Business Guide To Receipt Layouts
Millions of receipts are issued to customers every day but few of us take any great notice of the information that is printed on them
. What information should be on your receipt? Where should it go and why? This article covers the basics on what a business should consider when deciding on what information should be shown, and how to display this information on their receipts.
A customer receipt is generally made up of five sections. From the top they are:
Company logo, Header, Body, Method of payment & Footer
The company logo or name is usually centrally aligned and positioned right at the top of any receipt. It is for the simple purpose of easy identification of the issuer. Logos take time to print so for the quickest printing speed the logo should be stored on the receipt printer, EPOS systems or cash registers.
Header & Footer
The header is the informational part of the receipt usually situated below the logo and normally consisting of no more than one or two lines of data. The footer, as the name suggests, is situated at the bottom of the receipt and generally consists of two to three lines of information. Both are centrally aligned but interestingly there are no hard and fast rules for what information to include in the header and footer and for the most part the data is interchangeable. As a general guide the majority of business tent to stick to the following;
Header - Store specific information such as branch name, address and phone number with almost all retailers including a date and time stamp followed by the transaction number.
Footer - Company information such as address, phone number, email, web address etc plus a short message such as "please call again" or "thank you for your custom". No businesses are the same so there is a wide variety of different data printed in the header and footer but here are some commonly used further examples, assistant or manager name, refund policy, coupons, barcode, till number & tax reference number. Large chain retailers often print a barcode at the bottom of the receipt. Standard barcode configurations often contain embedded data such as the date, time, branch number & transaction number. upon scanning the barcode the solution recalls the transaction allowing the user to view it and make alterations such as refunds etc. This process can save huge amounts of time although this function is solely down to the capability of your solution and not the printer itself.
Receipt Body
Different countries and different regions have different laws regarding the exact information printed so the first thing any business should do is seek the best local advice. This can be from government websites or sometimes can easily be obtained from suppliers. There are general guidelines however which do not tend to differ country to country and below we look at the simplest example of a receipt. The Item description or department/category is normally the first body data to be printed and left aligned. For example; Pot of tea (item description) and Hot drink (department/category). What is actually printed is dependant on the solution that is used and how it is configured. Computer based solutions often referred to as EPOS solutions(electronic point of sale) are often hugely more adaptable and configurable for printing options than cash registers. Many cash registers are capable of printing the product description but lower end models tend to have department/categories such as in the hot drink example. The quantity of the item is printed next to the item itself. This can either be printed before the item description or after. For example
Pot of tea x 2 2 x Pot of tea
Another option is to simply print the same item twice on the receipt.
You have printed the item purchased, so logically the next thing to print is the items price. Depending on the country, region & business type this could include or exclude tax. To keep things simple the example below shows the price including tax and uses dollars for an example currency.
Pot of tea x 2 $4.20
The next part of the body of the receipt is the financial total. This is a monetary total of all the items which can be displayed either including tax or alternatively with a break down of the tax applied.
Other options that can be included in the body of the receipt are product code, discounts/promotions, refunds, coupons, detailed tax data & calculations, services, item specific data, forms, and much more.
Method of payment
The last section of the receipt before the footer is the method of payment or more simply how the customer paid. The simplest example (shown below) is when a customer pays with cash.
Logo
Header
Pot of tea x 2 $4.20
Coffee $ 2.00
Total $6.20
Cash $10.00
Change $3.20
Footer
The most complex method of payment is usually credit cards as the way the receipt is printed is totally dependant on the solution that is being used. Many EPOS solutions have integrated payment systems so that the credit card details can be printed on the same receipt with all the other information. Some solutions print the credit card details on a separate slip to the main receipt with others printing the information from a totally separate machine supplied by the retailer's bank or system supplier. Check local regulations for the different payment types that you will be accepting so that you can tailor your printed data accordingly.
Solutions
As previously mentioned what is printed on a receipt is highly dependant on the solution that is being used. Commonly used solutions are simple cash registers that print minimal information and complex EPOS solutions that are capable of printing vast amounts of complex data. The More complicated the receipt the more difficult it can be to understand so the simple rule to encourage repeat business is to keep the receipt simple. A new business should consider the following rule; the more complicated the business the more complicated the receipt therefore the more complicated the solution required.
What else can be considered?
Your business is producing basic or complex receipts what else could you do to get the most out of your receipt. Many companies use the receipt for marketing purposes and use colour paper to help promote their messages. Others have information or paid advertising pre printed on the back. Major retailers use different technology to add to the brand awareness and in turn create loyalty. Some use colour paper or colour printers with nearly all using coupons to generate that special return custom. Does it work? You bet it does! A receipt is given to customers with most purchases so use it to your advantage and make it work for to your advantage.
by: Mike Leary
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