This article will look at some of the key features any contender for the best pub EPOS system should have.
The best EPOS system for a pub will depend largely on the individual pub. If you’re in the search for an EPOS the more important question is probably what is the best EPOS system for your pub, which we wrote about recently.
But back to the topic of this article, there are some key areas we believe any contender for this title should cover.
Speed of service
Speed of service is critical at a busy bar. Make sure any EPOS you are considering is quick and easy for your bar staff to use. In particular, make sure your most popular items can be immediately presented on log in and be added to an order with one key press.
Cash control
Making sure your payments, particularly cash, add up to your sales is vital to protect your profits.
Your cash up module should enable you to enter counts for all of your payment types, as well as any petty cash purchases.
It’s also important that you are alerted to any variances in a convenient way such as via email.
Stock Control
Its an unfortunate truth that most bars will at certain times have unscrupulous staff who might give drinks away free, or worse avoid putting sales through the till. Disciplined and accurate stock tracking ensures these issues will be quickly stamped out.
It’s important that your stock module allows you to specify quantities in both the units you purchase and those that you sell. You don’t want to have to work out how many pints of beer, or milliliters of wine you’ve just taken delivery of.
The use of templates for common products is a good way of ensuring this set up is correct.
Recipe Management
Equally important is the handling of recipes. Without this, you're unable to effectively track stock for food or cocktails. Ideally the cost of a recipe should be calculated for you so you can see the GP you’ll be making. It is not unknown for pubs to sell food dishes at a loss through lack of proper costing.
Staff Scheduling
Getting staff levels right is absolutely key to running a profitable pub, so make sure your EPOS can help with this. Even a small venue should have access to hourly sales reports to plan the staff schedule against, and larger venues would almost certainly benefit from integration with a full staff management system.
Email Reports
Every publican knows they should regularly monitor how their business is performing – whether sales are up or down, which products are selling well or not so well.
Not every publican finds the time to do this consistently though. Scheduled email reports with key performance indicators are a great way for the time-strapped publican to keep an eye on what matters.
Accounts Integration
Whilst still a new idea for many, having an EPOS system linked in with your accounts package is quickly becoming a must-have feature. Not only does it save you hours of painful bookkeeping, but it ensures your books are always up to date so you can spot any issues earlier, and resolve them before they’ve caused too much of a hit to your bottom line.
Full & Responsive Support
Pubs are not a 9-5 business and your EPOS is essential to your operation. Any EPOS system suitable for pubs should have responsive support that is available for all the hours that you open for.
It is also important to have a quick and easy way to raise issues, even while in busy service. We find instant messaging chats are the best way to achieve this. Messages can be received and responded to very quickly, and staff can continue serving customers while waiting for a reply.
With the above in place, you have the foundations of a good pub epos - ensuring efficient service whilst your key costs are controlled and issues are brought to your attention early.
BarTab EPOS is designed by publicans specifically for pubs, so covers all of the above as well as many other features that will save you time, improve your service, and help grow your business. To find out more about BarTab and see how it could help your pub, contact one of our team.