Lost in Printer Settings, please help!

MarkSpiegelman · ‎10-30-2023

Hello,

I am baffled about how a POS communicates with a network printer.

I have Square for Restaurants with the following setup:

(4) POS stations

(1) KDS (Kitchen Display System)

(2) Networked Printers

First, when you have multiple POSs, each configured to talk to the same printers, what happens if the settings on each POS are different? For example, say both POSs have a printer station configured, and both are configured to the same printer device. On one of my POSs, I say print online orders; on the other POS, I set online orders to off. What happens to my online orders? As you can see, I do not understand the profiles on each POS and how they work with shared printers.

On my KDS, it says Print Profiles Beta, which is new and, once set up, overrides Printer Station configurations.

This adds more complexity and confusion for me. I've read the docs, called support, and remain confused. Can anyone out there get through to my brain?

Thanks!

MarkSpiegelman · ‎10-30-2023

From the thread poster:

After taking to support, I have learned much.

1). The original POS enrolled is the lead POS and receives online orders.

2) If newer secondary POSs are enrolled, all must be the same IOS version and app version.

3) The KDS printer stations must now be used with printer profiles. This is no longer BETA, and most support folks are not yet clear about its functionality.

What I have done:

1) Decommissioned all POS devices, printers, and KDS systems.

2) Removing Square software from all devices.

3) Updated all IOS devices to IOS 17.1

4) Downloaded and installed the latest versions of Square for Restaurants and Square KDS.

5) Configured KDS printer Profiles & printer stations.

What's next:

Going step by step. Installing one POS and thoroughly testing ticket, order, and print functionality. Once done, roll out additional POSs one at a time. Testing at every step.

The old model of printer stations configured on each POS needs to be trashed with the newer global print profiles where one update and all are synced is the right play.