Operator
Manual

Before you start

1. Install the app on the phone

   Open the link your provider gave you in Chrome (Android) and tap "Install app on this device". It ends up like a regular app, with an icon on the home screen.

2. Sign in

   Enter your email and your password; the system recognizes your business from the email, no separate code needed. If you get it wrong several times in a row, the system blocks further attempts for 5 minutes; that's normal, just wait and try again.

3. Or sign in with Google

   The administrator must first create your account under Administration → Operators using your exact Google email (with or without a password: either way you get an invite email; leaving it blank makes it a Google-only account). Tap Continue with Google on the sign-in screen and select that same email. Google verifies your identity; it does not create a parking business or grant permissions automatically; it only works if the administrator already added you with that email. An administrator's sensitive financial actions may request the internal password as an additional confirmation.

Open the register

Before you can take any payment, each operator has to open their own register. From the main menu, tap Open cash register and enter the opening float (the money you begin the shift with).

💡Several registers at once: if your lot has more than one entrance, each operator can have their own register open at the same time, and everyone sees the same tickets, but each person balances their own cash.

⚠️You can't take payment on another operator's register. If the system tells you a register is already open and it isn't yours, check with whoever opened it or ask them to close it.

Log a vehicle in

1. Tap ENTRY on the menu

   The camera opens automatically to read the license plate.

2. Scan the plate (or type it in)

   Point the camera at the plate and tap "ISSUE QR". If the camera can't read it clearly or the vehicle has no plate, type the number in by hand or tap "ISSUE QR WITHOUT PLATE".

3. (Optional) Customer's phone number

   Below the plate field there's a collapsed row that says "Customer phone" with a ▼ arrow, easy to miss. Tap it to expand it. See Share the ticket via WhatsApp/SMS for the full step-by-step.

4. Print the ticket

   The system generates a unique QR code and a ticket number. Hand the printed ticket to the driver; they'll need it to get out.

Share the ticket via WhatsApp or SMS

1. Expand the phone field

   On the Entry screen, tap the "Customer phone" row (with the ▼ arrow) to expand it. It's collapsed by default; if you never tap it, you'll never see this option.

2. Type the number and check consent

   Enter the customer's phone only after showing or reading them the notice on screen, and check the box. If they decline, leave the phone blank; consent is not required to park.

3. Issue the ticket

   With the phone saved, the ticket screen shows "Send via WhatsApp" and "Send via SMS" buttons: one tap opens your own messaging app with the message and ticket link already written. No account or extra setup: the message goes out from your own phone.

💡When reprinting a ticket for a vehicle still inside (Exit screen), there's a phone row just like this one; use it to share to a different number if needed, without changing the one saved at entry.

Log a vehicle out and take payment

1. Tap EXIT

   Scan the QR code on the ticket. If the ticket was lost or the QR won't scan, you can type the ticket number in by hand, or look the vehicle up by plate.

2. Check the amount

   The system works out the time and the rate automatically. If the vehicle was within the grace period, it leaves free of charge.

3. Pick the fiscal receipt type (if it applies)

   Depending on your business's country, it may ask you for the receipt type (for example, in the DR: final consumer or tax credit) and for customer details if that receipt type requires them. The screenshot alongside is from a US business, which has no fiscal module: it goes straight from the amount due to the payment.

4. Take the payment

   Choose cash or card. For cash, the system helps you work out the change. Confirm the payment to close the ticket and print the receipt.

💡If you just want to check what a vehicle would be charged without closing its ticket yet, tap "Continue with the same QR" instead of taking payment.

Vehicles inside

If a customer lost their ticket, go to Vehicles inside from the menu: you'll see a list of everything still on the lot, with its plate and entry time. Tap it to go straight to payment, no QR needed.

Reprint shift invoices

Forgot to print an invoice, or did the printer jam? From the menu, tap Reprint shift invoices to see every payment taken on your current register and print any of them again.

Close the register

1. Tap "Close shift"

   The system shows you how much was taken in cash and card, and how many operations you did.

2. Count the actual cash

   Physically count the money in the drawer (including the opening float) and enter it.

3. Check the difference

   The system automatically works out whether there's money over or short compared to what was expected.

4. Print the closing

   Keep the printed report as your record of the shift.

Flat rate (valet)

Not every lot charges by the hour. If you run valet, an event, or a hotel's parking, go to Administration → Rates and switch How charging works from "By the hour" to Flat rate: the same fixed amount per visit, whether the vehicle stayed twenty minutes or four hours. The time is still measured and still shown on screen; it just stops affecting the price.

Sponsor advertising on tickets

Sell the bottom section of every ticket and receipt to a local sponsor, such as a restaurant, dealership, car wash, insurance agent, or event partner. The sponsor logo and message appear on the on-screen/PDF version; Bluetooth thermal printers print the sponsor text.

Connect the printer

ParkingPro supports 58 and 80 mm profiles. Under Administration → Printer, choose Volcora, generic ESC/POS, Star SM-L200, Epson TM-P20II, or AirPrint and leave Connection on Automatic. The selection is stored only on that phone, so each operator can use a different printer.

With no printer on hand, the ticket or receipt shows on screen; you can print it on a regular printer or save it as a PDF from there.

Set up gates with Enterprise Gate

Enterprise Gate is a software licence, not a hardware bundle. ParkingPro does not sell, ship or install equipment: the Shelly 1 Gen4, the wiring, the labour and any other material are bought and installed by your own installer or trusted technician, following this guide. What the licence turns on is the authorization software, the part that checks the ticket is paid and asks the Shelly cloud to open the gate.

