Running a successful bar involves navigating many hurdles on a nightly basis: serving multiple customers, managing your inventory, and keeping track of every transaction.
In this day and age, traditional cash registers and ordinary pen and paper make it harder to keep track of every order. If you want to make your bar easier to manage and more profitable, investing in a modern point of sale (POS) system is essential.
Why Your Bar Needs a POS System
Modern POS systems are software platforms offering multiple features that help keep track of every major aspect of your business. When running a bar, you will want a POS that features at least these three features: inventory management, bill management, and payment processing.
Through a POS system, bar owners can more easily keep track of every transaction and reduce ordering errors. This is especially important given the high volume, short turnaround times for orders bars process on busy nights.
Different companies offer different solutions and features. When looking for a POS for a bar, here are some essentials you have to consider to run a successful bar operation.
12 Bar POS Essentials
Not all POS systems are created equal. While they all serve a similar purpose, how each system approaches each aspect of the business differs from one system to another.
When investing in a bar POS, here 12 essential bar management features your POS system should have if you want to run your business as smoothly and efficiently as possible from the get-go.
1. Easy-to-use User Interface
One of the most important considerations when deciding on a bar POS is the user interface.
Different POS systems take different approaches to organizing and presenting their features. Having a good user interface is key to faster transactions and higher profits.
Having a user-friendly POS makes it easier to manage every order and make use of other features. Leading POS systems have different features that make their use easy and intuitive.
These may include responsive touchscreen support, high readability, native language support, dark screen modes, and other accessibility features that make using the POS a smooth experience.
Intuitive software also makes staff training quicker and more efficient – a huge boon for bars that hire part-time staff to keep their bar running smoothly.
2. Inventory Management
Keeping a good stock of frequently ordered drinks is vital in running a bar operation. Keeping your guests happy is essential in getting paying customers.
A good inventory management system helps you keep track of your stock of drinks and ingredients easily and efficiently. An order that’s recorded on the POS will automatically update your inventory, meaning you get a real-time report on how much of each item you have.
Bar owners can also automatically set purchase orders to specific suppliers to ensure their bar is stocked up on their guests’ favorites.
3. A Recipe Catalog
Every person has their own favorite drink. While a lot of guests are satisfied with an ice-cold bottle of beer, some would much rather prefer a complex and delicious cocktail.
While an Internet search makes it easy to make any drink your customer desires, relying on Google searches for every new drink can slow things down.
Leading POS systems include recipe catalogs that staff can easily navigate, search through, and follow. Having a uniform recipe catalog also ensures the consistency of your drinks from one bartender to another, making it easier for returning customers to re-experience signature drinks from your bar with the same level of satisfaction.
4. Menu Customization
Bars frequently introduce promos or seasonal specials that help bring in customers all year long. This means that menu changes happen far more frequently than a typical cafe or restaurant.
Making these changes manually takes a lot of time. The right POS system’s quick menu management features will makes the process easier and faster.
A good POS system also allows for changes and additions to menu items in real-time. If you want to change anything during off-hours, authorized staff can also access the POS remotely and make changes in preparation for the next evening.
5. Contactless Ordering
Given the number of transactions and exchanges money can go through at any given night, it’s normal to expect some customers to prefer ordering and paying online to prevent unnecessary contact with other people.
To give them peace of mind, it’s good to invest in a system that supports online contactless ordering to make their time at your bar more enjoyable.
Through online ordering, guests can browse through your menu, order, and pay online without having to line up at your bar’s cash register. This helps shorten queues and give your customers a more convenient ordering and payment experience.
6. Customer Data Tracking
A sign of a successful bar is a regular customer base. Keeping track of your regulars are can be challenging, especially if your bar is typically crowded, dark or noisy.
A POS system with CRM features can capture new customer information for future reference, making it easier to see which guests frequent your bar.
This opens up a whole lot of opportunities to promote certain deals to select customers and keep them coming back – with more friends in tow.
7. Kitchen Display System
Kitchen display systems (KDS) aim to simplify kitchen communications and streamline the order fulfillment process through the use of several live displays.
Once an order is placed through the POS or through the restaurant’s contactless ordering system, this order is projected to the KDS for all kitchen staff to see.
Since displays are more reliable and easier to understand than a cashier shouting orders on a busy night, kitchen staff can quickly and easily prepare orders with a clear understanding of what orders are in the queue.
KDS systems are built to work in tandem with the POS to reduce the time between order placement and the moment the order is finally served. You can set up multiple displays in different stations to ensure the different components of an order are prepared in sync.
8. Data Analytics
Put together, your customer transactions are a source of valuable information for your business. When studied, they help you make informed and profitable business decisions.
POS systems with the right setup generate automated business reports and data analytics to help you spot trends and patterns that can keep your business ahead of the curve.
Leading POS systems display real-time business dashboards highlighting popular menu items, total generated revenue, and average order turnaround times to help managers keep track of bottlenecks in the ordering process.
Useful information such as popular items can also be displayed in the KDS, making it easier for kitchen operations teams to anticipate what items are most likely to be ordered.
9. Accurate Payment Calculations
Crowded or noisy bars can make it difficult to calculate tips on the fly. Thankfully, a good bar POS can accurately calculate total orders, tips, and discounts as well.
When applying discounts, POS systems can be set per item or per order. When applying tips, you can also configure set percentages that can help make calculations much faster.
This feature goes surprisingly a long way in generating revenue for your bar. Studies have shown that customers are more likely to tip when given actual amounts instead of percentages.
10. Split Bill Functionality
Bar hoppers often come in groups. While it’s ideal for just one person to pay for all of the orders, that’s often not the case. Splitting a bill can be a cumbersome task for both bar owners and bar hoppers, which is why investing in a POS that can split bills accurately is a great advantage.
You can divide checks among any number of people, facilitating faster and accurate payments. This feature is in high demand, so investing in a system that has it can help you manage your bar better in the long run.
11. Secure Payment Terminals
Nowadays, more and more people are paying via digital wallets and cards than with cash. Leading POS systems enable secure transactions with established payment gateways, ensuring each payment goes through without a hitch.
Look for POS systems that have a wide range of payment partners, including the ones you trust most. Having secure payment terminals reinforces your bar’s legitimacy and gives your guests peace of mind when it’s time to pay.
Managers can also rest easy knowing that every online and card transaction will go through successfully.
12. Integrated Accounting Software
After every successful night, calculating, verifying, and accounting all your transactions can take a lot of time. This is especially true for bars, given the frequency of one-order transactions that happen on a regular basis.
POS systems today accurately record every transaction and consolidate them into comprehensive sales reports for you to examine. These reports can be easily exported to bookkeeping software that can in turn make auditing and accounting efficient and transparent.
An reliable automated accounting system for your bar helps you know exactly how well you’re doing – and what you could be doing better to up your sales and please your customers.
Increase Bar Business Success With a Cloud-based POS
While traditional POS systems can get the job done, cloud-based POS systems are the future of bar and restaurant management.
A cloud-based POS will also work on any modern web-connected device, which enables you to choose your own preferred restaurant hardware setup, and use a phone or a tablet to monitor your bar operations from any location.
Future-proof your business with a versatile and integrated restaurant management solution. With high scalability, frequent updates, and remote access, users can increase their success at running a bar business anytime and anywhere.