Barcode scanner

Every ticket label carries the ticket number as a barcode (and, if you choose, as a QR code). Point a barcode scanner at the label and Ledger Desk opens that ticket, from any page of the app. There is nothing to install and nothing to switch on: as soon as a user who can see tickets signs in, the scanner works.

What happens when you scan

1. You scan the label on a device (or the barcode at the end of a receipt, which carries the same number).
2. Ledger Desk recognises that the characters came from a scanner, not from someone typing.
3. It looks the number up among the tickets you are allowed to see.
4. It goes to the Tickets page and opens the ticket full screen, with its bill beside it.

If no ticket has that number, a notice says No ticket has the number LDK-000123. Nothing else changes on screen.

Which scanners work

Almost every scanner sold for shops works, as long as it behaves like a keyboard:

Two things matter: the scanner must type the code like a keyboard, and it must send Enter (or Tab) after the code. Most scanners come set up this way.

Set up a scanner

Scanners are set up by scanning special barcodes printed in their manual (the programming or configuration guide). Check these settings:

Test the scanner first

1. Open Notepad on the computer.
2. Scan a ticket label.
3. You should see the number, for example LDK-000123, and the cursor should jump to a new line.

If the number appears but no new line, the suffix is missing. If other characters appear (such as &é"' instead of digits), the keyboard layout of the scanner does not match Windows.

How Ledger Desk tells a scan from typing

• A scanner types very fast: Ledger Desk accepts a run of at least 4 characters that arrive on average no more than 50 ms apart, followed by Enter or Tab.
• A pause of more than 0.3 seconds between two characters starts over, so normal typing is never taken as a scan.
• Very long runs (more than 64 characters) are ignored.

Where you can scan

• Anywhere in the signed-in app: the dashboard, a customer, a report. You do not need to open the Tickets page first.
• With the cursor in a text box (a search box, a note): the ticket still opens, and the scanned number is taken out of the box again. An unknown number gives no notice in this case, because you may simply be typing.
• Never in a password field: a scan there is left alone.
• Not while a dialog or form is open, and not while the screen is locked.
• If the page you are on has unsaved changes, Ledger Desk asks first. If you stay on the page, the scan is dropped; scan again after saving.

How the number is matched

• Only letters and digits are compared, without regard to capitals. LDK-000123, LDK000123 and ldk-000123 all find the same ticket, so a scanner that leaves out the dash still works.
• You only find tickets you are allowed to see. A technician who sees only their own tickets gets the notice for a ticket assigned to someone else.
• The number of a replacement bill (for example LDK-000123-2, made after a bill was voided) is not a ticket number: scan the ticket label instead.
• Labels from another shop, or tickets made offline that do not have their final number yet, are not found.

Labels that scan well

Open Printers & Labels (Settings). The ticket label options that matter for scanning:

• Ledger Desk never prints a code that cannot be scanned. On a very small label where the barcode does not fit, it prints the QR code instead; if even that does not fit, the label carries the number in text only.
• Press Test page: label printer once: its rulers show whether the size is true, and its fine lines and small letters show whether the print is sharp.
• Set the paper size in the driver of the label printer to the label size.
• Keep labels clean and flat. A label wrapped around a curved edge or covered by tape is hard to read.

Troubleshooting