Which receipt printers work with Wave POS?
58 mm and 80 mm thermal receipt printers that connect by USB, serial or Bluetooth. Chrome can talk to the printer directly, or you can print through QZ Tray, a free printing helper you install on the till computer. Look for a printer that understands ESC/POS, the usual command language of thermal receipt printers.
Any computer or tablet with Chrome is a till, so you can start with the computer you already have and add a printer when you are ready. Wave POS does not sell hardware: buy the printer, scanner and drawer from any local supplier. The hardware setup guide covers choosing and connecting them.
58 mm or 80 mm?
Both work, and the choice is about your counter. A 58 mm printer is smaller and fits a kiosk or a small shop. An 80 mm printer gives wider receipts that are easier to read with long product names, and suits supermarkets and wholesalers with long baskets.
What goes on the receipt
Every receipt carries your business details and the sale, laid out the way you set it in Settings:
- Your logo at the top.
- Your KRA PIN, printed with your business details.
- Your own header and footer. A header with your phone number, say, and a footer such as “Exchange within 7 days with this receipt”.
- The items, payments and change, with each payment method shown, so a split of cash and M-Pesa is clear.
- A QR code for returns. Scan it at the till and the sale comes straight up, ready to take items back.
Reprints and the cash drawer
You can reprint any past receipt, and a cash drawer plugged into the receipt printer can open by itself for cash sales.
- Reprints. Find a past sale by its receipt number and print it again, for a customer who lost theirs or needs a copy for their office. Each till also keeps its own recent receipts, so it can reprint them while offline.
- The cash drawer. Drawers connect to the receipt printer with a cable. Once the drawer is turned on in the printer settings, whenever a sale includes cash, Wave POS tells the printer to open the drawer. Sales paid only by M-Pesa or card leave it closed.
Order tickets on a second printer
A second printer can print large order tickets without prices, for the people packing or preparing the order. The counter prints the customer’s receipt; the store room gets a ticket in large print that lists what to pack.
A hardware store in Thika might use it for the yard: the cashier sells 20 bags of cement and 10 iron sheets, the customer gets a receipt, and the yard gets a ticket listing what to load, with no prices on it. Hardware stores and wholesalers use this most.
Barcode and shelf labels
Wave POS prints barcode labels and shelf labels with prices, in batches. Add the products from a received purchase, a category or a brand, or scan them one by one, and print the whole set at once.
- Label rolls or A4 sheets. Print on a label printer’s roll, or on A4 sheets of sticky labels from an ordinary printer.
- Products without a barcode. Goods you pack yourself, or clothes from a market supplier, get a label with their SKU as a barcode, which the till finds when it is scanned.
- Prices on the shelf. Shelf labels show the price, so the shelf and the till agree.
Labels help most where the goods do not come with barcodes, such as boutiques and shops that pack sugar, rice or beans into their own bags. Barcodes then make the till faster and cut out the wrong prices typed at the counter.
You can set up your receipt and print your first labels during a free trial.