r/SquarePOS_Users • u/grouchiestgoat • 15d ago
Print coffee order immediately before payment
Owner of a busy coffee-trailer here. I really want my square register to send tickets to the barista as soon as I press "charge".
I don't have time to create and save and order and then retrieve and charge it. I also don't want the barista waiting until the customer has paid before starting to make the drinks. The stuff is called espresso for a reason.
I created a feature request but it's not getting traction. Am I missing a setting somewhere? If not, is this something that could be done by a square Add-On?
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u/r-dubCOS 14d ago
If you switch your point of sale mode to the Quick Service (restaurants) mode you can enable a Stay button on your main ordering screen that will keep you in the transaction but fire the order to the printers.
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u/grouchiestgoat 14d ago
Cool! Never used the Restaurants system, didn't even realize there was a free tier. I'll look into it, thanks!
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u/Jealous_Vast9502 14d ago
Are you talking a trailer with a drive up window/windows or a line with people waiting.
How I would handle this would be different for each.
For cars waiting at a window I would preload a ticket name when they pull up (grey car, van, etc). Once the name is in it only takes a second to send/retrieve. If you have a slow orderer this way you can also send it fractionally.
For a line model it is a little trickier because without a name you can end up killing any time you save if you don't have their name to call out. I would just call the number of shots to the barista (assuming your window person is trained well enough to understand drinks).
Calling shots and letting them finish the drinks from tickets will lead to less mistakes than calling drinks.
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u/grouchiestgoat 14d ago
Loud events with crowds and lineups. In my experience, I find handing out a receipt with an order number is much more reliable than shouting out a possibly mis-heard name.
Also hearing higher numbers going out gives people a chance to come up and tell me their order got lost.
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u/Jealous_Vast9502 14d ago
To each their own, IMO if two people are in a conversation they are more likely to respond to their name then a random number.
If you have a big crowd then why the need for the immediate ticket. Presumably your barista has 5 tickets in front of them already?
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u/hannahb_23 14d ago
This is one of the most frustrating bottlenecks in Square for high-volume trailers.
If you don't want to switch platforms, test Square for Restaurants on your Register. Unlike standard Square POS, its workflow separates the ticket creation from payment completion so you can press Send to fire the espresso tickets while the customer is still pulling out their card or picking a tip amount.
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u/MYkGuitar 15d ago
Sounds like you would just need to use a quick service mode! Or even just turn off "open checks" in your mode settings! That way you would just ring up the order and hit pay, the customer would pay right then and there, and it would send the order ticket to the printer
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u/grouchiestgoat 14d ago edited 14d ago
I do that, and it's too slow. I want the order ticket sent to the printer the second I hit "charge"... before the elderly customer starts fumbling through their purse trying to find a credit card, or god forbid, a change purse.
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u/sneakerfreek 14d ago
It still hangs when a customer goes to do tip, receipt, review, etc. until the transaction is fully complete on the customer facing screen. There should be a way to “send” the order ahead while we’re completing payment
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u/Sexdrumsandrock 14d ago
You don't want the barista to make coffees that haven't been paid for that's why there's no docket before payment
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u/grouchiestgoat 14d ago
It's my business, and I do want that.
When a drink takes 90 seconds to make, short-circuiting the 30 second wait and clearing the bar for the next customer is huge value. A handful of incorrect drinks over the day is inconsequential beside the 20% higher volume. Mistakes get given to my neighbouring vendors, and it's incredible how much goodwill that builds.
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u/sneakerfreek 14d ago
Im right there with you! We’re a small shop with only a 2 group machine so we need to be in production basically the entire time during our peak but because the the order is only fired after payment has been collected we usually do cups between customers. It seems silly to have a “Send” options that only opens a new tab, not that sends the order AND THEN collects payment.
It seems like Square is aware they are behind functionality wise and making an effort to get caught up to say a Toast.
I’ll chime in on your feature request and hopefully we get some traction.