How to Choose the Best EPOS System for a Pub or Bar

In this article

1. Start by defining how your pub actually trades
2. For a wet-led pub, test the bar at full pace
3. For a food-led pub, follow the food as well as the drink
4. Mixed pubs should test two workflows colliding
5. Demonstrate your actual tab and bill process
6. Take the demo all the way through payment
7. Include a failure in the Saturday-night test
8. Saturday-night pub EPOS demo worksheet
9. Compare the quote after the operational test
10. What is the best EPOS system for your pub?

This is a supplier-written educational guide from EPOS Bookings, not an independent ranking of EPOS providers. For the current EPOS Bookings commercial proposition for pubs and bars, see our bar and pub EPOS systems page.

Start by defining how your pub actually trades

“Pub” describes a venue, not a single operating model.

A wet-led pub may take a high proportion of orders directly at the bar. During busy periods, the priority may be processing repeated drink orders efficiently while several members of staff serve customers at the same time.

A food-led pub or gastropub has more of the operational questions associated with food service. Orders may need to progress from front of house to preparation or fulfilment, with changes handled accurately along the way.

A mixed pub has to accommodate both. The bar could be several customers deep while another part of the venue is handling food orders, bills and payments.

Those differences should determine what you test.

Before speaking to suppliers, write down:

• where customers usually order;

• where and when they normally pay;

• how many staff may use the system simultaneously;

• whether your venue uses tabs or bills and, if so, how;

• whether food orders need to reach another part of the operation;

• what changes commonly happen after an order starts; and

• where delays tend to occur at peak times.

If you are researching EPOS systems more generally rather than specifically for pub operations, our EPOS software buying guide covers that broader decision.

For a wet-led pub, test the bar at full pace

A polished demonstration with one member of staff entering one drink order tells you very little about a busy bar.

Give the supplier a short sequence that resembles your peak trading period.

For example, ask them to process several different orders consecutively. Include the kinds of orders your staff genuinely handle, rather than inventing complexity solely to challenge the software.

Watch the process rather than simply checking whether the items can be entered.

How many actions does each transaction require? Can the member of staff clearly see what has been entered? How does the workflow move from one customer to the next? What happens if the customer changes something before payment?

Then add another member of staff to the scenario.

The useful question is not whether the system claims to support a busy pub. It is what your proposed configuration looks like when several people need to serve customers at once.

Record any point where staff would need to wait, switch unnecessarily between screens or repeat information.

Those observations give you something concrete to compare across demonstrations.

For a food-led pub, follow the food as well as the drink

A food-led pub needs a different test.

Start with an order containing both drinks and food, then follow each part to wherever it needs to go in your operation.

Ask the supplier to demonstrate the process appropriate to your venue. Where is the order entered? What information reaches the relevant preparation or fulfilment point? How is the order identified? What happens if the customer changes part of it?

Do not turn the exercise into a demand for a particular kitchen technology. Your pub may or may not need specific displays, printers or other equipment.

Instead, define the required outcome:

The correct information needs to reach the correct people at the correct time.

Then ask the supplier to show how its proposed setup achieves that outcome.

If your pub serves food only during certain hours, test the transition as well. The way the venue operates at 3pm might be quite different from the way it operates at 9pm.

Mixed pubs should test two workflows colliding

Mixed operations deserve particular attention because two individually straightforward workflows can become more difficult when they happen simultaneously.

Imagine a Saturday evening. Several customers are ordering drinks at the bar. Another customer is settling whatever bill process your venue uses. A food order is being entered. Someone wants to add something to an existing order.

Ask the supplier to demonstrate a condensed version of that period.

The purpose is not to create an unrealistic stress test. It is to see how the system handles the normal activities that overlap in your venue.

Watch for questions such as:

• Can different staff members work without creating unnecessary bottlenecks?

• Is it obvious which transaction or order each person is dealing with?

• How are changes communicated to the relevant part of the operation?

• Where does manual re-entry occur?

• Can staff move between the workflows your venue actually uses without confusion?

A mixed pub should not simply assume that a system suitable for bar service will automatically suit its food operation, or vice versa.

Test both together.

Demonstrate your actual tab and bill process

Tabs and bills are an area where vague feature claims are particularly unhelpful.

Do not ask only, “Does it do tabs?”

