“We also had a separate clocking in/staff rota system, and we didn’t have a booking system at all,” adds Alison. The core appeal of the Tabology bar and restaurant EPOS, was that all these functions, as well as other applications, were available in one system. “When you look at the cost of having different systems for all these things, it’s prohibitive. Having everything in one place, which everyone knows how to use, makes so much more sense.”

Having hosted a number of pop-up food providers, Stonehouse decided to take the food offer in-house, and installed the kitchen just before the initial Covid lockdown. “Doing our own food, we’ve found that people treat us very much as a casual dining restaurant as well as somewhere to come for a drink, so being able to manage bookings is now very important.”

The Tabology bookings widget is embedded in the Stonehouse website, so online bookings come directly into the EPOS and back office. “We decided against having live booking. We review and confirm bookings as they come in.

“We prefer to keep that control, as the kitchen is relatively small compared to the overall size of the establishment. It would be very easy for us to be overbooked, especially as we have a lot of walk-ins. We review each booking request and confirm back, usually within a few hours.” The system is also used to automatically send email reminders to customers as their booking approaches.

“During the week, we tend to be very busy in the brewery, and we’ve noticed that we’re now having to deal with far fewer phone calls from customers making bookings, which can be time consuming, because they’re booking via the website instead.“   

Food and drink menus can be easily updated on the Tabology EPOS when new products are added, and pricing can be automatically changed according to the time of day. “We have a happy hour during the week, up to 5pm, when the beer’s a bit cheaper, and that ends automatically as we move into the busier evening trade.”

With a large site to manage, including outdoor areas, Stonehouse uses the Tabology EPOS table plan functionality, “giving us a live picture of how busy we are.”

Using the Tabology gift card functionality customers can top up their own or someone else’s balance, generating an email link to download the gift card to an Apple or Google wallet, which is scanned by the EPOS in the venue to redeem the value. “That’s very popular with regulars, buying both for themselves, and as gifts,” says Alison.

Back of house, Tabology’s staff scheduling system is fully integrated into the EPOS, recording staff as they log on and off, and generating payroll reports.

Shane and Alison also receive daily and weekly sales emails, which can be accessed remotely on a tablet or phone. “Quite often we’re working in the brewery and it’s the managers who are running the bar and restaurant. It’s very useful for us to be able to keep tabs – and to know if we need to go and lend a hand at busy times!”