Point-of-sale app with thermal printing for ferry ticket desks

The challenge

Ticket desks on the docks sold tickets with standalone machines that knew nothing about online sales, B2B bookings or the day's takings. Coverage on the waterfront is unreliable, queues form right before departure, and every sale has to end with a printed ticket in the passenger's hand.

What we built

An Android and iOS app that turns a phone or tablet paired with a Bluetooth thermal printer into a full ticket desk. It is part of the ferry ecosystem we built for the same operator.

• Fast sale and print: ticket catalogue filtered by desk and route, favourite tickets, cash or card, departure time and QR code printed on the ticket
• Offline first: every sale is saved in a local SQLite database and synced with the back-office when the connection comes back, so the desk never stops
• B2B and groups: tickets for agencies, drivers and guides, plus retrieval of tour-operator group bookings to print their tickets on boarding
• Audio guide codes printed on the ticket, to unlock the guide in the passenger app
• Cash management: takings and expenses, end-of-day closing, reports per desk and reprint of lost tickets
• Control: each device registered as a cash desk, admin area, print logs and automatic printer reconnection

Outcome

Dock sales, online sales and B2B bookings now end up in the same place. Staff sell and print in seconds even without coverage, and the office sees the takings of every desk without collecting receipts by hand.