Batch Printing

Batch Printing lets you select tickets across multiple Orders and Instances and print everything in one go. For example, in the morning you can print off tickets from overnight sales so tickets can be posted out or collected.

In this article we’re going to take a look at how to select and print Orders and change optional settings to customise your Batch Printing.

Before you read this article, make sure you’re familiar with:

• Introduction to Ticket Printers
• Introduction to the Spektrix Box Office App

Getting Started

• Switch on your printer and check it is set up correctly
• Make sure you have sufficient Ticket Stock
• Check the Box Office App is connected

How to start a batch print

To print a batch of Tickets, go to the Sales Interface > Tickets:

Choosing your criteria

The first section on the Ticket Printing screen is Printing Criteria. This lets you choose options for which tickets you’ll include in your batch.

1. Include Items Already Printed: Selecting this checkbox will print tickets which match the selected criteria, even if they’ve been marked as printed.
2. Include all other tickets from the same Order as the search results: Select this option to include tickets which don’t meet any of the other Printing criteria, but are part of the same Order.
3. Include Merchandise Items: Select this option to print Merchandise vouchers for any Merchandise items included in Orders which meet the criteria.

   You'll need to have a design set for this item in Document Designs. If you can’t see a checkbox for Include Merchandise Items, contact Support. The Order must include tickets to feature in the search.

4. Include cover slips: Select this to print a cover slip for every Order.
5. Delivery Method: Choose whether you want to include tickets for collection (CoBO/Will Call), for postage, or both.

TIP: If you sell Fixed Series subscriptions, you'll see some additional options. Choose whether you want to include Singles, Fixed Subscription Tickets, or both.

How to select which Instances to include

Once you’ve chosen your criteria on the Ticket Printing screen, select which Instances to include in the batch. To print Tickets for all Instances, click the Search button.

To choose which Instances are included in the batch print choose Basic or Advanced Instance selection.

REMINDER: Depending on your search criteria, it’s possible to select and print a very large number of tickets so make sure to review your selections carefully.

Basic Instance selection

With Basic Instance selection, you can add Event Instances individually. To add a specific Event Instance follow these steps:

1. Click Events:

    

   

2. Select the Event you’d like to add:

    

   

3. Select the Event Instance you’d like to print the Tickets for:

    

   

4. Click Actions > Add to printing criteria:

    

   

5. After you’ve added the Instance to the Printing Criteria, you’ll return to the Ticket Printing screen. Here, you’ll see the Instance you selected under Event Instances:

    

   

6. You can add multiple Instances by repeating this process.
7. Once you’ve chosen your Instances click Search:

Advanced Instance selection

To include a range of Instances in your batch, you can use the Advanced search functionality, which uses the Event Criteria Tool.

1. Click Advanced on the Ticket Printing screen:

    

   

2. You’ll see a screen where you can select different criteria. First, uncheck Only show commonly used criteria:

    

   

3. To select a criteria option, drag it down from the top menu to the Drop criteria here area below:

    

   

You can use any of the options included to build a more complex set of search criteria. This lets you narrow your search and save manually adding each Instance. Here are a few examples:

• Start Date: Includes all Instances of all Events over a given period of time.
• Venue: Includes All Event Instances held at a specific venue.
• Ticket Designs: Use this to print everything for each set of different ticket stock you use. For example, if you use different ticket stock for Events in different Venues or run by different promoters.

You can combine multiple criteria into one larger set using AND rules to narrow your search. Alternatively, use OR rules to widen your search. For example, using Start Date AND Venue, will select tickets that match both sets of criteria. For more information on Event Instances criteria and how specify and combine criteria, read Event Criteria.

Once you’re happy with your criteria, click Search:

Checking the matching Orders

Once you’ve selected your criteria for either a Basic or Advanced search and clicked Search, matching orders will appear underneath your search terms:

At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see how many pages of tickets have been included - each page contains 12 tickets. You can navigate through the pages of tickets by using the Previous and Next buttons. You can then check how many tickets will print in this batch.

If the number looks higher than you expected or you need to make a change, check your criteria and Instance selection at the top of the page.

Orders will be displayed by the Customer’s last name, in ascending order (A-Z), or descending order (Z-A), depending on which option has been selected in the Settings interface. You can change the alphabetical printing order in the Settings interface. Read the instructions in Alphabetical Printing order for more information.

How to confirm a batch print

Once you’re happy with the contents of your batch, click the Print button to print all tickets:

You’ll see a pop up asking you to Confirm the number of Orders to print. This is based on the default number from your Settings interface.

