Product
Receipt printers and FEL: what hardware you actually need
The FlowPOS product team
"Which printer do I need in order to invoice with FEL?" is one of the most repeated questions, and it nearly always comes from one misunderstanding: the idea that FEL requires special equipment.
It does not. FEL defines how the document is registered with the SAT, not how it is printed. The printer is an operations decision, not a compliance one.
This guide separates the two and explains what to buy for which kind of business. If what you want is how receipt printing works in FlowPOS, that has its own page.
First: paper is not the receipt
Under FEL, the electronic document is the invoice. The printed ticket is a courtesy copy.
That reframes the question. It is not "which printer lets me invoice?" but "what do I want to hand the customer, and what do I need to print in order to operate?" A business can invoice perfectly well without printing anything and send the document over WhatsApp or email.
In practice most still print, because customers expect it and because the kitchen needs tickets. But it is worth knowing it is a choice.
The two kinds of printing a business does
Sales ticket. What the customer is handed. It lives at the till.
Kitchen ticket. What goes to production in a restaurant. That is a second printer, usually somewhere else in the building, and often on a different kind of paper.
Conflating them is the most common installation mistake: a single printer at the till forces someone to walk the paper to the kitchen, which is exactly the job the system was supposed to remove.
Thermal or impact
Thermal. Prints with heat onto sensitive paper. Fast, quiet, no ink or ribbons. It is the standard for tickets today.
Impact (dot matrix). Strikes a ribbon against the paper. Noisy and slower, but it prints in hot environments and onto carbon-copy paper.
The practical rule: thermal at the till, impact in a hot kitchen. Thermal paper darkens near a grill or a fryer, and a kitchen ticket that becomes unreadable in fifteen minutes is worth nothing.
If the kitchen runs at normal temperature — a coffee bar, a sandwich shop — thermal is fine and more convenient.
Paper widths
Two sizes cover almost everything:
| Width | Typical use |
|---|---|
| 58 mm | Short tickets, businesses with little detail per sale |
| 80 mm | Till standard, kitchen tickets, multi-line receipts |
80 mm is the safe choice if you are unsure. A ticket with ten lines, the customer's NIT and authorisation details looks cramped on 58 mm.
How it connects
This decides more than people expect, because the connection determines where the printer can physically sit.
USB. Simple and reliable, but the printer is tied to the computer or tablet driving it. Fine for a till, not for a kitchen on the other side of the building.
Network (Ethernet or Wi-Fi). The printer has its own address and any device can send to it. This is what makes a kitchen ticket appear in the kitchen when a server takes payment at the table. For restaurants it is effectively required.
Bluetooth. Useful for mobile selling or delivery. Less stable for fixed all-day use.
For a restaurant with a separate kitchen, network is the answer. For a shop with one till, USB is enough and costs less.
Brands and compatibility
Epson, Star, Bixolon and Sunmi are the brands most seen in the region, and all have widely compatible models. Most receipt printers speak a common command language, which is why one system can support so many models.
Two things to confirm before buying, whatever the brand:
- That the specific model is supported, not just the brand. Manufacturers have budget lines that behave differently.
- That the connection it ships with is the one you need. Many models exist in USB and network versions under the same name with a different suffix.
What else you will need
Cash drawer. It usually connects to the printer rather than the computer, and opens when the ticket prints.
Paper. Thermal, in the right width. Worth keeping more than one spare roll: running out at peak hour is an avoidable interruption.
Clean power. A small regulator or UPS. Network printers that reboot mid-sale lose whatever was queued.
The buying order that causes the fewest problems
- Decide first whether you need separate kitchen tickets. That determines whether you go network.
- Pick the width: 80 mm unless you have a concrete reason for 58.
- Confirm the exact model is supported by your system.
- Buy the cash drawer that matches that printer, not separately.
And the part people do backwards: do not buy the printer before you know where it will physically sit. A USB thermal bought for "the till" cannot be moved to the kitchen later.