Enterprise Gate connects ParkingPro to the lot's gate through a dry-contact Shelly 1 Gen4. When a ticket is paid, ParkingPro asks the Shelly cloud (Shelly's own infrastructure, not a ParkingPro server) to send an OPEN pulse to the relay installed next to the gate controller. The relay does nothing more than imitate a press of the physical open button. No extra ParkingPro equipment is needed on site: the Shelly connects straight to the lot's Wi-Fi and to the Shelly cloud, exactly as in any home install done with the official Shelly app.

Materials needed (minimum)

This is what has to be bought and installed at the customer's expense before starting. There is no official Shelly 1 Gen4 photo under a free licence to reproduce here, because Shelly's media kit is restricted to distributors with an account, so the first two cards link the manufacturer's own page. The other two are real photos, generic ones with no particular brand, taken from Wikimedia Commons under a free licence.

Shelly 1 Gen4 Standard

Dry contact, up to 16 A at 240 V AC or 10 A at 30 V DC. Manufacturer's official page and photo.

Shelly 1 Gen4 UL Certified

Dry contact, 15 A nominal, UL certified. Manufacturer's official page and photo.

Enclosure, protections and terminal blocks

Generic example of an enclosure with terminal blocks. Photo by Fredquint, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Wiring and connectors

Thin signal cable with ferrule connectors. Photo by Simon A. Eugster, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

What is "the physical gate"?

This photo is only a generic reference to the object: the vehicle barrier with its control cabinet that the lot should already have installed. ParkingPro neither sells nor specifies any gate brand (it can be FAAC, BFT, Nice, CAME or any other); it is simply so it is clear which physical part the rest of this guide is talking about.

Photo by Dietmar Rabich, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Electrical specification taken from the official Shelly 1 Gen4 page. If the label or documentation of the installed unit states a lower limit, always use the lower limit.

Offline mode

If the internet goes down, the app keeps working: entries, exits, and payments are saved on the phone and sent to the server automatically as soon as the signal comes back. You'll see an "offline" notice and a count of transactions waiting to sync.

Splitting the shift by area

If one person runs your lot, you don't need to do anything: everything works as before and that person handles entries, payments and exits. But if you have several operators, you can give each one an area of the flow from Administration → Operators. Each person sees only their own part lit up; the other buttons stay visible but dimmed, so it's clear the system does more and nobody thinks the app is broken.

Charging and releasing are no longer the same act

Charging a ticket used to close the visit in one go. With a split shift that no longer works: the customer pays at the cashier and then walks to the car. Now the vehicle stays counted as inside until someone opens the gate, which is what actually happens, and that is why occupancy finally tells the truth.

In Vehicles inside each car is marked: 🔴 must pay or 🟢 paid, ready to release. That list is the gate operator's working tool. The money doesn't move: the payment still counts toward the shift of whoever charged it, even if the car leaves hours later on another shift.

The chain has to be complete

Entry → Payments → Exit are three links and all three are needed. If you staff Entry but nobody is on Payments, vehicles come in and get trapped: nobody can charge them and, since the gate only releases what has been paid, they can't leave either.

That's why Administration → Operators shows shift coverage at the top, with the three links and any missing one in red; and operators get a warning on their home screen. The app doesn't forbid it (you have to be able to build the shift step by step), but while a post is empty the administrator has to be there to cover it, since they can do everything.

Administration

Open it from the main menu by tapping Administration (only visible to the admin role).

Set up your country’s tax document

A one-time job, under Administration → Tax #. The question is “Which tax document does this business use?” and the list is organised by country. In every case your business stays the issuer and the party responsible to the tax authority: ParkingPro never invoices on your behalf and never holds certificates under an account of its own.

Loading your authorised sequences

If your country uses its own sequence, under Authorized sequences you load each batch you were granted, with its type, range and expiry date, and you see how many documents are left. As a batch runs low the app warns you (“N left. Request more sequences”) so you can ask for the next one before you're stuck mid-shift unable to invoice.

Subscription, plans and payments

Everything about what you pay for ParkingPro lives in Administration → Subscription. That is where you activate your plan, switch to another one, add ticket advertising or cancel. Payments are processed by PayPal and are always in US dollars (US$), whatever currency you charge your own customers in.

1. The 14-day trial

   Every new account starts with 14 free days on the Starter plan. No card is asked for up front. The screen shows the exact date it ends.

2. Only Starter has a trial

   Pro, Enterprise and Enterprise Gate Annual are paid from the start, with no trial period. If you want to try the system before deciding, begin on Starter and change plan whenever you like.

3. Activate before the trial ends

   Pick a plan from the list and pay with PayPal. Each option states how many vehicles it allows at once, how many simultaneous registers, and whether ticket advertising is included.

Changing plan

If you already have an active plan and need a different one, pick it from the same list and pay. Your current plan is marked YOUR CURRENT PLAN.

What happens when you approve the payment: your current subscription is cancelled and the new plan is charged in full that same day. Whatever is left of the period you already paid is not refunded, so if the new plan costs more it is worth switching close to your renewal date.

The new plan's limits (registers and vehicles) apply immediately.

Adding ticket advertising

The sponsor slot on your tickets costs US$49 a month and can be bought in two ways:

• Together with the plan, while you are still on trial: check Add advertising before paying and both are charged as a single subscription. You see the breakdown (plan + advertising = total) before confirming.
• Separately, once you have an active plan: it is its own subscription and you can cancel it without touching the plan.

Enterprise and the Enterprise Gate Annual already include it at no extra cost; those plans are not offered the add-on.

Once bought, the ad itself is configured under Sponsor advertising.

Cancelling

The Cancel subscription button sits at the bottom of the screen. The cancellation takes effect at PayPal immediately, but you keep access until the period you already paid for runs out.

If you cancel during the trial, nothing is charged.

The Enterprise Gate Annual is not cancelled: being a one-off payment, it simply does not renew when it expires.

Frequently asked questions