A Point of Sale System for one of our Bar Clients. - POS Stories

The Bar's Point of Sale System was Cash Registers.

It was like many bars, collecting hand written tabs, keeping track of orders by bartender memory, and using multiple cashiers with the same access codes for the registers. Their credit card system kept customer's cards on hold. No real point of sale to track drink type sales, cashiers that took the orders, or cocktail waitress that took orders. So why was this a problem?

Why this was a Problem

In today’s plastic minded world, most people visiting used their credit cards rather than cash.  This problem grew as more and more people used plastic and cash users declined.  Managing tabs became a mess especially on busy nights with over 70 active tabs open.  In the quick bar business, time not selling drinks is money lost.  Bartenders were spending too much time adjusting tabs than selling.  Given the dark, loud, and confusing nature behind the bar, keeping track of tabs became a nightmare.

Why CCS was the Point of Sale Solution

In order to take control over the nightly register situations, the owner was determined to upgrade his cash registers to a complete Point of Sale system.  After researching different types of systems and traveling to tradeshows, the owner purchased a Point of Sale System for the upstairs bar in order to start the upgrade process.  Unfortunately, this experience did not go so well, due to the lack of support and the insufficient system software.  Spaceland was back to square one.  They had spent money on a terminal system, but it was not accommodating their needs.  

Soon thereafter the owner came upon Cafe Cartel.

1.    CUSTOMER TABS: they needed a system that could handle all aspects of a high volume customer account or tab lists including closing tabs and accounting for tips per credit card transaction.  The ease of naming, sorting, and closing tabs was very important to the efficiency of Spaceland.  

a.    Creating Tabs:  Tabs are created by simply activating the keyboard entry and swiping the customer’s credit card.  The system will then automatically name the tab with the name of the card ready to enter drinks.
b.    Opening Tabs to add items:  Tabs can be sorted by customer name and easily activated to add more items.  Our “Round Repeater’ feature also allows for quick processing of rounds of the same order.  All other items are entered simply by searching through categories and finding items.  
c.    Closing Tabs: Once the customer is ready to close out, their tab is activated and with one click and a swipe of the credit card the total amount is charged.  At that point the customer is presented with the receipt and is able to enter tip and sign his name on the line provided.
d.    At closing the receipts are collected. The tips are then entered per transaction ready to close the day.  The cashier will know exactly how much tip they have collected at the end of the night.     

2.    QUCK PROCESSING:  they consist of up to 260 patrons on a busy night and with two main registers in the bar making drinks is a non-stop duty for the bartenders.  Time lost making drinks is money lost not selling drinks.  In order to accommodate such settings was in need of the fastest way to enter drink in orders and more importantly fastest way to close out the customer in order to go to the next.  In order to achieve maximum efficiency Café Cartel Systems, created a few features and organization:

a.    A Quick Page was created with 30 items that are most sold.  The feature that was added was to keep the quick page as the default page when new orders were opened.  If at any point a different drink is ordered requiring the search of different categories, the system will automatically go back to the quick page after closing.  
b.    A round repeater was added to automatically repeat rounds in order to save time.
c.    Items in categories were separated by different colors in order to be better recognized.  
d.    A few add on items were created to help up sell mixed drinks and at the same time allow for the customer to see all their charges on the receipt.  
e.    A quick close option was placed so that no time was wasted closing.  Cash orders were all closed without having to enter incoming cash. Since each bartender was responsible for their own cash tills, it did not harm the security of the money.  The change was automatically calculated and the tips thrown in a bucket.  Credit card sales had a quick close button as well. In order to close a credit card sale the bartender just activates the credit card quick close button and swipes the card.  The system will automatically recognize the credit card type and place necessary information on the receipt.  

The two terminals were installed at the bar in mid 2008 and by December the owner was ready for a server to be added in his office.  The server is designed to store and save information.  It includes a RAID hard drive system which kicks in automatically in case one drive is out of order.  It also plays as a back office terminal which allows the owner to work on administrative work without having to go out on the bar floor.  Information such as reports are pulled in the office and closing reports are sent to the office printer in order to get a full 8 ½ by 11 inch paper size.

Credit Cards Merchant Account Services were provided by Approved Merchant Services, located in Glendale, CA. They are a full service company who specialize in credit card software services.  PC-Charge was used to integrate the POS machine with the owner’s current credit card merchant account.  One receipt is printed in seconds without having to walk to a special terminal or wait for the system to dial out. This made a substantial difference because it saved a great amount of time:

1.    Bartenders now had their own credit card station integrated and didn’t have to walk away to charge on a separate stand alone or a terminal shared with other bartenders.  If one bartender were to be using the credit card terminal the other would have to wait for it to dial out, approve, and print the transaction in order to collect payment.
2.    Transactions are processed using a broadband internet connection and not a dial up phone line.  This not only eliminated the need of an extra phone line, but it also eliminates the need of a bulky standalone terminal. Using the internet connection, transactions are processed in seconds and the receipt printer is able to print one receipt with all the information and leave space for tip and signature.  
3.    Closing the day has never been easier.  Once the receipts are collected they are found by simply entering the last 3 digits of the order number and the tip is entered.  No more having to send “end of the day” batches to the credit card company.  With CCS and PC-Charge integrated the batch is automatically closed and sent via internet.  A batch report is printed along with the rest of the closing reports chosen.

Today the bar is using Café Cartel and becoming more efficient everyday.  CCS handles all issues from employee time clock tracking to automatic happy hour price changes.  When changes are made to the menu the server is used to conduct the changes and the terminal updates automatically in real-time.