The round goes on the tab, not on a note
Open a tab by name, table or team. Anyone behind the bar picks it up, adds to it and settles it, and nothing lives on a scrap of paper.
Bars and cafés
A busy bar has no time for a till that thinks.
Tapping is the whole interface. Rounds go on a tab by name or table, whoever is behind the bar picks them up, and the kitchen gets its ticket the moment you book. When the network drops, the queue does not notice.
Three things that go differently
The kitchen knows before you do
Booking a round prints its ticket, with who ordered what. Offline it prints from the machine itself, and the server hears about it later.
Closing time adds up
The day will not close over an open tab. Cash counted, card totals per terminal, tips carved out separately because they are not the day's revenue.
Recognise your counter in this? An intake tells you what it really takes, and what it costs.
What the engine brings to this counter
Not a feature list written for this page. These are the parts of Phlo POS that carry this kind of counter, and they run today.
The till itself
What the person behind the counter touches.
- Runs on a touchscreen, tablet or PC and installs as an app on the machine you already have
- Local-first: taps, quantities, discounts and totals are worked out on the device, never over the network
- Two screen layouts on one engine: a tapping layout for a bar, a scanning layout with a fixed keypad for a shop
- Keeps selling when the connection drops, and books what it sold the moment it is back
- Product grid, quantities, returns, line and order discounts, open-price buttons
- Split and part payments, tips, receipt reprint and guarded cancellation
- A customer display that mirrors the receipt live, including the promotion advantage
- Colour themes per device, and buttons laid out the way your people work
When the network is not there
A queue does not wait for a router. This is the part most tills get wrong.
- Offline means the server, not the network: the verdict comes from the traffic itself, not from a flag the device reports and not from a timer
- What cannot work without a server says so, with the reason on the button. Refusing is fine; failing silently is not
- Finished sales queue on the device and replay exactly once, keyed on the sale itself
- Receipts and the cash drawer keep working offline, driven by the agent on the machine
- A receipt that came in late is marked as such, so closing time shows what happened
Hospitality
Bars, kitchens and canteens.
- Tabs by name, table or team, parked and picked up by whoever is behind the bar
- Kitchen and bar tickets that print on booking, with who ordered what
- Options, part portions and bottle deposits, priced without anyone doing sums
- Split a bill in half, per item or by any amount
- A fixed touchscreen at the bar and tablets on the floor, working the same order
- A public site and menu card running off the same database as the till
What you want to know before you start
Can two people work one order at the same time?
Yes. A fixed screen at the bar and tablets on the floor work the same tab; the order lives in the database, not on one device.
What happens to an open tab when the internet drops?
Parked rounds are already booked, so they are safe. New rounds keep going on the device and land as soon as the connection returns, exactly once.
Can we split a bill the way a table asks?
In half with one button, per item, or by any amount you type. The pay dialog also prints a running total as an explicitly non-fiscal interim slip.
What does a Phlo POS project cost?
A custom till has no list price, because the scope decides it. After an intake you get one price for the whole project: build, hardware advice, installation and training in a single amount, agreed before we start.
Ready to look at it properly?
What would your counter need?
Tell us how you sell today and what gets in the way. You get a fixed scope and a fixed price, or an honest no.
What an intake looks like
- Counter
- Bar with a kitchen, two screens
- Today
- A till that stops when the line drops
- Hardware
- Existing touchscreen and printer
You hear back from the people who would build it, not from a sales desk.