Can you afford not to have a Pub EPOS system?

Frankie Neale • 1 November 2018

A well-designed pub EPOS system can perform many of the duties of a disciplined staff member for a fraction of the cost.

I don’t make this claim in any way to devalue your staff, as there are, and always will be, so many jobs that they can do far better than technology.

However, in this modern age, there are some jobs that technology can do better than people. Conveniently, these also tend to be the jobs that people don’t like doing!

So if a pub EPOS system can take away some of your worst jobs, do them better, and at a lower cost, can you afford not to have one? Let’s look at some of the jobs your EPOS can either do, or help with.

Take care of your admin

It’s a pretty safe bet that admin doesn’t come high on the list of favourite jobs for either you or your staff. It’s also generally not a cost-effective use of time now that technology can take care of so much. A modern pub EPOS system should track your stock, tell you what you need to order from your suppliers & send off the orders. It should help with setting up your products, plan an efficient rota, and even take care of your bookkeeping.

If you or your staff are still slaving over these admin tasks, you might want to consider the cost of your time vs the cost of an up to date pub EPOS system.

Let you know how things are going

I’ve come across many pub managers who spend a couple of hours every week pulling together a report to show the owners how the pub is performing, which products are selling well, and which should be dropped from the menu.

A good pub EPOS system should pull together these reports automatically and email them straight to you. Furthermore, with the manual effort taken away, you can be sent a report every day if you want to monitor things more closely, at no extra cost.

Make sure you’re hitting your target Gross Profit

Gross profit and recipe costing spreadsheets take time to put together and even more to maintain. With the right pub EPOS system you can say goodbye to the spreadsheets and still see exactly what GP you should be making on everything that you sell.

For beer or wine, just enter your cost and sale price and see if you’re making the GP you expect. For cocktails and meals, enter your ingredients and your EPOS can calculate the cost of your recipe and tell you your GP.

Not only does this save you time, but it avoids the even more costly scenario of selling a dish for less than it costs you to make (and this does happen!)

Help serve customers more quickly

Fast service is more important in the pub trade than perhaps any other industry. EPOS systems for pubs should be designed to minimise the time it takes to key in orders and serve customers. This means one-touch ordering for the most popular products, and a simple intuitive interface.

Checking allergen info, or the style of a particular beer or wine, shouldn’t slow down service. A good pub EPOS system can store this key info and make it available to staff on a simple button press, avoiding the need to check allergen lists or ask the chef or manager.

If you’re running a promotion this should be applied automatically, taking no more time than a normal order.

Venues with a real bottleneck at the bar can also look at ways of enabling some customers to serve themselves

The savings from just one or two of the above would easily cover the cost of a Tabology EPOS license (£39 per month) and there are many further benefits that will ensure your investment is returned many times over.

If you’d like to discuss your particular needs, or arrange a demo of our Pub EPOS, just contact one of our team.

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a bartender makes a cocktail while two other barstaff and two guests watch

How to make sure your venue is ready for Christmas

by Matt Hall • 10 September 2025

There’s no such thing as ‘too early to think about Christmas’ when you work in hospitality. And after a bruising year that’s brought major challenges for the industry, December is more important than ever for many businesses. When it comes to crafting the perfect festive atmosphere, you’re the experts there – we’re simply here to show you how getting things like your tech systems, menus, staffing, and gift cards sorted now, means you’ll make the most of Christmas and manage your venue more effectively. Optimise your offerings and boost profit margins No doubt you’ll want to capture the spirit of the season with a festive menu. Roast meats and Christmas puddings are a must, but don’t forget a vegan option too. Whatever you choose, make sure your dishes balance popularity and profitability. Recipe management tools let you input ingredient costs and amounts, so you get precise costs for every item on your menu. It then automatically calculates GP so you can easily set the right prices both for individual items and festive set menus. This works really well for food, but also for cocktails, and festive drinks you might make on-site, such as mulled wine or cider. Using technology to manage bookings When it comes to Christmas bookings, balance is key. You want more bums on seats, but you don’t want to overwhelm your kitchen and Front-of-House staff – especially when bookings around Christmas tend to be larger. A flexible booking system helps you maintain control. Those office Christmas lunches often have ten or twenty guests, so it helps to keep them separate from your usual bookings. Asking for pre-orders and prepayments makes it much easier to manage those big complicated bookings. Email links go out to organisers so everything can be booked and paid for in advance. This guarantees your cash flow ahead of time and means your kitchen can prepare and ensure the right amount of stock. You can also create custom drink packages to upsell during the booking process.