Cloud Receipt Printing | Setup Guide

This guide will cover the steps needed to fully set up Cloud Receipt Printing for several devices under one location. Cloud Receipt only works on the POS Menu Models order types. For more information on POS Menu Models please follow this guide.

Important Note: Please make sure that if you’re using a Network Printer for Cloud Receipt Printing you have statically set the IP Address in the device and reserved that IP Address from your POS network's DHCP Range. Otherwise, if the IP Address that you have statically set in your printer is not statically reserved on your POS network it then has the potential to be picked up by another device on the network causing the device not to receive print requests. 

Access: This setup requires access to the Devices App in Canopy 2.0, navigate to your instance-devices.ordernext.com to confirm this page loads. If it does not load then your user does not have the necessary permissions to complete this setup. Please contact your Account Manager or venuesupport@shift4.com for assistance. 

Explanation of Cloud Receipt Printing:

• The purpose of using either USB or Network Cloud Receipt Printing is to limit the amount of receipt printers you have at a given location. For example,
  
  
  • You may have a concession stand with 4 Belly-Up POS workstations and you want them all to send their receipts to a single printer, rather than having a printer per workstation. This is accomplished by setting up Cloud Printing.
    
    
  • You can have as many Cloud Receipt Printers in a location as you want. If you have 8 devices in a stand you could add a second printer and split the stand to have 4 devices print to one of those printers and the other 4 print to the second printer. 

Important Note: You should only use a PAX L1400 or PAX E700 Belly-Up terminal to act as the Print Controller that sends the requests to your printer(s). It’s also Gold Standard that this terminal is on a LAN Connection over Wi-Fi for network stability. 

• Additional Note: If you are using Network Printers and have varying connection types amongst your workstations in a single stand location it’s important to make sure that you have your LAN Network and WiFi Network setup for “Bridging.”
  
  
  • “Bridging” sometimes referred to as “Crosstalk” when enabled allows your POS LAN devices to successfully communicate with POS WLAN(WiFi) devices on your network.
    
    
  • If this feature is not set on your network and your devices are on varying connection types you may run into issues with Print Requests sending from all devices or prints not working altogether. 

Identifying a Print Controller:

• We must first identify which workstation(L1400 or E700) in a stand we would like to be the Print Controller that sends the requests to the Receipt Printer. When a workstation is made a Print Controller it can still be used as a POS device with no change in operation. 

Note: It’s recommended that you choose the workstation closest to your receipt printer as this helps with future troubleshooting if ever necessary.

• Once we have identified a workstation we would like to use, log in to the SkyTab Venue App and navigate to Debug Info following the next steps. 

1. Begin by selecting the “Hamburger Menu” in the top left corner of the STV App. Then select Debug Info from the list.
   
   
2. Under Debug Info, record the first 5 digits of your workstation's Device ID as we will use this to identify the device in Canopy 2.0 > Devices. 

Naming our Print Controller:

1. Next, navigate to your instance-devices.ordernext.com.
   
   

• By default, this page brings you to Configurations under the Devices dropdown. This is where we want to be.
  
  
  • Begin by entering those first 5 digits of the Device ID that you recorded earlier into the top right search bar. 

2. After searching we should see our device populate in the list, proceed with selecting your device to pull up the ‘Edit Configuration’ window.
   
   

• Under the edit panel, we will focus on renaming our terminal to something easily identifiable. This is important for future maintenance and identification of the device.
  
  
  • The name of your terminal should include the following information,
    
    
    • The name of the location the device is at.
    • The last 4 digits of the device serial number. (This is the actual SN from within the device's Android Settings or printed under the base of the terminal.)
    • The words ‘Print Controller’ or ‘PC’ for an abbreviation. 
    • Any additional unique identifiers that you feel are necessary to add to the device’s name.
      
      
  • After identifying a name for your Print Controlling device, select SAVE when done.
    
    

Important Note: We should label our Print Controlling devices with a similar label that includes information from the name we gave it in Canopy 2.0. Especially a label explicitly stating “PRINT CONTROLLER - DO NOT TURN OFF” on the device. 

Creating our Cloud Receipt Printer:

1. Begin by selecting Printers under the Devices dropdown.
   
   

• Select the Blue + in the top right corner to populate the ‘Add Printer’ panel.
  
  

• We should edit the following options,
  
  
  • Name: Similar to how we named our Print Controller, we should include the following when naming our printer to make it easily identifiable.
    
