several orders on the journal that were not matched to any of the tickets. These unmatched orders amounted to $40 – $50. We examined other days and found the identical problem with unmatched transactions.
Someone was under recording the orders correctly into the point of sale system. They were then validating a single ticket for these mis-entered sales in order to hide their theft. We were able to identify thefts in excess of $1,200 per month by a single cashier/waitress.
Through the use of a simple point of sale system, a journal tape and a validation feature we were able to pinpoint a thief, calculate the amount stolen and help a restaurant owner stop a major problem with his profitability.
Journal printers are a valid part of a point of sale system and can be the silent watchdog for your operation while you are out. In the case of this restaurant owner, he took a vacation the following month on the increased revenues from his point of sale system.
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