Greetings from Monterey!
As most of you know, we are in implementation mode. We are at the point where we are putting together our printer plan.
Currently we have a BOCA that we use for tickets and an Epson printer for receipts. We are hoping not to replace all of our printers with the BOCA dual path ticket/receipt printers because of size and cost. So, I have a few questions.
1) Does your org use only one or two types of printers or the dual BOCA?
2) Do you print one ticket per person?
3) Does your org have or offer itemized receipts and do you print that on a BOCA ticket, or a paper receipt? Once concern is that one BOCA ticket cannot handle an itemized receipt if there are a lot of different ticket types and will print on multiple tickets to list it all out. And it also may not look very nice or mesh well with our MBA brand in the background.
We'd really appreciate you sharing what you are using and maybe send a sample or two of what your tickets and receipts looks like.
Thanks so much!Trini
Hi Trini,
Exciting that you are in implementation mode! We implemented and went live just over a year ago, and ran into the exact same 'issues'. We were using BOCA and Epson.
We ended up doing the following:
1) Switched to dual BOCA printers (ticket as before and receipt paper)
2) Yes, we print one ticket per person, and then one receipt per order
3) We do have itemized receipts, however, we had to use up all the custom code pieces for the receipts...and they definitely aren't pretty or ideally what we wanted. Essentially, there is no out of the box itemization that can print easily on a receipt. We print this on receipt paper as it seemed way more cost deficient in the long run then using tons of ticket stock.
See attached an image of a couple tickets we have...I don't have a receipt handy, but I can try and find one next week and add it if that is helpful. (/resized-image/__size/320x240/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/462/CMHR_5F00_Tickets.jpeg)
Also, one issue we ran into was that receipts do not print for free items...we had to create a header that is manually selected and printed whenever we need a free receipt (just something to keep in mind if you do free tickets and need receipts).
Congrats on getting close to go time!
When we converted to Tessitura in 2015 there was a lot of concern about itemized receipts. We had been using STAR receipt printers and BOCA for tickets. Due to the struggle with itemized BOCA receipts, we decided to keep both printers and only use the STAR printer when someone needed an itemized receipt. After about a year or so, we found that so few transactions actually called for such a receipt that it wasn't worth having the extra printers at the registers and stocking receipt tape. Now when we do need to print an itemized receipt, we us an "Order Acknowledgement" that gets printed to a HP printer in the back room. This is primarily only for Group visits, and we can often just sent an order confirmation email instead of a hard copy.
We use colored plastic tabs for General Admission and individual tickets for our guided tours, limited-access areas, and special events. Depending on how many different ticket options you have on a daily basis, I could see tickets being cumbersome and expensive, though for us, it is not.
Hope this helps!
Thank you Derrek! I would love a copy of an itemized receipt. I think that will be helpful when we discuss the custom code that will be necessary to accomplish that with our implementation team.
Thank you Christopher. This is very helpful info!
Hi Christopher. I shared your process about itemized receipts with my team and we agree that most of these requests are from groups. And they check in at a station that has a regular paper printer. I'm so happy we got there before making a huge investment in new hardware. I love TN forums! Thanks so much!