Optimize your operations and have complete peace of mind knowing that printed receipts, tickets and production dockets will never be lost using ROLLER’s production management feature.
This guide will walk through the production management process from start to finish, with some handy tips and FAQs along the way! Keep reading to learn more.
Should I use production management?
Yes! Production management comes with a wide-range of benefits.
- Connect your printers via a cloud-based technology, which enables greater control over printer devices and print settings.
- Ability to connect printers over Ethernet or WiFi.
- Access to improved printer troubleshooting and error handling within POS.
- Configure backup docket printers in case your primary printers experience technical issues.
- Plus, you can customize your receipt and docket templates.
Who is production management available for?
Production management is available on all ROLLER subscription tiers and should be used if you have any kind of receipt or docket printing at your venue.
Production management is especially important for venues with food and beverage operations, as you can connect your POS devices directly to your production docket printers when using ROLLER’s mobile food & beverage ordering feature. To learn more, read the guide Prepare for mobile food & beverage ordering.
Requirements
Below are the requirements your venue must meet before you can get started with production management.
All printers connected to ROLLER must be one of the supported Epson printer models for production management. These include:
- EPSON TM-m30II (Ethernet)
- EPSON TM-T88VII (Ethernet)
- EPSON TM-T82III (Ethernet)
- EPSON TM-U220B (Ethernet)
This includes all docket, receipt and ticket printers.
Production management does not currently support the printing of sticker tickets or wristbands. If you’re currently using those kinds of printers you will not be able to switch over to production management printing.
Printers must be connected to the local area network via Ethernet or WiFi. Ethernet connection is recommended over WiFi as it provides greater network stability.
Launch production management at your venue
It’s quick to get started with production management at your venue. Complete these simple steps:
- Get your ePOS enabled printer.
- Configure each printer with a static IP address, enable ePOS and install a SSL certificate.
- Add your printers to a print station in Venue Manager.
- Enable production management.
Below is a full rundown of the preparation work you must complete before you can launch production management at your venue.
For the smoothest set up experience, make sure you follow each of the steps below in full. Doing so will ensure that your receipts, dockets and tickets print correctly with no errors or issues.
Get your printers
First up, if your venue isn’t currently using one of the supported Epson printer models for production management, you will need to invest in the supported hardware. These include the following printer models:
- EPSON TM-m30II (Ethernet)
- EPSON TM-T88VII (Ethernet)
- EPSON TM-T82III (Ethernet)
- EPSON TM-U220B (Ethernet)
Configure your printers
Next, connect your printers to the network and give each printer its own unique static IP address. Once this is done, for each printer, enable ePOS functionality and install an SSL certificate (each printer generates its own). Do this on every POS device you want to connect. Learn more
Create print stations in Venue Manager
Now, add your printers in Venue Manager. Go to Settings > Print stations > Add printer. Then run a test print against each printer. Learn more
Switch on production management at POS
Once you’ve completed all the steps above (in full), you’re ready to start using production management. The final step is to switch the feature on at POS, so that your POS devices and printers can start working together to print receipts, dockets and tickets.
When you’re ready to start using production management at POS, reach out to the support team to switch production management on.
[Optional] Confirm your POS settings
Check your global and individual POS settings for receipts and dockets. The POS device setting to only open the cash drawer for cash payments is enabled by default once production management is switched on at POS. Learn more
[Optional] Customize your receipt and ticket templates
You can also customize the appearance of your guest-facing receipts and tickets in Venue Manager. Learn more
Go live
Once you’ve worked your way through the steps above, it’s time to go live! But before you do, run through some final checks.
Confirm that you’ve completed the tasks below before going live with production management.
Contact ROLLER to confirm you want to use production management.
One of our friendly team members will activate the feature switch so that you can start configuring your printers in Venue Manager.
Configure your printers and then configure your print stations in Venue Manager. This includes running a successful test print on each of your printers.
Let ROLLER know the date you want to launch production management at your venue.
ROLLER will then confirm that you’ve completed all the set up steps listed in this guide. It’s important that every step has been completed in full for production management to work. If not, you’ll run the risk of issues and errors when it’s switched on for your venue.
When the above has been confirmed, ROLLER will then confirm your launch date.
The night before your launch date, someone from ROLLER will activate another feature switch, which turns production management on at POS.
Arrive at your venue early on launch day to give you and your staff plenty of time to test your set up before guests arrive. For example, run a few test prints.
Once you can confidently tick off each of the tasks above, and your test prints on launch day are successful, you’re ready to go!
FAQs
Below is a list of common FAQs to help answer any questions you might have as you get started with production management. We recommend reading through the FAQs before you get started.
First, let our support team know you’re interested in switching to production management so they can turn the feature on for Venue Manager. Then, once you have confirmation, create your print stations and configure your printers. It doesn't matter which order you do this in. Sometimes it's helpful to plan your setup by creating your print stations in Venue Manager first or while waiting for new printers to arrive. At other times, it's useful to have configured the printers first so that you have each printer's static IP addresses ready to add when creating its corresponding print station in Venue Manager.
Once you've successfully performed a test print for each of your print stations, get in touch with the support team to switch on production management for printing receipts and dockets from POS. Once enabled, production management takes over the printing of receipts, tickets, production dockets, as well as till reports from POS. ROLLER Connect is not used while production management is active.
If you need to troubleshoot any production management issues, you can revert back to ROLLER Connect by reaching out to the support team to switch off production management at POS, and printing will revert to how it was previously set up using ROLLER Connect.
Venues must be using one of the supported Epson printer models for production management. These include:
- EPSON TM-m30II (Ethernet)
- EPSON TM-T88VII (Ethernet)
- EPSON TM-T82III (Ethernet)
- EPSON TM-U220B (Ethernet)
No. Production management doesn’t currently support these printers.
All printers need to be ePOS enabled for this feature to work, even those not used for online food & beverage ordering or production docket printing.
Yes, you can connect printers to the local area network via WiFi. While WiFi is available, we recommend connecting via Ethernet. If connecting via WiFi, make sure the printer is in a place where you have a strong signal, otherwise there may be a delay printing production dockets, receipts and tickets.
Yes. All printers need to be connected via either Ethernet or WiFi.
No. You’ll need to connect over the local area network. Connecting a printer to your POS device via USB won't work.
Production dockets allow you to print specific food and beverage items (stock products in ROLLER) to designated printers at your venue. Production dockets are completely different from a receipt and will only contain information related to the food and beverage items purchased. However, both are printed from supported Epson epos receipt printers connected to the network via Ethernet or WiFi.
You connect your ROLLER Payments card terminals to POS via Ethernet or WiFi. Learn more
Production management is linked to your POS devices and you must have at least one active POS window open for production dockets and receipts to print. To learn how to change (or disable) device timeout, read the guide Manage individual POS device settings.
Learn more
For detailed guides, refer to:
- Create your print stations for production management (BETA)
- Configure printers for production management (BETA)
- Customize receipt and ticket templates with production management (BETA)
- Configure POS & cash drawer settings for production management (BETA)
- Error handling at POS with production management (BETA)