Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Point of Sale system for a brewery taproom

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    I think I'll be going with SquareUp with an ipad. It looks very clean, quick andeasy to use, and not too pricey.

    Remind me in a couple of months to give you an update.

    Comment


    • #17
      We use Square in our brewpub. It is very nice with one pitfall for us. You can not keep tabs. This means we track everything on paper and then ring them up as the customer is ready to pay. Not a big deal unless you have a table of six that would like to leave in less than 10 minutes.

      Give it a try.

      Rich

      Comment


      • #18
        I recommend Halo. They supply the hardware, set it up from remote, maintain it, etc.. Cost effective. You can keep tabs, and the system is very flexible. Integrated swipey POS thingy. Cheap for just a single terminal. Works for our taproom.

        Nat

        Comment


        • #19
          I get asked this question a lot, so hopefully I can provide my usual answers as thoroughly as possible.

          Like many of the responses on this thread have pointed out, there are many options. The options though, are generally defined into two sectors: Retail and Restaurant. The major systems (excluding iPad POS systems) for the two sectors are as follows:

          Retail:
          - MICROS
          - CounterPoint (now Radiant Systems)
          - LightSpeed (Mac)

          Restaurant:
          - MICROS
          - Aloha (now Radiant Systems)
          - Dinerware
          - Adelo

          You will see that the two sectors, while somewhat similar, are completely different. Retail systems focuses on maintaining inventory, SKUs and all other aspects related to the retail world. Restaurant systems focus on tabs, splitting checks, menu modifiers and all the other aspects of a restaurant.

          What about iPad?

          iPad POS systems (POSlavu, Isis, Square Register, etc) are gaining ground on the traditional systems listed above. The difference between the traditional and iPad world is the fact that the companies are newer and the systems are newer. Thus, there are obvious bugs, many users report random freezes and they generally just don't work as smoothly as their old counterparts. Square being the outlier in that their software is great and works like a charm.

          So which do you pick? The good ol' classic, "it depends" on your brewery needs.

          If you are a production brewery that happens to have a taproom only, Square is probably sufficient unless you want to keep tabs. If so, Dinerware is a good, cheap POS system for restaurants.

          If you have a brewery that has several brewpub locations, you would kill yourself if you didn't go with Dinerware, Aloha or MICROS. Don't put yourself through that torture.

          What about credit card processing?

          If you go with Square, you are using their processing - no way out of it. Every other system gives you options to go with a traditional processor (e.g. Heartland, Chase, FirstData, TSYS, Vantiv, etc).

          If you are starting out, I recommend sticking with Square. But once you cross the $100K mark in yearly revenue, you need to examine other options. You will also be running into problems like inventory, order fulfillment and other issues that will keep you up at night that Square can't necessarily solve.

          Conclusion

          If you have a true brewpub, go with a traditional restaurant POS system (e.g. Dinerware, MICROS, Aloha, etc.). I know that they are expensive but they will save you in the end. The POS system for your brewpub is basically your lifeline. You don't want to use a rope with a couple of severed threads.

          If you have a taproom, stick with Square.

          If you have a taproom but your business is killing it in the distribution side, you will begin tearing your hair out and will need systems beyond POS systems to help you become more efficient.

          Cheers and good luck!

          Comment


          • #20
            I'm considering Squire for our Taproom to process CC sales.

            But for those of you with a simple operation (growler and merch sales only), what do you do to handle cash sales?

            A cigar box and hope none of the interns have their hands in the till isn't an option I'm keen on. Plus I'd love to have some sort of accounting for what we sold and how that correlates with inventory...

            Comment


            • #21
              square

              Square can be used for cash sales too, and it gives you a nice download by item for whatever period you would like, be it daily or monthly. They also sell an actual cash box and receipt printer that hooks up to the ipad but I have not used that and am not too familiar with it. We just keep everything in a cash box. If you are worried about your interns stealing money from you it doesnt matter where you keep it, maybe look into more trustworthy employees or a security camera.

              As for integration into your accounting, the square download is supposedly importable to quickbooks. We are a small tasting room so we just manually enter it in which is not a big hastle for us. hope this helps.

              Anyone know of a system that can keep tabs without charging, possibly something to use while keeping the square register as my POS?

              Comment


              • #22
                Thanks!...

                Comment


                • #23
                  We are currently looking into POS systems to handle our Tap Room sales that will allow us to track sales and also monitor trends in in styles sold. Do you know how much you brewed last year and sold through the tap Room? Do you need to brew more of that style this year? The ability to track employee hours is also a plus. It seems to me that you can get by with one of these simple ipad type systems but do you really know what is going on in your business? A few thousand dollars spent to have control seems worth it to me. What about gift cards? How would the ipad system handle this?