    
    • The name of the location the device is at.
    • The last 4 digits of the Print Controlling device’s serial number.
    • Any additional unique identifiers that you feel are necessary to add to the device’s name. Such as where the device is located in the stand(Kitchen, Left, Right, Center, and so on.)
      
      
  • Printer Type: This should either be, Epson Thermal or Star Micronics Thermal depending on what brand of printer you are using.
    
    
  • Printer Model: This can either be left blank or we can select the only available option of TM-T88VI. Either way, this is not a required selection for either printer type. Do not be concerned if your printer model is not an available selection.
    
    
  • Receipt Printer Slider: Move to the ON position.
    
    
  • Connection: Can only either be selected as USB or IP for Cloud Receipt Printing.
    
    
  • IP Address: This field will only populate if IP is selected as the Connection method. Enter the IP that you statically assigned to your printer.
    
    
  • Print Controller: This is the device we chose and renamed under the ‘Naming our Print Controller’ section. Locate your device and select it from the list.
    
    
  • Backup Printer: An optional selection where we can select a backup printer from our existing list of printers that print requests will be sent to if this printer were to be taken offline.
    
    

2. Select SAVE when done.
   
   

• Upon saving your new printer will populate in the list at the very top.
  
  
  • Now that we have created a printer and assigned a Print Controller to it, that then turns that workstation into a Print Controlling device. Follow the next steps to refresh the device so that it reflects the change.

Refreshing our Print Controller:

• After making a device a Print Controller by assigning it to a printer, we are required to refresh the terminal so that it reflects the change and sends future print requests successfully.
  
  

1. Log in to the STV App and select the ‘Hamburger Menu’ from the top left. Select ‘Refresh Config’ under the menu.
   
   

• Once we have received a successful refresh message, we should see a “Print Icon” appear in the top right of the screen indicating our device has received the changes successfully making it a Print Controller.
  
  

2. Next, proceed with navigating back to the Devices page in Canopy 2.0 to execute the remaining steps.
   
   

• Under Devices select Configurations.
  
  

Assigning our Cloud Receipt Printer:

• The next steps will cover how to add your Cloud Receipt Printer to your devices. We recommend giving your devices a unique name just like we did our Print Controller to help with identifying them in the future for any troubleshooting purposes. 

Note: You will need to follow the steps of the section, “Identifying a Print Controller,” to identify the workstations to which you want a receipt printer assigned.

• Here’s an example,
  • Burgers & Fries | SN: 3322 (L-R, #1)
    
    
    • You’ll notice we maintained the name of the concession stand.
    • We kept the last 4 digits of the workstation serial number in the naming convention.
    • Then we brought in a unique identifier of (L-R, #1) which in this case means, Left - Right with #1 being the number the workstation lies in the sequence moving from left to right in the stand.
      
      
  • If we follow the number sequence then we should also add a number to our Print Controller that we previously named so we know where it lies in the sequence moving left to right. 

1. Let’s begin by selecting any one of our workstations, including the Print Controller.
   
   

• Under the ‘Edit Configuration’ panel navigate to Receipt Printer Name and select the printer we created from the list.
  
  
  • Select SAVE when done.

2. Repeat these same steps on as many devices as you would like receipts to print from to this specific printer. This includes the Print Controlling device as well.
   
   

3. Once you have finished assigning the Cloud Receipt Printer to your desired workstations you should repeat the steps of ‘Refreshing our Print Controller’ on all the devices you assigned a receipt printer to.
   
   

Finally, to confirm your setup you should run test prints on all of the workstations you assigned a printer to, including your Print Controller if it was assigned a receipt printer. 

Note: It may take up to 60 seconds for your very first print request to go through as it’s a new setup. Every request thereafter should be printed almost immediately. 

If you encounter errors on your Print Controller when attempting any print or the printer never prints then please follow this guide for troubleshooting steps. You may also contact venuesupport@shift4.com for assistance. 

• Reminder: We should make sure that all Print Controlling workstations we create are always powered on, have a network connection, and that the STV POS App is launched to prevent any future printing mishaps.

Need Help? We’re Here for You!

For assistance with SkyTab Venue, reach out to our support team:

• 📞 Phone: 877.559.4225
• 📧 Email: venuesupport@shift4.com

Our support team is available to help with any questions or issues you may have.

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