Receipt printers & devices

On the web register (Swann Retail in a browser), receipts print and the cash drawer pops two ways: a USB printer plugged straight into the computer running the register, or a network printer reached through a small print agent on a store PC. Pick the one that matches your hardware. Either way, receipts and emailing still work from the on-screen print dialog if no printer is set up, so you’re never stuck.

The tablet POS works differently — it prints straight to a network printer, with no USB pairing and no print agent. See On the tablet below.

Not sure what to buy yet? Choosing a receipt printer covers the printers and cash drawers that work.

Printing a sale’s receipt on the web register

When a sale completes, press Print on the receipt to open the browser’s print dialog, and pick your receipt printer (or any printer) there. This works with any printer the computer can reach, whether or not you’ve set up either option below.

Option 1 — a USB printer (Settings → Peripherals)

Best when the receipt printer is plugged into the same computer as the register.

1. Plug the thermal (ESC/POS) printer into the computer and open Settings → Peripherals.
2. Press Pair printer and pick it from the browser’s device list.
3. Use Test print and Test drawer-kick to check it.

Once a printer is paired, a completed sale’s receipt also offers Print (thermal) to send it straight to that printer, and Open drawer for staff with the Manage settings permission. Neither happens automatically — the drawer opens only when someone presses the button. USB pairing needs Chrome or Edge on a secure (https or localhost) connection — if it’s unavailable, you’ll see a note and receipts fall back to the browser dialog.

Option 2 — a network printer + print agent (Settings → Devices)

Best when the receipt printer is on your network rather than plugged into one computer. A small print-relay agent runs on a store PC and passes receipts from Swann Retail to the printer.

1. Install the print-relay agent on a store PC — see Installing the print agent.
2. In Settings → Devices, the owner presses Provision agent and copies the one-time token into the agent’s configuration. The token is shown only once.
3. The agent appears in the list — check it shows online and that it can reach the printer.

The Devices page shows each agent’s status, version, printer reachability, and last-seen time, with a banner per location telling you whether anything can currently print. With an agent set up, a completed sale’s receipt prints on the network printer automatically and a cash sale opens the drawer; the receipt also offers Reprint receipt. When a network agent is set up, USB pairing is turned off — you run one kind of printer, not both.

A printer your tablet prints to won’t print web sales on its own

Printers you add on the tablet’s Station screen are printed to by the tablet itself. A sale rung on the web register is not sent to one of those printers automatically — not through the print agent and not by the tablet — whether or not the computer is set up as a station or rings for the tablet’s station. The sale is recorded as normal; only the automatic receipt, and the drawer pop that comes with it, don’t happen.

To print that receipt, press Print on the completed sale and pick the printer in the browser’s print dialog (see Printing a sale’s receipt on the web register). To take cash, open the drawer with No sale on a tablet bound to that printer, or with the drawer’s key.

A network printer should be reachable only from the devices that print to it — the print agent and any register tablets — not from every device in the store. See Securing your store network for the setup checklist.

Who can use the Devices page

Settings → Devices is for people who manage your stations. You need the Manage stations permission (owners have it) — without it, Devices doesn’t appear in Settings. One part of the page needs more:

• Pair a device — giving a new device its pairing code — also needs the Manage settings permission. Without it, the page shows Pairing a new device needs permission to manage settings. in its place.

See Roles & permissions to change who has which permission.

On the tablet

The tablet POS sends receipts straight to a network receipt printer on your store network — it doesn’t use USB pairing or the print agent. Add your printers and bind the till to one in Settings → Station & receipt printer; Stations walks through the steps, the test receipt and the printer diagnostics.

Once the till is bound, every sale you complete prints its receipt automatically, and a cash sale opens the drawer — there’s no setting to turn on. A sale rung while the tablet is offline is the exception; see Working offline on the tablet.

Bind each register to its printer

When a store has more than one till, each register picks which printer it prints to on the till itself — see Stations for the steps.