Click Confirm to print the selected number of Orders:

If the total number of Orders in your batch is greater than the default, as in the example above, the system will suggest that you only print the default number. 

If the Batch Print number is lower than the total number of Orders specified, any remaining Orders won’t be printed. These will be available for you to print once the first batch is done.

Once your first batch has printed, confirm if they’ve printed successfully:

When you click Print again, the rest of your total orders will print.

To change the number of Orders that will be printed, type a different number into the box:

Alternatively, you can change the default number of Orders which will print in a batch for your Spektrix system. Click the box below for instructions:

• Batches can potentially include hundreds or even thousands of tickets, which can be too much to print in one go. To manage your batch sizes, you can set the default number of Orders to be included in each batch. Alternatively, you can increase the number to allow the printing of bigger batches.

  REMINDER:  You’ll need the Settings Administrator Role on your User Account before you can change these Settings. If you don’t have this, ask the Administrator in your organisation.

  To change the default number for your Spektrix system, follow these steps:

  1. In the Setting interface, click Configuration then System Setup:

     

  2. From the left-hand menu, click Printing

     

  3. Enter the number you want for the default number in a batch and click Save Configuration:

     

Confirming tickets have printed

After you’ve clicked Confirm on a Batch Print, you’ll see a message asking you to check that the tickets have printed:

WARNING: Check all of the tickets have printed before you click Yes.

Once you click Yes, the system will mark all the tickets in the batch as printed. After this point, there’s no way of seeing in the system which tickets have printed and which remain unprinted.

If there are any issues with printing, such as a paper jam, or the printer runs out of ticket stock, click No to reprint the entire batch. 

If you’ve clicked No because some tickets didn’t print, you can go into the Orders which printed successfully and mark the tickets as printed. Follow these steps:

1. In the Sales interface, click Orders:

    

   

2. Type the Order Number and click Search:

    

   

3. Click on the Order:

    

   

4. In the Order Details screen, select the Tickets you’d like to mark as printed:

    

   

5. Click Action and select ‘Mark As Printed’:

    

   

My batch was accidentally marked as printed

If a batch doesn’t complete printing, follow these steps:

1. In the Sales interface, click Orders:

    

   

2. Type the Order Number and click Search:

    

   

3. Click on the Order:

    

   

4. In the Order Details screen, select the Tickets you’d like to unmark as printed:

    

   

5. Click Action and select ‘Unmark As Printed’:

    

   

If you're unsure which Orders are affected, contact Support.

Batch number and printing order settings

There is no setup required to start batch printing, but there are two settings which you can adjust.

Default number in a batch

Batches can potentially include hundreds or even thousands of tickets, which can be too much to print in one go. To make sure batches are of manageable sizes, you can set the default number of Orders to be included in each Batch.

If a batch contains more Orders than the default number you’ve set, the system will automatically default to the limit. At this point you can either edit the number of Orders manually or print only the default number of Orders. Any remaining unprinted Orders will still be available to print once the first batch has completed.

You can change the default batch number in the Settings Interface under Configuration > System Setup > Printing.

REMINDER:  You’ll need the Settings Administrator Role on your User Account before you can change these Settings. If you don’t have this, ask the Administrator in your organisation.

1. In the Settings interface, click Configuration > System Setup:

    

   

2. From the left-hand menu, click Printing:

    

   

3. Enter the number you want for the default number in a batch and click Save Configuration:

    

   

Alphabetical Printing order

You can choose whether you want the Orders in each batch to print in A-Z order (ordered by surname) or in reverse Z-A order. The most common choice is A-Z, but it can be useful to print Z-A if you are printing into a tray. Orders will print in alphabetical order from Z at the bottom to A at the top.

The overall batch will always be ordered either from A-Z or Z-A by surname. If you split the tickets into multiple batches, the system will break up the total batch into chunks and maintain the overall order.

For example, if you split the tickets into two smaller batches, the first batch might include Orders with surnames starting with A to L, while the second batch would include surnames starting with M to Z.

The exact split will depend on the number of Orders in the batch, and won’t necessarily be an even split by letter.

REMINDER:  You’ll need the Settings Administrator Role on your User Account before you can change these Settings. If you don’t have this, ask the Administrator in your organisation.

1. In the Settings interface, click Configuration > System Setup:

    

   

2. From the left-hand menu, click Printing:

    

   

3. Select which Order you’d like the batch to print in and click Save Configuration:

   
   

You now have the information needed to Batch Print tickets in Spektrix. For other helpful resources, visit the Sell Items and Fulfill Orders category section of our Support Centre.