My daughter and a friend of hers are working on a serious business plan for what I would call a Brew Pub… an ‘almost brewery’ that has a large number of beers on draft and serves snacks, but won’t have a kitchen (at least at first). [Usually these places arrange for food trucks on a regular schedule.] I’ve had lots of experience with retail POS software over the years, so I said I’d help them with preliminary research to put a number to this expense in their pro-formas. I know this specific software may be beyond the scope of most wine folks, but maybe not for someone with a business like Roberto’s wine bar.
All help, references, observations would be greatly appreciated.
They are thinking of 40+ beers on tap, so something like a touch-screen restaurant package would make sense. They’ll need an integrated restaurant-type tip bill function too. I’ve come up with a few candidates so far. One thing I know, and have found in the research I’ve done so far, is that these packages usually involve installation and training travel and lodging costs unless the supplier is local. Finding a good, cost-effective hardware/software package is the priority, but one with a sales/service presence in the San Francisco Bay Area would be best.
I have used Restaurant Manager POS which I find quite useful. It is user friendly for servers/bartenders. The back office feature allows for easy reporting and graph analysis.
Go for something cloud based- it’s software as service I use Shopkeep http://www.shopkeep.com/ for a retail store with around 1,000 sku’s (not all active). No long term contracts, it’s Ipad based, there are others such as Cashier Live http://www.cashierlive.com/ which do not require Ipads. Do an internet search for cloud based POS software and you will get a lot of options. Contact me off line if you like, I have been at it for over two years.
Great input Justin. Thanks. On the surface it looks like CashierLive is more restaurant focused and might be better suited to a bar that needs lots of item buttons on a touchscreen and flexibility for open tabs, tips, etc… I’ll call both.
CashierLive seems really good and I spoke with someone there today. Can you help with a couple of questions re the use of a cloud-based system?
Is there a fail-safe solution since this is all in the cloud? I mean, what happens if their servers go down or they go out of business, or ???
They said their users need to go with their credit card servicer to be integrated through their system. That could compromise the ability to get competitive rates. Any take on that?
Have done much research in this area and highly recommend: http://www.amburapp.com/
You can d/l to an iPad and try it for free. you can also drop by the Wine Lab to see it in action.
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}