Instead, describe what your pub actually does.

If you use a particular process for opening, identifying, adding to, reviewing and settling a tab or bill, give the supplier that sequence and ask them to demonstrate it.

If you do not use tabs, there is little value in making sophisticated tab functionality a major buying criterion simply because it appears on a feature list.

Where the process matters, include realistic complications. Ask what happens when a customer wants to add another order, when staff need to identify the correct transaction or when the bill needs to be settled using the payment process your venue intends to use.

The test is operational fit, not whether a feature has a particular name.

Take the demo all the way through payment

Your Saturday-night scenario should end with payment.

Ask the supplier to show the complete proposed journey rather than treating the card terminal as an afterthought.

Watch which devices staff use, whether any information has to be entered manually and how staff establish that the transaction has completed correctly.

If you expect payments to happen in different parts of the venue, describe those locations. A terminal that remains beside the main till presents a different operational question from one intended to move around the premises.

For help choosing between terminal types, see our payment terminals information alongside the proposed EPOS configuration.

Do not assume that a particular terminal, payment provider or integration will work with a proposed system simply because the individual products exist. Confirm the exact configuration with the supplier.

Include a failure in the Saturday-night test

The most informative part of the demonstration may be when something deliberately goes wrong.

Choose an exception that would matter during your busiest period. That might be an unavailable device, interrupted connectivity or a transaction whose status is unclear.

Then ask:

What will the member of staff see?

What should they do next?

How do they determine what has already happened?

What can other staff continue doing?

What is the procedure for getting help under the proposed arrangement?

Do not assume that a system has offline functionality, automatic recovery or any particular fallback. Those details can depend on the software, hardware, payments arrangement and configuration.

You are evaluating the procedure as much as the technology. A failure that staff understand how to handle is a different operational problem from one that leaves everybody guessing during a queue.

Saturday-night pub EPOS demo worksheet

Use the same scenarios with every shortlisted supplier.

Scenario	Ask the supplier to demonstrate	Record
Rapid bar orders	Several realistic orders consecutively	Steps, speed points, unnecessary navigation
Simultaneous staff	Multiple staff carrying out normal tasks	Bottlenecks, conflicts, clarity
Tab/bill process	Your actual process, if applicable	Steps, identification, changes, settlement
Food order	Route an order through your real workflow, if applicable	Destination, clarity, changes
Mixed trading	Bar activity and food/bill activity at the same time	How workflows interact
Payment	Complete the proposed payment journey	Devices, manual entry, confirmation
Exception	Run one agreed failure scenario	Staff message, next action, recovery procedure
Manager check	Show the information you actually need after trading	Availability, clarity, manual work

Add four columns of your own:

Must-have / useful / not required

Demonstrated successfully?

Questions remaining

Supplier confirmation required

That last column matters. A salesperson saying that something “should be possible” is not the same as seeing the proposed configuration perform the task.

Compare the quote after the operational test

Once a proposed system has survived your Saturday-night script, move to the commercial comparison.

Establish exactly what hardware, software and services are included in each proposal. Check the payment arrangement and any relevant contractual terms. Ask what implementation, training and support provisions apply to the quote rather than assuming these are standard across providers.

Use the same requirements when comparing suppliers. Otherwise, a cheaper-looking proposal may simply contain a different scope.

For current EPOS Bookings commercial information, use our pricing page rather than relying on prices reproduced in an evergreen buyer guide.

When you have complete proposals, our EPOS quote comparison checklist provides a broader framework for reviewing them.

What is the best EPOS system for your pub?

There is no single answer for every pub or bar.

A wet-led venue should test the realities of fast, repeated bar transactions and simultaneous staff use. A food-led pub should follow orders into its real preparation and fulfilment workflow. A mixed pub needs to see what happens when bar, food, bills and payments all compete for attention.

The best-fit system is therefore the one that meets your verified operational requirements, on commercial terms you understand.

Write down how your venue trades on a busy Saturday. Turn those activities into a demo script. Give every shortlisted supplier the same test and record what actually happens.

That produces a more useful buying decision than choosing a provider because it appears at the top of somebody else’s “best pub EPOS” list.

For details of the current EPOS Bookings proposition rather than general buying guidance, visit our bar and pub EPOS systems page.

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