A pub asks more of its till than a café does. The same system has to handle three deep at the bar on a Friday, a table of eight running a tab all evening, food orders going to a kitchen, and a manager counting the drawer after last orders. A POS built for a coffee counter can struggle with all of that.
These are the things we would check before choosing a pub or bar POS, in roughly the order they cause trouble.
Speed at the bar comes first
Most pub sales are still made at the bar, so the till screen matters more than anything else. Check:
- Sizes and serves as options, not separate buttons: pint or half, single or double, a mixer, ice or no ice. One drink with options keeps the screen short.
- Your busiest drinks on the first screen, without scrolling.
- Rounds in one sale: four different drinks, one payment, change given quickly.
- Card and cash both quick, including recording a payment taken on a separate card machine.
Ring up a typical round during the trial, then do it again with someone talking to you. If it is fiddly in a quiet room, it will be worse at nine on a Saturday.
Tabs that survive a busy night
Tabs are where pub tills most often go wrong. A good tab system should let staff:
- Open a tab against a table or a name and add to it from the bar or the floor.
- See every open tab and what is owed on each, so nothing walks out the door.
- Move a tab when a group changes tables or two tables join up.
- Split the bill when the group wants to pay separately.
- Close the whole tab in one go by cash or card.
Decide your own rules too. Some pubs take a card behind the bar before opening a tab; others only run tabs for tables with food. The POS should support the policy, not set it.
Table service without the walk back to the till
If you serve food or take drinks orders at tables, staff need a way to take the order where they stand. Look for:
- A handheld or phone app for staff, so the order goes straight to the bar and kitchen without walking back to the till.
- A floor plan that shows which tables are eating, which are waiting and which want the bill.
- QR table ordering as an extra channel for guests who would rather order from their phone. It works best alongside the bar, not instead of it: plenty of regulars will always want to go to the bar. Our checklist for QR ordering in a pub covers age checks and table numbering.
Getting food and drink to the right place
In a pub, drinks are made at the bar and food in the kitchen, often in different rooms. The POS should send each part of the order where it belongs. Ask whether you can have a kitchen screen or printer that only shows food, and a separate one for the bar. Our comparison of kitchen screens and printed tickets covers which suits which kitchen.
Staff permissions and the end of the night
A pub has more staff, more part-timers and more cash than most cafés, so control matters:
- Separate logins for each person, so every sale and refund has a name on it.
- Permissions for refunds, discounts, voids and opening the drawer, ideally with a manager PIN for the ones you want approved.
- Cash-up that starts with a float and ends with a count, showing over or short for the night.
- Happy hours that apply themselves at the right time rather than relying on staff to remember.
Licensing doesn't move into the software
No POS checks a guest's age for you. Your Challenge 21 or Challenge 25 policy applies whether a drink is ordered at the bar, by a member of staff at the table or from a phone. Make sure staff know that table orders are checked when the drinks arrive, and that last orders are enforced on every ordering channel you run.
Questions to ask any pub POS provider
- How many taps does a round of four mixed drinks take?
- How are tabs opened, moved, split and closed?
- Can bar and kitchen orders go to different screens or printers?
- Who can refund, discount or open the drawer, and can I change that?
- What happens to open tabs if the internet drops?
- What does card processing cost, and is there a commission on top?
Where Café QR fits
Café QR is a cloud POS with QR table ordering built in, used by pubs and bars as well as cafés. The POS plan covers the till, a waiter app on staff phones, floor plan and tabs with moving and splitting tabs, kitchen stations so the bar and kitchen each see their own orders, automatic happy hours, and cash-up and reports. Staff permissions can require a manager PIN for refunds and discounts.
The limits, plainly: if the internet drops, the till keeps taking cash (and your own payment types) and uploads those sales when it's back, but card payments, tabs and manager approvals wait for the connection, and QR table ordering needs one. It does not open a cash drawer, and guests can see their table's bill but can't yet pay their share from their phone. Café QR doesn't check ages; your staff do.
The POS plan is £39 per venue per month with 5 staff logins, and extra logins are £3 a month each. The first month is free with no card needed. See the pub and bar POS page or pricing.