Custom POS receipts: logo and layout in 30 minutes

What a good receipt actually contains.

Header: store name, branch, address, Tax ID (GST number, VAT number, EIN, etc.), phone. Body: item lines with quantity, unit price, line total. Tax breakdown by rate. Total. Payment method. Footer: thank-you, return policy URL, social handle, optional QR code to digital receipt. Date, time, transaction ID, cashier ID at the bottom.

Skip the rest. No clip art, no tagline, no third-party logos. The receipt is a transaction record first, a marketing object second. Get the transaction details right and the marketing follows from clarity, not from clutter.

The logo, simply.

Black-and-white logo at the top, centered, 200-300 pixels wide. Thermal printing is monochrome — color logos render as gray smudges. Send your designer (or Canva yourself) a single-color version of your logo and use that. If your logo is type-only, even simpler — just bold the store name in a slightly larger font.

Resolution matters. A 72 DPI logo will look pixelated. Use 300 DPI source PNG and let the printer downscale. Most thermal printers handle 200×200 to 300×300 pixel logos cleanly. Bigger images slow printing and take more thermal energy, which means faded receipts.

Typography that reads at 7pt.

Thermal receipts print at 8pt by default. That is small. Use a sans-serif font — Helvetica, Arial, or the printer's built-in font. Line height 1.2 minimum so lines do not crash into each other. Bold the totals so they stand out without italics (italics print poorly on thermal).

Avoid script fonts, fancy fonts, anything decorative. They look great in the design preview and unreadable on actual paper. Test print everything on the actual store printer before signing off. The on-screen mock is a liar.

Footer notes that earn their space.

A two-line footer. Line 1: thank-you with a brand voice nudge ("Thanks for shopping at Nadia's — see you soon"). Line 2: return policy short-form ("7-day return with receipt, see store for details"). That is it. Customers read both. Anything more gets ignored.

A QR code linking to your full return policy or to the digital receipt is a useful add. Print at the bottom right, 2cm by 2cm. Customers can scan if they care, ignore if they do not. The QR is also useful for collecting reviews — link to your Google Business listing and watch reviews trickle in.

• Two-line thank-you and return policy
• QR to digital receipt or Google review
• Social handle, optional
• Promotional banner only during active campaigns

Tax authority mandatory fields.

For tax-compliant POS in regulated markets, the receipt must include: Tax ID (GST/VAT/EIN as applicable), tax-rate-by-line breakdown, total tax, and any reference number returned by the tax authority. The reference typically prints in a specific format with a QR code that customers can scan to verify.

These fields are mandatory and your template cannot drop them. Some POS systems offer a "branded mode" that hides the tax block — never enable that. Branded does not mean non-compliant. Your design lives in the spaces around the mandatory fields, not by removing them.

The reprint and digital alternative.

Customers increasingly prefer digital receipts via SMS or email. Build that as an option at the counter — "would you like a printed or texted receipt?" Many will say texted, you save paper and printing cost, and they get a permanent record they can search.

In Nonari every transaction has a digital receipt URL alongside the printed one. The cashier can text the link, email it, or print on demand. Customers who want both get both. Customers who want neither (the rare case) get neither. Match the customer preference, do not force the printed format.

Branch-specific touches.

For multi-branch retailers, the branch name and phone should be prominent on the receipt. A customer needs to know which branch to call about a return without thinking. Some retailers add a small branch-staff photo or branch-manager name as a personal touch — works for boutique retail, looks weird for mass market.

Branch-specific QR codes for branch-specific Google reviews work well. Each branch builds its own review profile, and you can compare branches on review velocity and rating. The marketing data is a side effect of doing branding correctly.

Cost of getting it right.

Total cost: 30-60 minutes of your time for the template, CA$0 for the design (your logo already exists), maybe CA$15 for a Canva Pro subscription if you do not already have one. The marketing effect compounds across every receipt printed for the next several years.

Compare to the cost of a designer producing a fancy template you cannot edit yourself: CA$300-1,000 plus weeks of back-and-forth, plus you pay them again every time you tweak the footer. Do it yourself once, edit when needed, ship.