Future-date pickup orders no longer printing automatically to kitchen printer

[cbstl]

Our shop does a lot of pre-order pickup business. Up until recently, all of our online orders and pickup orders with a future date taken on the in-store POS would print automatically to our kitchen printer. Now, only online orders are printing to the kitchen printer, but future-date pickup orders taken on the POS do not print automatically to the kitchen printer. We rely heavily on this functionality to keep track of all of our orders.

In the printer profile, if I enable In-person Order Tickets, pickup orders taken on the POS will automatically print to the kitchen printer, but so will all other in-store transactions based on my testing of that setting, so that doesn't work because we don't want a ticket printed for all of our immediate walk-in business too.

Did Square change the way this works? If so, why? The printer profile needs to have a setting that will automatically print only the in-person order tickets that have a future fulfillment date. That's the way it used to work until very recently!

[MayaP]

Hey @cbstl –  It does sound like something may have changed. I’ll investigate further to confirm. In the meantime, I will tag some super sellers who can share their insight ( @TheRealChipA @Donnie-M @SVLFever @DinaLRosenberg ). Thanks guys!

[cbstl]

Thanks @MayaP. 

[MayaP]

When I tested this on my end, it looks like you can select which order to send to the printer. I don’t have a printer connected to fully test, but when you select the order, does it not print as expected? Let me know what you’re seeing! @cbstl 

[cbstl]

Hi @MayaP - I can print orders manually to the kitchen printer without a problem. The issue is that future-date orders taken on the POS used to print automatically to the kitchen printer as soon as the transaction was complete and now they don't. As I said, if I enable In-person Order Tickets, then they'll print automatically to the kitchen printer, but so do immediate transactions that aren't future-date orders and we don't want those to print to the kitchen printer. Until whatever changed recently, Square Online orders and future-date orders taken on the POS printed automatically to the kitchen printer, while immediate in-store transactions did not. That's how we need it to work and how it has worked for us for several years up until a couple of weeks ago.

[MayaP]

To be clear, two issues are happening. First, in-person future date orders are not printing automatically. Second, these orders should not be going to the kitchen printer. Is that correct? Where should they be printing? Have you tried deleting and reinstalling the printer profile? @cbstl 

[cbstl]

@MayaP - No that's not correct. Sorry for the confusion. The problem in simplest terms is that in-person future-date orders taken on the POS are not automatically printing to the kitchen printer and they always did before (and should).

I just wanted to head off the potential suggestion of turning on "In-person Order Tickets" in the printer profile, because I tried that, but doing so caused all transactions taken on the POS to print to the kitchen printer and we only want future-date orders to print to the kitchen printer. The "kitchen printer" in our case is the printer for pre-orders that our production staff needs to plan for. Immediate (non-preorder), walk-in transactions are fulfilled by our reception staff and so we don't want/need those transactions to print on the kitchen printer.

[MayaP · Accepted solution]

Hey @cbstl  – I know this isn’t the answer you were hoping for, but I did escalate this to our Advanced Support team. They confirmed that this is working as expected and don’t recall this being possible before. This would be considered a feature request. I understand how changes like this can be frustrating, and I apologize for any inconvenience.

[cbstl]

@MayaP - Ok, that is very disappointing given that it most definitely worked that way for us for the last 3 years, despite what the Advanced Product Team recalls. The setting for automatic printing to a kitchen printer used to be for any Pickup order (regardless of POS or online), not specifically for online orders. It seems a little ridiculous to have to submit a feature request for a feature that used to be present and now is not, but if that's the only option, I guess I'll do that.

[MayaP]

I completely understand how frustrating this is—especially since it worked that way for you over the past few years. It does feel off to submit a feature request for something that used to be there. If that’s the only option for now, I appreciate you being willing to do it. Let me know if you’d like help with the request or anything else. @cbstl 

[cbstl]

@MayaP - As @wheatleyfarms has also confirmed in this thread, we did not imagine this. Square inexplicably broke this feature that worked great up until recently. I created the following feature request for this issue:

https://community.squareup.com/t5/Square-Hardware-Accessories/Setting-for-Kitchen-Printer-to-print-P...

Can you please help push that request through given that it is to fix something that used to work?

[MayaP]

I completely understand how frustrating this has been, and I want you to know that our team is actively looking into it again. Just to be transparent—when a feature request is filed, I don’t have the ability to fast-track it.

Thank you so much for your continued patience and understanding @cbstl.

[MayaP]

Can you show a screenshot of your printer profiles and how you have things set up? @cbstl I know I suggested it somewhere in the thread but did you delete and re-create the printer profiles too? 

[MayaP]

Do you have "automatically print new orders" on for the "order tickets with fulfillment"? 

@cbstl 

[cbstl]

@MayaP - Yes, "Order tickets with Fulfillment" is ON in our printer profile, but that now only automatically prints Square Online orders as I've already explained:

Notably, if you go to the printer profile in the web Square Dashboard (not the mobile app), that setting is now called "Online Order Tickets" not "Order Tickets with Fulfillment", further highlighting the fact that Square changed how this works out from under us:

[JUYBoutique20]

@cbstl On the screen shot you loaded from the web Square Dashboard, automatically print in progress orders is not checked like in your first screenshot of your printer profile.  Don't know if that would make a difference but wanted to make sure you saw that just in case.

[cbstl]

We don't print in-progress orders - just new ones. The first screenshot I posted from the mobile app doesn't show the detailed sub-settings under the setting, just that the overall setting is ON. The checkbox for that detailed sub-setting is consistent no matter where we look at it (app or web dashboard).

[SVLFever]

Unfortunately @cbstl , I can't answer your question, as I operate opposite of you, as I only do in person order tickets.   I'm not sure what the behavior is or was in this case.   I wish I could provide more insight, but maybe the change occurred with the rollout of "modes" @MayaP ?

[MayaP]

Thanks for the update! Yeah, it does seem like something may have changed. I appreciate you taking the time to try and help! 😊

[wheatleyfarms]

Just wanted to mention that we're having the same exact issue: Scheduled pick-up orders made on the POS app used to print automatically. This suddenly stopped working about 2 weeks ago. No settings were changed on our end; same printer profile. 

It's unfortunate that Square's Advanced Support team is pretending that nothing changed. I just thought I'd mention it so you don't think you're crazy. Something definitely changed. 

[MayaP]

Hey @wheatleyfarms, thanks for reaching out and letting me know!

Just to confirm—when you enable in-person orders, no orders are printing at all, correct? Have you tried deleting and reinstalling the printer profile, then reassigning the printer to your in-person orders?

Let me know what you've tried so far so we can help troubleshoot further!