Phone ordering turns on with the AI receptionist. We connect Kitchen printer and kitchen screen now; until that is switched on for your line, the receptionist takes a message instead.
Setup steps
- Choose Connect on this page or in the app. It opens Printers and menu, where you add your printers and menu yourself.
- In TimberSwitch, open Connectors, then Printers and menu. Type or paste your menu: one item per line with its price and any choices. Mark sold out items with (86).
- Choose Add printer, pick Star CloudPRNT or Epson Server Direct Print, and copy the printer link. It is shown once.
- Star: open the printer's web settings (type its IP address in a browser, or use Star Quick Setup Utility), go to CloudPRNT, turn it on, paste the link as the Server URL, set polling to 5 seconds and save.
- Epson: open EpsonNet Config (Web) by typing the printer's IP address in a browser, go to Server Direct Print, turn it on, paste the link as the URL, set the interval to 5 seconds, leave the ID and password empty and save.
- Choose Test print. Within a few seconds the printer should print a test ticket and show as online.
- Optionally open the kitchen screen link on a tablet in the kitchen and leave it open.
- We turn the connector on for your AI receptionist. Then turn on Send orders to the kitchen under Connectors, Actions, and place a test order by calling your number.
Permissions we ask for, and why
- A private printer link per printer: Your printer checks a secret HTTPS link for new tickets every few seconds. Nothing changes on your network and no port is opened. Anyone with the link could print to that printer, so you can replace it at any time.
- Your menu in TimberSwitch: The AI only offers items and prices from the menu you keep here. It never reads your POS.
What the AI receptionist will do
- Searches the menu you keep in TimberSwitch and asks for required choices, such as size, one at a time. Items marked sold out are never offered.
- Reads back the items, an estimated total and the pickup time, and waits for a yes.
- Prints a ticket marked PHONE ORDER, NOT IN POS on every printer you added and shows it on the kitchen screen, so staff ring it up at pickup.
- Says the order is confirmed only once a printer has collected the ticket or someone tapped Bump on the kitchen screen. Otherwise it tells the caller the order was sent to the team and someone will confirm.
What it can't do, and limits
- Printers: Star printers with CloudPRNT (for example TSP100IV and mC-Print3) and Epson printers with Server Direct Print (for example TM-T88VI and TM-i models; older TM-i firmware needs an update). We confirm your exact model during setup. Other printers are not supported; the kitchen screen works on any tablet.
- The printer and the kitchen screen need an internet connection. If the printer is offline, the AI waits up to the time you set (20 seconds by default) and then tells the caller the order was sent to the team.
- Orders are not in your POS and nothing is charged: payment is at pickup. Card payments and payment links are not available with this connector.
- Totals are estimates from your TimberSwitch menu and tax rate; your POS sets the final price.
- Pickup only. No delivery, no scheduled orders more than a day ahead.
- Staff text alerts for orders nobody picked up are not switched on yet; for now those orders stay on the kitchen screen and in the ticket log.
The AI says something is booked or ordered only when Kitchen printer and kitchen screen confirms it. If Kitchen printer and kitchen screen doesn't answer in time, the AI takes a message instead and tells the caller someone will follow up.
Troubleshooting
Nothing prints.
Printers and menu shows when each printer last checked in. If it says offline, check the printer is on, connected to the internet, and has the full printer link saved with CloudPRNT or Server Direct Print turned on. A Star link only works in a Star printer and an Epson link only in an Epson printer.
A ticket printed twice.
A ticket is offered again only if the printer didn't report back within a minute, for example because it ran out of paper. Make sure the printer's status reporting is on and refill paper; tickets older than two hours are never printed.
The AI said it sent the order to the team instead of confirming.
No printer collected the ticket and nobody tapped Bump within the wait time. Check the printer is online or keep the kitchen screen open, and consider a longer wait in Order settings.
The AI offered something we're out of.
Put (86) in front of the item in your menu and save. The AI stops offering it on the next call.
I think someone else has our printer link.
Choose Replace link next to the printer and paste the new link into the printer. The old link stops working immediately.
Disconnecting, and the data we keep
An owner or admin can disconnect at any time from Phone, then Connectors, in the app. Disconnecting stops TimberSwitch using Kitchen printer and kitchen screen straight away.
- Your menu, a hashed copy of each printer link (never the link itself), and when each printer last checked in with its status.
- Each phone order: items, choices, notes, estimated total, pickup time, and the caller's name and number, so staff can reach the caller. Printed tickets carry the same details.
- A log of each ticket sent to each printer and whether it printed.
- Removing a printer stops its link working at once. Disconnecting stops the AI taking orders; your menu and order history stay until you ask us to delete them.
Still stuck?
Get help: it opens an Integration support ticket. Include the time of the call and what you expected to happen.
Star Micronics and Seiko Epson is a trademark of its owner; TimberSwitch is not affiliated.