# Cash Drawer

A cash drawer connects to your **receipt printer**, not to a computer, a tablet, or the internet. The printer opens it electrically when ForkLine sends it a command.

This means: **no cash drawer works without a working receipt printer.** Set that up first — see [Receipt Printer Setup](/receipt-printer-setup).

There is no drawer address, port, or register mapping to configure anywhere in ForkLine. If the printer works and the cable is right, the drawer works.

## Connecting it

1. Find the **DK port** on the back of your receipt printer. It looks like a phone jack and is usually labelled `DK`.
2. Plug the drawer's **RJ12 cable** into that port.
3. Plug the other end into the drawer.
4. Confirm the drawer is **unlocked** — most have a physical key lock, and a locked drawer will not open no matter what you send it.

> **The cable is not symmetrical, and its ends are labelled.** Plugging it in backwards is by far the most common reason a new drawer doesn't open. See *Troubleshooting* below — this one has cost a full day of debugging before.

## Opening the drawer

**Automatically, after a cash payment.** Take cash on the [register](/register-pos) and the drawer opens as the receipt prints.

**Manually, with no sale.** Use **Open drawer** on the register — for making change, or a till count.

Every no-sale open is recorded in the [activity log](/activity-log) with who did it. It's the one register action that reaches the cash with no order attached, so it's worth being able to review.

## Why it says "Opening" and not "Opened"

The register says *"Opening the cash drawer"*, never *"opened"*.

The printer polls ForkLine for work rather than ForkLine reaching out to it, and it never reports back on what the drawer physically did. ForkLine knows the command was sent; it can't know the drawer moved. The cashier is standing right there and can see — so the honest wording is the useful one.

## Drawer commands expire

A drawer command is only valid for about a minute. If the printer doesn't pick it up in that window, the command fails rather than queuing.

This is deliberate. A drawer springing open several minutes late, with a different customer at the counter, is a cash-handling incident. Better it doesn't open and the cashier presses again.

## Troubleshooting

**The drawer doesn't open at all.**

1. **Check the cable orientation.** Both ends are labelled — one goes to the printer, one to the drawer. It's not symmetrical.

   Be aware of the trap here: **a reversed cable still reports the drawer's open/closed status correctly.** So the printer appears to "see" the drawer, which looks like proof the cable is fine. It isn't. If the drawer won't fire, unplug both ends and check the labels regardless of what any status indicator says.

2. **Check the drawer is unlocked.** Turn the physical key.
3. **Check the printer works.** Run a test print from **Settings → Printer**. No paper means no drawer — fix the printer first.
4. **Check the cable is fully seated.** It should click.

**The drawer opens on cash but not from the button** (or vice versa) — this is unusual and suggests a permissions problem rather than hardware. Confirm the account has register access; see [Users & Roles](/users-and-roles).

**The drawer opens late.** The printer was busy. If it's consistently late, the printer is probably struggling — see [Receipt Printer Setup](/receipt-printer-setup) → *Troubleshooting*.

**The drawer opened but no receipt printed.** Check paper. A no-sale open deliberately prints nothing, so this is only a problem if it happened on an actual sale.

## Buying a drawer

Any standard cash drawer with an **RJ12 connector** that works with Star printers will do. Star's own drawers are a safe choice. Check:

- It has an RJ12 (phone-style) connector, not USB
- It's rated for your printer's drawer voltage
- The till insert matches the currency you handle

## Where to go next

- [Receipt Printer Setup](/receipt-printer-setup) — required first
- [Using the Register](/register-pos) — taking cash
- [Activity Log](/activity-log) — reviewing drawer opens