The hardware tab lets you select hardware options for your system, such as printers, bar code scanners, mag swipes. Settings on this page apply only to this computer, with the exception of defining the receipt printer formats.

Printer receipt templates:

The first section in the hardware dialog allows you to customize your receipt formats. The system comes with default templates, that should fit most of your needs. The template files are text based files that can be modified to include additional information about your salon, and custom each customer's receipt. For example, you can include the customer's next appointment time on the receipt. For more information about how to customize the receipts, please contact us. More information about customization will be made available in the future.

Enable Merchant Copy:
This option allows you to print an additional copy of the receipt for your records. "Merchant Copy" will appear at the bottom.

Open Sales Drawer on Cash out:
Enabling this option will send a code to your cash drawer to open. This will be sent when cashing out a receipt and on a No Sale.

Printers

For general information about printers, see below for an explanation of how printers are installed.

Select the type of printer you are installing, either Serial or OPOS driver based.

OPOS: If your selecting a OPOS driver, the list of available printers will appear in the Printer Name pull down. If you do not see your printer here, you will need to create the printer device in the OPOS configuration manager.

Serial: If you want to install a serial or parallel printer, select this option. The Port pull down will list all printers installed on this computer. See below for instruction on how to install a Windows printer. Select the brand of printer you are using. Most printers will support the Epson emulation, and this is a good place to start.

POS Equipment

This section allows you to enable barcode scanners and mag swipes for credit card processing. There are two types of devices for this type of equipment, either serial or keyboard wedge. The later means that the information comes through the keyboard interface, and usually plugs into the keyboard connector, or a USB port.

Note: As of 7/13/05, serial based mag swipes and bar code scanners are not supported yet, but will be very soon.

Keyboard Magnet Swipe Reader: enable this option is you have a mag swipe reader attached to your keyboard or USB. You will need this option enable to process credit cards.
Keyboard BarCode scanner: enable this option is you have a bar code scanner attached to your keyboard. This option enables you to scan items for the cash register and process inventory.
Serial Port Mag Swipe: enable this option if you have attached your magswipe to a serial port. Select the serial port you have attached the device to.
Serial Port BarCode reader: enable this option if you have attached a barcode scanner to your serial port, and select the port used.

General information about Printers.

There are several product makers of receipt printers. This software supports two ways of integrating printers. The simplest options for using a printer, is enabling the "Serial Printer". This option writes directly to the printer using a generic Windows print driver, and emulation codes. The advantage to this option, is simplicity and making use of the Windows driver. Printers can be shared using basic networking as well. The other option is to use OPOS drivers provided by the printer manufacture. OPOS is a vendor supported middleware that provides a common interface for point of sale equipment. OPOS installation is supposed to be seamless, but can pose some problems with older hardware. I would recommend starting with a Serial driver to make sure everything works, before trying the OPOS drivers.

How to install a receipt Serial receipt printer

Note: These instructions are for Windows XP, but are similar for earlier operating systems.

First, you have to install a printer in Windows. Click Start at the bottom left, Settings, then Control Panel.

Next, select Printers and Faxes.

Click Add a Printer, and the wizard will start the process of adding a printer.
Select "Local printer attached to this computer". Make sure the "Automatically detect.." check box is not enabled or checked. The next screen will ask what port your printer is on. If you are using a serial printer, you probably have the printer on COM1:. If you are using a parallel printer, you probably are using LPT1:. Next, you will be asked what type of device driver you need for the printer. You want to select the "Generic" driver, and this should be the default. Next, give your printer a name and continue. If you are using multiple computers, you can share this printer with other computers. See the section on networking for these options. Print a test page to make sure your printer is working. If the test page does not print, you may have chosen the wrong port.