10 Ways To Save Money On Till Rolls, Paper Rolls, Cash Register Rolls And Chip And Pin Rolls

Every business who directly sells to the customer tends to consume paper rolls in one form or another and the chances are they are wasting paper. It is essential for business to keep costs to a minimum and with the constant increasing price of paper reducing the amount paper used can increase your bottom line over time. Here are 10 simple ways of not only saving paper and reducing costs but also having a healthy impact on the environment.

1. Buy as many rolls as you can in one go

Paper is heavy and so delivering paper becomes very expensive. Couriers offer suppliers discounts for volumes which they "kindly" pass on to customers who buy in bulk. Just look at the "price per roll" of twenty boxes of rolls compared to say four boxes. Makes you think!

2. Buy the optimum roll size

Check your manual for roll size and make sure that you specify the optimum roll diameter for your printer. Not completely filling your printer's basket leads to more roll changes and more purchasing of unnecessary till rolls.

3. Buy the optimum core size

Check if the core size of your till roll is essential to the printer operation. If it is not check the internal dimension of the core which should be no more than 12.7mm internal diameter. In some printers a spindle or driver is inserted into the core to feed the paper forward. In this instance the core size is critical and no savings can be made

In many other devices the roll simply sits in a cradle or basket so the core size is not important to the performance of the printer. However in this instance, large cores means less paper, more changing & purchasing of rolls.

4. Length & Diameter do mater

Check the number of meters in a roll and use the maximum for the diameter. If you are not sure ask your supplier. Also make sure that your supplier sends the rolls with exact dimensions that you specified. A few mm here and there makes a considerable difference over time!

5. No waste

Make sure that there is no spare paper left in the till or device when it indicates that you have to change the till roll. You can often adjust the printers with screws or levers so that all the paper is used up. This adjustment is usually required if you start using rolls with a different core size. If your device has no way of adjusting it then buy a better fitting roll. Ask your supplier to help you with this.

6. Reduce the size of your logo

Simply reduce your brand logo size in the header of the receipt or even convert it to text if a logo is unnecessary. You can imagine the large savings over many transactions.

7. Excessive headers and footers

The Header is the text at the top of the receipt before the transaction data starts where as the footer is the text at the bottom of the receipt after the transaction data ends. By removing unwanted gaps or text in these locations you can considerably reduce the length of the receipt which over time can save a lot of paper.

8. Margin of error

As with the headers and footers ensure your solution is not using excessive margins at either side of the transaction. Admittedly this can be tricky to change and is often down to the solution provider or hardware manufacturer to change. However many manufacturers are moving towards "Eco" solutions which reduces this waste.

9. Go coreless

For hand held portable thermal printers and PDQ rolls, where applicable, select high yield coreless rolls which have up to 40% more paper per roll.

10. Go Eco

Eco rolls are made with the entire tree unlike Grade A paper till rolls and therefore are more environmentally friendly. They are off white in colour due to this process and have some small raised "bumps" throughout. Eco rolls are less expensive than standard rolls saving you money too.

If you want to let your customers know that you are saving the environment and you don't mind off white paper, then Eco rolls may be for you. You should purchase one box to evaluate the Eco rolls before ordering in bulk.

Lastly - What not to do

Cheaper rolls will save me money right?

Low quality paper can cause issues by jamming and by creating "dust" which over time can damage your printer. Avoiding approved papers may also lead to warranties being invalidated. Cheaper thermal till rolls can often have fewer meters of paper on them too! To summarise, cheap paper rolls leads to costing your business more in the long run.

Go for approved grade A and Eco paper.