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Originally posted by noodle
                    We are currently looking into POS systems to handle our Tap Room sales that will allow us to track sales and also monitor trends in in styles sold. Do you know how much you brewed last year and sold through the tap Room? Do you need to brew more of that style this year? The ability to track employee hours is also a plus. It seems to me that you can get by with one of these simple ipad type systems but do you really know what is going on in your business? A few thousand dollars spent to have control seems worth it to me. What about gift cards? How would the ipad system handle this?
                    We're running two very busy restaurant/retail operations with SalesVu which is a free iPad based POS system. It's pretty new so they are still making improvements but we're very happy with it. As for reporting and tracking, that's all a matter of how you set it. For example we track everything sold by category and item. I can manage inventory, purchase orders, labor, deposits, tills etc all from the back end of this application.

                    In our largest store we have more than 1,000 sku's, 200+ seats and two dozen employees. We run with 4 iPads as well 4 iPod touches plus several of the staff have iPhones which they have the software loaded on them so they can have the POS in their pocket and function more efficiently. Our entire system cost just $3,000 for all the hardware vs $40,000+ for an equivalent system plus annual licensing fees.

                    The system is not perfect. Because of the amount of data we're pushing through the network the older iPads sometimes are slowed down. I would recommend the newer iPads with more processing power to keep crashes and bog downs from happening. The other things that still need fixing in the system are the ability to split checks up and to make tickets printed to the kitchen print larger so they are easier to read at a quick glance. Other than that, it does every thing that expensive system will do.

                    Gift cards we run through a stand alone credit card terminal instead of using the processing that comes with the software. We do this because our rates are better with our processor than through SalesVu. It can handle gift cards though if you wanted to use their system.
                    Owner
                    Grind Modern Burger
                    PostModern Brewers
                    Boise, ID

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      For those of you who are using or have used Square (or Intuit GoPayment), is the advertised 2.75% per swipe rate really the only fee you pay? My dad opened his own business (not brewing related) and was quoted up to 4% per swipe plus a $199/year fee and $7.50/mo fee. I appreciate any input.
                      Last edited by jmanis; 02-05-2013, 09:51 AM.
                      Jordan

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Square

                        Jmanis,

                        We've been open, and using Square for over three months now. We're a 3 BBL operation with a tap room for free tastings and growler fills only (no on site consumption). We sell almost all of our beer direct to consumers via growlers with the exception of one draft account. We also retail items like glassware, hats, t shirts, sweatshirts, gift certs, etc. You are correct in thinking that the only fee associated is the 2.75%. The only time that is different is when you have to punch in a credit card number. At that point "I think" it becomes 3% plus 15 cents, but I have yet to punch one in. I do know that the catch is if you punch in, not swipe, more than $1000 in any seven day rolling period, they can potentially hold all of your deposits for up to a month. Moral of the story, don't punch in all of your sales and you should be fine. The flexibility to pay via card has been huge for our customers, although I do have to mention, more than 50% still pay cash. Also, being that we are only open weekends, all of our money deposits by Monday, so cash flow is not an issue.
                        Aaren M. Simoncini
                        The Beer'd Brewing Co. LLC
                        22 Bayview Ave. Unit # 15
                        Stonington, CT. 06378
                        Aaren@beerdbrewing.com

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Thanks for the quick reply, much appreciated. Have you experienced any issues dealing with them? I have read some pretty nasty reviews about them freezing accounts and whatnot without any customer service/support.

                          Jordan
                          Last edited by jmanis; 02-05-2013, 10:10 AM. Reason: Issues?
                          Jordan

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            No Issues

                            Like I said, it's all based on the $1,000 of manual entry credit card sales in a seven day rolling period. People who do roster billing (think doctors office) will find this incredibly frustrating because they will hold your money for up to a month. If you just use it to swipe the thing works like a charm. It is true there is no phone number to contact them, you have to do it via email. We had an issue when we first started where we charged someone for a membership, and didn't get any of their info (idiots), so we emailed square and they offered to forward a message from us to the customer. So far, so good.
                            Aaren M. Simoncini
                            The Beer'd Brewing Co. LLC
                            22 Bayview Ave. Unit # 15
                            Stonington, CT. 06378
                            Aaren@beerdbrewing.com

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Great, thanks again.
                              Jordan

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                up and running with Square

                                We've been open now for 4 days (fridays) with the square register app on the ipad and it's been working great.
                                We have a cash drawer, reciept printer and a holder from tinkering monkey and couldn't be happier. We've even started using the order ticket system throug square to keep the orders straight. It prints a number for people and an order ticket to fill by.

                                Easy to set up, easy to tweak, simple fee structure.
                                I print a report right from the ipad to the reciept printer at the end of each night that has totoals for cash, credit, and an item-by item breakdown.

                                We can sell gift certs (but not track them) and have a discount option for punch cards.

                                We're down to cash only if wifi goes down, but that's ok with me.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X