Bar POS
POS systems have become an integral part of retail business in all industries at all levels. Gone are the days of the mom and pop shops where orders are added up using calculators or worse; the human mind. Today’s fast paced industrial world revolves around sale, and sales must be figured accurately and quickly.
What is POS?
POS stands for Point of Sale system. This is the software that is utilized by stores, restaurants, bars and any other establishment that sale any kind of item. The POS software is one of the most crucial items to the business owner because this is literally where the money is at. The point of sale is the entire focus of your business. In order to make money you and your customer must have a successful experience at the point of sale. POS software makes this possible.
It may seem that POS software would be most important to retail establishments, however, restaurants and bars must also rely on POS software in order to make sure that all sales are done in a proper and profitable way. The bottom line of your bar really depends on a POS system that runs without any type of malfunction. A faulty bar POS software system can mean thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
Features of a Great Bar POS
A great bar POS software system will have certain qualities to it. In the fast paced bar scene a business owner needs to be able to begin and end a point of sale transaction as quickly as possible. Therefore a good bar POS system is going to be lightning fast. Fast does not always translate into cash, though, if the transactions are calculated incorrectly. That is why another key feature of an efficient bar POS is accuracy. Accuracy is the one thing that will most dramatically affect your bottom line as a bar owner.
In a bar scene bartenders need to be able to quickly identify items and locate the needed key in order to complete the order. This brings us to a system needing to have easy navigation for the bar tenders to use.
Special Features
Some bar POS systems will also give you the option of adding special features such as happy hour pricing, or other special event pricing. Being able to easily add this into your system can make those discounts easily available to your customers.
Many systems will even allow you the option of scheduling these events on a regularly recurring schedule. This cuts down on confusion and saves time as the management will not have to go in manually and change information on a regular basis.
Some features that are specific just to bar POS systems would be the ability to add in bar tabs for customers who have chosen to keep a card of file for future purchases. Many bar POS systems will allow you to add in the customer’s information for easy access and quick transactions as well as quick billing.