Walk into any busy UK pub on a Friday night and you will see the till working harder than anyone. It is taking orders, splitting bills, applying staff discounts, and telling the kitchen what to cook. Get the point of sale system wrong, and you will feel it in every queue, every stock discrepancy, and every end-of-night cashing up. Before you commit to a new till, it pays to compare the features that actually matter in a wet-led, high-volume venue.

Why speed is the feature you cannot compromise on

In a pub, every second counts. A till that takes two seconds longer per transaction might not sound like much, but multiply that by 200 transactions on a match day and you have lost over six minutes of serving time. That is a queue out the door and a hit to your takings.

Look for a system with a fast, intuitive interface that your staff can use without hunting through menus. Touchscreens should respond instantly. Product buttons should be big enough to hit with a thumb, even when the bar is three deep. Many modern systems let you put the most popular lines – lagers, house spirits, packets of crisps – on a single screen so a round can be rung up in seconds.

Also consider quick payment options. Contactless, mobile wallets, and split payments are now expected. A till that forces you to process card payments through a separate terminal is a till that slows you down.

Offline mode: your safety net when the internet drops

Broadband in a UK pub is not always reliable. A storm, a local outage, or a dodgy router can leave you without connectivity right in the middle of a Friday night. If your till relies entirely on the cloud, you are stuck. Cash only, handwritten notes, and a very unhappy queue.

A point of sale system with robust offline mode keeps trading. It stores transactions locally and syncs them once the connection returns. The best systems do this seamlessly – your staff carry on as normal, and you do not lose a single sale.

Ask potential suppliers how their offline mode works. Does it support card payments offline? Some systems can store and forward card transactions, but you need to check the limits and any risk. At the very least, cash sales, tabs, and stock deductions should continue. Test it yourself: unplug the router during a demo and see what happens.

Stock control integration: stop guessing, start counting

Your till should be your stock controller. If it is not, you are relying on end-of-week guesswork, and that is where shrinkage and lost profit hide. Good integration means every pint poured, every packet of nuts sold, and every glass of wine served automatically deducts from your stock levels.

Look for features such as:

• Recipe and measure tracking – so a double gin and tonic deducts two measures of gin, one bottle of tonic, and a slice of lime.
• Automatic reordering alerts – when you hit a par level, the system flags it before you run out of a best-seller.
• Variance reporting – compares what you should have sold against what you actually sold, highlighting waste, over-pouring, or theft.
• Integration with cellar management – some systems link to flow meters on your keg lines, giving you real-time volume data.

Without this, you are doing stock takes with a clipboard and a calculator. With it, you can spot a problem on Tuesday and fix it before the weekend.

Hardware that survives a busy bar

A pub is a hostile environment. Spilled drinks, steam, heat, and the occasional knock. Your till hardware needs to be built for it. Look for spill-resistant screens, fanless designs (no vents to suck in dust and moisture), and solid-state drives rather than spinning hard drives. A cheap tablet in a plastic case might work for a quiet café, but it will not last a year behind a busy bar.

Consider the layout of your bar. Do you need a fixed till at the main service point, a handheld device for floor staff, or both? Handhelds are brilliant for table service and for taking orders at the far end of the bar. But they need good battery life and a strong wireless signal. Test the range before you buy.

Also think about printers and cash drawers. Receipt printers should be fast and quiet. If you run a kitchen, a separate printer there is essential. And make sure the whole setup can be cleaned easily – a wipe-down surface is worth its weight in gold.

Training, support, and the true cost of ownership

The best system in the world is useless if your staff cannot use it. Ask about training – is it included? Is it on-site or remote? Can new starters pick it up in ten minutes? A warm expert tip: involve your most experienced bar staff in the decision. They will spot usability problems that a salesperson will gloss over.

Support matters too. When your till goes down at 7pm on a Saturday, you need a phone number that answers. Check the support hours and whether there is an out-of-hours line. Read the contract for hidden costs: per-transaction fees, software updates, and hardware maintenance. A cheap upfront price can become expensive over three years.

Finally, think about growth. If you plan to add a second bar, a kitchen, or a beer garden, choose a system that scales without replacing everything. The right till grows with your pub, not against it.