Printing only selected orders

[pdrage]

Hi, I run a theatre bar. We want to be able to take pre-show orders for interval drinks  before the show, and print off those orders so that we can prepare the orders during the first half of the show. (pre-paid)

I can't see how I can ONLY print off the interval drinks, without also printing the drinks that are being bought for consumption "now".

Is there a way to do that, or is it available in one of the add-ons to the POS software? Has anyone got a work-around?

[Summer2024]

Hi, @pdrage ! Welcome to the Square Community! 

Yes, you can set up your Square POS to print only specific items or categories in your theatre bar setup. It will require configuring printer profiles and item categories carefully. Here’s how you can do it and some workarounds if you hit limits.

How to print only certain items/categories

Follow these steps to set up your POS so that orders for “interval drinks” are sent to their own printer or ticket-station, while “now” sales either go to a different printer or don’t print automatically. I know it is a lot, so please let me know if you have any questions. 

1. Create/assign item categories

   • In your Dashboard → Items → Item Library, make sure items you want to print separately are in a distinct category (e.g., “Interval Drinks”).

   • Other items (for “now” consumption) should be in their own categories like “Bar – In-Show” or “Bar – Immediately”.

   • This helps you target which items trigger which printer.

2. Set up a new printer profile for Interval orders

   • Dashboard → Settings → Device Management → Printer Profiles

   • Create a profile, name it something like “Interval Drinks Print”

   • In that profile: Set Order Tickets (not just receipts) for the printer you’ll use at the prep station.

   • Under “Categories to Print” choose only the category “Interval Drinks” 

   • Assign this printer profile to the appropriate printer device.

3. Ensure another printer (or same one different setting) handles the “now” orders

   • You can either disable printing for “now” category in that “Interval Drinks” profile, or create another printer profile that prints only “Bar – Immediately” category.

   • This way, when a customer orders “now”, only the relevant items print (or if you prefer, nothing needs to print for “now” if you serve immediately).

   • Use the “Single item per ticket” or “Category to Print” settings to refine what prints. 

4. Use Open Tickets or Pre-order flow

   • Since you’re taking pre-show orders (paid in advance) for interval drinks, you might mark those as a special ticket or use a special item “Interval Drink Pre-Order”.

   • When they order ahead via tablet/online or in-person, use the item in the category that triggers the “Interval” printer.

   • Then during the show-interval, the printed ticket is already waiting at the bar, ready to be filled.

Things to watch 

• If you have mixed orders (someone orders “now” drinks + “interval drinks” in same sale), both categories might trigger printing unless you separate items. Best to separate the sale or note the category accordingly.

• Make sure all devices/printers are assigned only one profile for that category to avoid duplicate printing.

• If you prefer not to print anything for “now” orders, you can set their category to have no printer profile or disable order ticket printing for that category.

I hope this helps!

[pdrage]

Thanks for that detailed reply

I've had a bit of a nightmare trying to get it to work, but I think I've now sorted it. Here is what I have learnt.

1. You have to create two different items - one for Normal use, and one for interval use. . This is because you have to put each into the correct category, and also into the same Reporting Category. If you try and put them into the sane reporting category (to make reporting easier) then the printing gets confused, and the items get printed into the Interval Order when they are "Normal" entries. 

2. To make it more obvious which subcategories are in which category, change them slightly. In my case I've added a full stop after the subcategory name for those in the Interval category.

3. If you clear the item list when reloading an item list, its worth clearing the categories list at the same time.

4. But if you clear the categories list, then a category list on a printer profile will be cleared, and re-populated with ALL categories, so you have to set that up again.

5. Once you've done all that, you can create an order with "normal" and Interval items, and only the Interval items will be printed on the printer.

6. When you print the interval order, you only need to put in a customer Name (just a surname) for the header on the order.

7. There is also a "schedule" option that you could use to do something similar to this but you need to put in a lot of customer data to create a new customer record, and that's overkill on a rushed bar.

I hope this extra information is useful to someone trying to do the same thing.