Put each order message where it is needed
A printed ticket is useful when it reaches the people who are meant to act on it. A drink prepared directly at a bar may follow a different route from food produced in the kitchen. Several bars introduce further differences. If those arrangements exist only in a few employees’ memories, every new shift needs to reconstruct them.
Bonzumo includes configurable print routing and bar print profiles. These let the delivery of order information reflect products, categories and operating areas. The starting point is the distribution of work rather than the number of printers. This guide helps you describe that work clearly before configuring how information should move between stations.
Separate production tickets from guest receipts
Printed documents can serve different purposes. A production ticket tells a station about work to perform. A guest receipt belongs to the payment process. Another printout might help a collection point coordinate several parts of an order. Confusing these purposes produces piles of paper that staff interpret differently.
For each handover point, establish what information is needed and why. Does the station make the product or simply need awareness of an order? Who checks completeness, and who takes the finished item to the guest? These questions remain relevant when a kitchen display is also used. Another device cannot make an unclear responsibility clear by itself.
Build routing around products and categories
Bonzumo’s bar print rules editor supports profiles, assigned tables, locally handled products and rules for individual products or categories. Rules can specify printing behaviour or use the existing product routing. A specific product exception can therefore supplement a broader category arrangement.
Imagine a drink category normally prepared at one bar while a particular product is made elsewhere. The exception should be reflected in the configuration instead of depending only on a verbal reminder. Your business determines the intended arrangement, and representative orders are used to review whether the setup matches it.
Treat local preparation as an explicit workflow
At some counters, the person taking the order prepares certain products immediately. An additional direct ticket may add little value there. At another workstation, the same product may require a printed handover. Location and responsibility therefore matter alongside the product itself.
Bonzumo’s bar profiles can take locally handled products and categories into account. An agreement to work without a direct ticket must still make sense to staff. No paper does not mean no task. Explain how the local employee recognises and completes the work. Remove a ticket only when the alternative handover is clear in the actual service.
Explain rule priority using a real product
Where several rules could apply, their priority needs to be understandable. In Bonzumo’s configuration, product rules take precedence over category rules and local assignment. This allows one item to be handled differently from its broader group. Existing product routing remains relevant when no more specific rule applies or when using it is explicitly selected.
Staff do not need to memorise a technical hierarchy. Show a real example: most drinks are prepared locally, but a particular cocktail goes to a designated bar. The important point is that configured behaviour agrees with the operating decision. Avoid accumulating unexplained exceptions that no one can account for a few weeks later.
Use the preview and check the physical result
The bar print rules editor provides a preview using an example product and a table. It shows expected print destinations and identifies missing destinations. This is a useful way to discuss logical routing before checking it at a real workstation. It does not replace a physical output test.
During practical acceptance, inspect the ticket together. Is the product recognisable, is the table context correct and does the paper arrive at the intended station? Include several representative cases rather than only the simplest item. The specific printer, connection and local setup are part of that review. A successful configuration preview is not evidence that a physical printer has been tested.
An example with two bars and one kitchen
A venue has an indoor bar, an outdoor bar and a central kitchen. Some drinks are made at either bar, while others come only from the main bar. Food is prepared centrally. First describe the intended route for each group: order entry, preparation, completeness check and service to the guest.
Then align profiles and exceptions with those routes. Review a mixed order containing drinks and food from different areas. Pay particular attention to who combines the completed parts. When two stations are involved, neither should assume the other owns the final check. Print routing supports the handover; the business still assigns the responsibility.
Create a simple work map before configuring printers
Draw the stations involved: order entry, bar, kitchen and any shared collection point. Add three representative products and connect them to the places where work is performed. Mark separately where a colleague merely needs information and where actual preparation begins. This makes unnecessary printouts and missing handovers discussable before changing settings.
Pay particular attention to products handled differently by area. A bottle of water may be handed over immediately at one counter, while table service requires another colleague to assemble the order. The work map makes that difference visible. It becomes a practical basis for discussing Bonzumo bar profiles and individual exceptions with the people using them.
If employees describe different intended routes for the same case, resolve the operating question first. A technical setting should not accidentally decide who performs the work. Once the responsibility is clear, you can assess which printed handover supports it. This keeps configuration tied to an agreed service rather than a collection of assumptions.
Maintain exceptions with an understandable purpose
Individual print exceptions can be useful, but they can also become difficult to follow over time. Record the operational reason for each special rule. Saying that an item is prepared only at the main bar remains intelligible when employees change. An unexplained exception is harder to assess during a later menu or station update.
When the menu or preparation arrangement changes, review the affected exceptions specifically. A new product in an existing category may be prepared somewhere else. An old exception may become unnecessary if preparation moves. Product maintenance and print planning therefore need to meet at these concrete points rather than being treated as unrelated administrative jobs.
Bonzumo’s rule priority distinguishes general behaviour from special cases. For ongoing maintenance, a designated person should still understand the whole arrangement. This avoids several stations making short-term changes independently and discovering the combined effect only during service. Clear ownership is particularly valuable where one product can pass through different areas.
Record practical acceptance in a useful form
Three details provide a good starting point for a print check: the example product, the chosen table or area and the expected output location. Add what actually happened. That short record is more useful than a general statement that the printers were tested at some point.
Also ask whether the receiving colleague can work with the output. A sheet arriving physically is not automatically a clear handover. Product wording, quantity and table context need to make sense at the station. A Bonzumo demonstration and subsequent setup should therefore consider both configuration and the perspective of the person receiving the task.
For a mixed order, follow each part until it is combined for service. If the kitchen ticket and bar ticket are both understandable but nobody owns the final collection, another printer will not resolve the missing responsibility. Record that question separately and agree who coordinates the completed order. The purpose of routing is to make the work clearer, not merely to generate visible activity.
Repeat a relevant check when the related printer, route or station arrangement changes. There is no need to turn every small menu update into an unfocused review of all devices. Use the recorded example to target the affected path and establish whether it still delivers the information to the people who need it.
Questions about restaurant printers and routing
Can any printer be used? Suitability depends on the specific device and connection and is checked during setup. A general product description is not a substitute for that review. Bring the model names of existing devices and the planned workstation layout to the discussion.
Does every product need its own printed ticket? That depends on the station’s task and the configured rules. Printing is useful when it supports an actual handover. A product made by the person taking the order may need a different process from an item prepared at a distant bar.
What should a demonstration cover? Choose a standard product, an exception and an order from a second area. These make it possible to discuss Bonzumo against your intended printers and handover points. The result is a practical plan for cooperation rather than a general conversation about connecting hardware.