POS for bars and pubs
A pub night is a string of rounds: a table orders pints, then wings, then another round, and settles up two hours later, often split between friends. SeroPOS keeps that running order as a held sale on the table or under a name at the bar, and adds each round to it until the bill comes.
Bars pubs in SeroPOS
Hold and add rounds
Hold a table's order, resume it for the next round and hold again. Only the new drinks and food print.
Name at the bar
Put a customer name on a bar-top order so the bartender finds it in Held Sales by name.
Split at closing time
Split the final bill evenly, by item or by custom amounts, with a tender and tip on each part.
Tips on the terminal
Guests add a tip on a Global Payments or Moneris terminal, and it prints on the receipt.
Pint, half or pitcher
Sell each beer as variations with a price per pour size, all on one quick-service button group.
Drinks to the bar printer
Route drinks to the bar and food to the kitchen by category, so each station gets only its own ticket.
Running orders, the SeroPOS way
SeroPOS does not hold a card on file or pre-authorize a tab. Instead a running order is a held sale. Start the order on a table from the floor plan, or for a bar seat, put the guest's name on it. Tap HOLD and the first round prints. When they order again, find the order in Held Sales by table, name or invoice number, add the round and hold again.
Each time the order is held, only the new or increased items print to the bar or kitchen, so nobody pours a second set of pints by mistake. The table stays red on the floor plan while the order is open. When the bill is printed it turns amber, and once it is paid it frees up for the next group.
Drinks, pours and food
Set each draft beer up with a Size variation such as Sleeve, Pint and Pitcher, and give each its own price. On the quick-service grid each pour becomes its own button, so the bartender taps Pint once rather than picking from a list. Spirits can carry modifiers for mixers or doubles with their own prices, and food items can carry modifiers for sauces and sides.
KOT Mapping sends drinks to a printer behind the bar and food to the kitchen printer, by category or by product. If the kitchen runs a screen instead, KDS Mode shows the food tickets with timers while the bar keeps its printer. Bottled beer and wine can be tracked in stock with alert quantities, so you know when to reorder before Friday.
Settling up and tips
At the end of the night, open the held order and tap PAY. Split evenly between friends, by item when someone only had a soft drink, or by custom amounts, with each part paid by its own card or cash and its own tip. The order stays open until every part is paid, which avoids the half-settled table nobody can find later.
Guests can tip on a Global Payments or Moneris terminal when its tip prompt is on, and the tip prints as its own line on the receipt. Staff can also type a tip on the till. A credit card surcharge of up to two percent can be switched on per location if your jurisdiction allows it, and it applies to credit cards only.
Control behind the bar
Lock voids, refunds, discounts and price overrides to managers by role. When a bartender needs to comp a drink, a manager approves it with their password once, at the till. Cash pay outs for a supplier or a float top-up print a slip and show on the Daily Sales Report under Payouts. Each staff member signs in with their own login, so register sessions in the back office show who opened and closed each drawer.
At close, count the drawer in Open/Close Register and print the DSR as a Z report. It shows sales, tips, discounts, payouts and payments by method, plus item and category sales, so you can see whether the new IPA outsold the old one. The back office emails the same report every night.
Frequently asked questions
Can I run bar tabs in SeroPOS?
SeroPOS uses held orders rather than card-on-file tabs. Hold the order on a table or under the guest's name, add each round to it and hold again, then take payment at the end. There is no card pre-authorization, so most bars ask for payment from walk-ups at the bar and run held orders for seated tables.
How do drinks print at the bar and food in the kitchen?
Use KOT Mapping. Create one KOT for the bar printer with your drink categories and one for the kitchen printer with your food categories. When an order is held, each printer receives only its own items, and later rounds print only the newly added lines.
Can guests add a tip on the card machine?
Yes, on Global Payments and Moneris terminals with the tip prompt switched on. The tip comes back to the sale, prints on the receipt as a tip or gratuity line and is totalled on the Daily Sales Report. Staff can also type a tip on the till when splitting or paying.
Can I split a bar bill between a group?
Yes. Tap Split and choose Even, Percent, Item Wise or Custom, then the number of parts. Each part takes its own payment method, card type and tip. Mixed tenders such as one guest paying cash and two paying by card are recorded on the same sale.
Does SeroPOS support a happy hour price?
You can create automatic discount rules for chosen products, categories or brands with a start and end, a fixed or percentage discount and a priority. A rule covers one window rather than repeating daily, so some bars instead keep happy hour versions of their drinks on a separate Happy Hour POS menu and switch to it on the till.