What the phone does
The attendant signs in to the Paski app on any Android phone with their mobile number and a PIN. The app is the gate: it lets vehicles in, sends the ticket to the owner on WhatsApp, scans the QR at the exit, works out the fee, shows the UPI QR and closes the ticket. The owner watches every gate from their own phone or from a browser.
The same gate runs in a desktop browser for a cabin with a computer, and on an attendant's own phone when the parking's phone is charging. Up to 15 gate staff a location, each with their own sign-in, each named on the tickets they issue.
What a printer adds
Some vehicle owners want paper, and some gates work better with it: a theatre's token gate hands out a slip and collects it; a market has owners with no WhatsApp. For those, Paski prints the same ticket, with the same QR, on:
- A Sunmi handheld (V2, V2s): the app prints to its built-in printer with nothing to set up.
- An iMin handheld: the same, through iMin's own printer.
- Any Bluetooth receipt printer paired to an Android phone.
The shift sheet and the daily report print the same way, so an attendant hands over the cash with a printed sheet. Printing is a switch the owner turns on for a location; a gate without it never asks for a printer.
Both at once
A gate does not have to choose. The owner ticks which members of staff send tickets on WhatsApp; a ticked attendant types the owner's mobile and the ticket goes to the phone, with no printout; an unticked one prints. One gate, one report, the owner picks what each person does.
In a basement, with no signal
Parking is often underground. With no signal the app keeps working: it lets vehicles in with ticket numbers of its own, works the fee out at the exit by the same rule as the server, and prints or shows the UPI QR. When the signal returns it hands every ticket to the server in order, and the owner's report fills in. Two phones working offline at the same gate never issue the same number.
A WhatsApp ticket needs the server, so with no signal an entry is recorded and the message goes when the signal returns. A printed ticket needs nothing.
Choosing
- A gate where most owners have WhatsApp and the fee is by the hour: a phone, no printer. Start today.
- A theatre or a market with a token at the entry: a Sunmi or iMin handheld, or any Android phone with a Bluetooth printer. The device prints the token; the app does the counting.
- A gate that is not sure: start with the phone. A printer can be added in an afternoon, and nothing done on the phone is lost.
Starting
Install Paski from Google Play, sign up in the app, and the first 15 days are free with every feature on. A location is ₹500 a month or ₹5,000 a year after that, whatever it prints.
