How to set up thermal receipt printing at the fee counter in Inkwelly

1. Buy an 80mm thermal printer and a roll of thermal paper

For most Indian schools an 80mm desktop thermal printer is the right starting point. The Olivetti PRT80 is the model many Inkwelly schools already use; the Epson TM-T82 is the safer choice if the school has a hardware vendor relationship. Any printer that advertises ESC/POS support and 80mm paper will work. Pick USB connection for a single counter, or LAN if two counters share one printer. Buy one box of 80mm thermal paper rolls at the same time — schools usually go through one roll a week.

2. Install QZ Tray on the fee-counter PC

Inkwelly sends print commands to thermal printers through QZ Tray — a small free desktop printing app that runs in the background. Download QZ Tray from the official website (qz.io) on the fee-counter PC, run the installer, and accept the default options. After install, the QZ Tray icon sits in the Windows system tray or macOS menu bar. Open Inkwelly in the browser on the same PC and the first time a print runs, QZ Tray asks for permission to talk to inkwelly.com — click Allow and tick Remember this permission. Without QZ Tray the thermal printer cannot receive the print.

3. Open Configuration → Receipt Template → Thermal Printer

In Inkwelly, open Student Fee from the left sidebar, click Configuration under SETUP, scroll to the Preferences section and click the Receipt Template tile. The Receipt Template page opens with a left sidebar listing five sections — Branding, Address & Contact, Tax & Registration, A4 / PDF Receipt, and Thermal Printer. Click Thermal Printer. The right pane shows every setting that controls the paper slip, with a live preview on the right that updates as you type. This single page drives every thermal print the counter will ever make.

4. Pick 80mm as the default paper size

At the top of the Thermal Printer panel, the Default paper size picker shows two cards — 80mm and 58mm. Click 80mm if you bought the standard counter printer (it fits 48 characters on a line and reads comfortably for an adult). Click 58mm only if your school went with a small handheld printer (32 characters per line, smaller text). The cashier can still switch per-print from the receipt screen, but this seeds the default for every counter staff. Leave the Characters per line numbers at 48 (80mm) and 32 (58mm) unless your printer model wraps text mid-line, which is rare.

5. Set copies, header and footer text

Scroll to the Print options section and set Copies per print — 1 prints only the parent copy, 2 prints parent plus an office copy (most schools pick 2), and 3 is for schools that file a trust-record copy as well. Go up to Header & footer text. In Header text type your school name and any line like Fee Counter — keep it in English, because thermal printers cannot print Hindi or regional scripts and Hindi text will come out as ???. In Footer text put a thank-you line and a phone number for queries — for example Thank you for your payment and For queries call 9876543210. Both fields preserve line breaks; the live preview on the right shows exactly how the slip will look.

6. Turn the verification QR on and keep auto-cut enabled

In the same Print options section, turn Print verification QR on. Inkwelly prints a QR code at the bottom of every thermal slip; when a parent or auditor scans it the browser opens a small Inkwelly verify page that confirms the receipt is genuine and shows the date, amount and student name. Keep Auto-cut paper on so the printer cleanly separates each receipt — turn it off only if your printer has no built-in cutter. Print logo on thermal receipt can stay off for most schools because thermal-bitmap logos slow the print and can come out grainy; only enable it if your hardware vendor has confirmed clean output.

7. Save the template and run a test print from a recent receipt

Click Save changes at the bottom of the page. Inkwelly shows a Receipt template saved toast. Now open Student Fee → Receipts in a new tab, pick any recent paid receipt, click Print on the receipt detail page, and choose Thermal in the print dialog. QZ Tray prompts for permission the first time, you click Allow, and the printer pushes out a fresh paper slip with your header, the student name, the amount, the QR code and the footer line. Hand it to the parent — that is exactly what every counter print will look like from now on.