Setting up A4 auto-print
A full order sheet prints itself the moment an order comes in, on the ordinary A4 printer you already have. It takes about ten minutes, and you only do it once.
What you need
- A PC or Mac in the shop with your printer attached — the till computer, usually. It has to be switched on and online whenever you're taking orders.
- A printer that takes A4 paper. Any ordinary office printer will do, as long as that computer can already print to it.
- The Pro plan. A4 auto-print is a Pro feature.
If you'd rather not keep a computer on, a label printer talks to us by itself — see Setting up your label printer.
How it works
A small helper app called Pekkish Printer sits on the computer your printer is attached to and listens for jobs from us. It's built for us by PrintNode, so you may see that name during installation — you don't need a PrintNode account of your own, we create one for you.
Setting it up
Everything starts in your shop admin: click Printing, open the Setup tab and choose A4 sheet under How orders reach you.
1. Create your print account
Under A4 auto-print, click Create print account. This takes a second and sets up everything behind the scenes.
2. Install the helper
The page offers a Mac installer and a Windows installer. Download the right one and run it on the computer your printer is plugged into — not on your phone or a laptop you take home.
3. Sign the helper in
The first time you open the helper it asks for an email address and password. These are not your Pekkish login. They're a separate set of details we generate just for the printer, and you'll find them on the Setup tab underneath the installer buttons.
Copy them across exactly. The password is shown in three blocks to make it easier to type, and the dashes are part of it.
4. Choose your printer
Once the helper is running it reports back which printers it can see. Return to the Setup tab and pick the computer first, then the printer attached to it — handy if you've got a till PC and an office PC. If nothing has appeared yet, give it a few seconds and click Refresh list; the helper has to check in with us first.
Check the computer shows as connected. If it says disconnected, the helper isn't running on that machine. Printers that can't take A4 paper are listed but greyed out, so you can't pick one by mistake.
5. Send a test print
Click Test print. A single sheet should come out saying your shop name and the time. If it does, you're finished — real orders will print by themselves from now on.
Keeping the computer ready
The helper can only print while the computer is awake. A computer that goes to sleep after half an hour of nobody touching it will quietly stop printing halfway through the morning, so turn off sleep mode on that machine (the screen can still switch off — it's the computer itself that has to stay awake). Leave the helper open when you're done; closing it stops the printing.
Moving to a new computer
Install the helper on the new computer and sign it in with the same details — they're still on the Setup tab, and they don't change or expire. Then pick the printer again on the Setup tab, because it's a new machine as far as we're concerned, and send a test print.
Common issues
- Nothing prints, and nothing says why — check the till computer is switched on, awake and online. A sleeping computer is the usual culprit; see Keeping the computer ready.
- The computer shows as disconnected — the helper isn't running on it, or it isn't signed in. Open the helper on that computer and check, then come back to the Setup tab.
- My printer isn't in the list — the helper needs to be running on the computer the printer is attached to. Open it, check it's signed in, then click Refresh list on the Setup tab.
- My printer is greyed out — it's marked no A4 support: the printer told the helper it can't take A4 paper. That's usually a receipt or label printer on the same computer; pick the office printer instead.
- The helper won't accept my password — you may be using your Pekkish login. The helper needs the separate details shown on the Setup tab (step 3). If you can't find them, see I've lost the printer sign-in details.
- The Setup tab says "Last print failed" — it shows the error we got back. Put it right (usually the computer or the printer), and the message clears once the next order prints.
- It printed earlier and stopped — open the Print jobs tab. It'll show the last error we saw. Most often it's the computer having gone to sleep or the printer being out of paper.
- The paper jammed or ran out mid-service — sort the printer out, then hit Reprint on the Print jobs tab for anything that didn't come out properly.
For problems that aren't about the A4 printer — reprinting an order, or switching how orders reach you mid-service — see Printing your orders.
Do I still get the emails?
Yes, as long as Also email me every order is ticked on the Setup tab. Keep it on — if the printer jams mid-service, the order is still in the inbox and nobody has to go hunting for it.
Stuck on something? Contact support.