Pub, bar, and mixed-hospitality venues
Move fast on the floor and keep regulars coming back
Pubs mix high-volume bar service with dining rooms and events. Often with separate tools for each. Next Order keeps tabs, tables and campaigns on the same screen so margin and guest history stay coherent from the first round to last call.
Morgan Reid, party of 4
Rounds
3
Open
47m
Total
£72
Pint, IPA
425ml
£12.00
Negroni
90ml
£22.00
Sparkling, glass
150ml
£14.00
Old Fashioned
60ml
£24.00
Bar and tab workflow built for rounds, not one-off transactions
Most pub leakage isn’t walk-offs. It’s slow order entry, missed rounds and untracked staff discounts during the Friday rush. The bar workflow should clear three drinks in twelve seconds, not three taps to find the brand of gin.
Fast item entry, round tracking and easy transfers between bartenders keep service moving. Pre-auth cards reduce exposure; manager approvals for comps stay on the audit trail for weekly review.
- Quick keys for tap list, shots and modifiers. Rotate weekly specials yourself
- Merge and split tabs for groups that arrive and leave at different times
- Cash drawer settlement at end of night. Opening balance, closing count, deposits and variance so nothing goes missing
- Service charges and auto-gratuity where your policy and law allow
Shrink you can see in the close
Void and discount patterns by staff highlight coaching moments, before you start blaming the wrong thing for missing cash.
Bar close · Friday
The Anchor · 11:58 PM
Cash variance
−£48.50
drawer vs sales
Voids
£115.00
1.8% of sales
Comps
£65.00
tracked to staff
Voids by bartender
Shift · 5 PM → close
- £62.00Jordan M.Review
- £21.00Sam K.
- £18.00Mia R.
- £14.00Alex T.
Coaching moment
Jordan’s voids are 3× the bar average this week. A quiet word tonight, not a mystery you chase three months later.
See the workflow
Tabs, sections and events in one back-office, no separate bar-only system for Friday night.
Table map for dining areas and beer garden
Guests eating should not wait because the room is invisible to the bar queue.
Sections
Assign servers by zone; see open tables and turn status without walking the floor.
Food from kitchen
Route burgers and chips to the kitchen display; drinks stay on bar printers, fewer wrong drops.
Outdoor
Weather-dependent sections can toggle availability so online bookings stay honest.
Event nights without overbooking Saturday regulars
Trivia, sport and private corners need held tables. Walk-ins still need honest quotes at the door.
Block tables for sponsors and groups, hold deposits, and keep the walk-in queue honest when the pub is at capacity for the match. Same floor plan every host sees. No parallel event spreadsheet.
QR ordering from the table, the booth and the beer garden
Guests scan the code on the table, order the next round and pay as they go — no flagging down floor staff, no queue at the bar. Mates at the same table add to one shared tab, and every order still fires to the same bar and kitchen screens.
The Tap Room · Table 12
Opening menu…
Scan at the table
Guest scans the QR standee on their table or drive-thru sign. The full menu opens in their phone's browser. No app, no account, no wait.
Dine In · Table 12
Loyalty240Antipasti
£10Crocchette
Sweetcorn, manchego & burnt butter
£10Ostriche
Charcoal-grilled · finger lime
£12Tartare
Grass-fed beef · capers · crisp
£28Risotto
Prawn · mussel · saffron
£26Anatra
Slow-cooked duck · blood orange
£24Diavola
Spicy salami · Calabrian chilli · honey
Browse the menu
A photo-rich menu, themed to the venue and tied to table 12. Live availability hides anything sold out before they reach the cart.
Diavola
San Marzano · fior di latte · spicy salami · Calabrian chilli · hot honey
Choose a base
Choose 1
- Traditional
- Thin & crispy
- Gluten free+£2.00
Extra toppings
Choose up to 5
- Buffalo mozzarella
- 'Nduja sausage2
- Hot honey drizzle
- Pecorino1
- Wild rocket
Quantity
+ Gluten Free- Small£16.00
- Medium£20.00
- Large£24.001
- Family£30.00
Build and customise
Required sizes, optional add-ons and sub-modifiers (Nduja x2, extra pecorino) sit in front of the guest at the moment of choice. Every extra is a priced modifier, not an unread notes box.
Order confirmed
It will be brought to Table 12 shortly.
My order
- 2Diavola · Large£48.00
- 1Risotto ai frutti di mare · Main£28.00
- 1Negroni£16.00
- 1San Pellegrino · 750ml£6.00
Paid · Visa ···· 4564
Confirmed at the table
The order fires to the kitchen tagged to table 12 and is run to the seat. Guests invite the rest of the table to add to one shared tab, request an invoice, and keep ordering. All without flagging down a server.
The Tap Room · Table 12
Opening menu…
Promotions and loyalty that regulars feel, not forget
Fourth pint free hits different than 10% off everything, especially when you need to protect wet margin.
Reward locals without blasting generic discounts across your whole guest list.
- Visit-based rewards, member pricing on slow nights and birthday vouchers
- Segmentation by favourite categories, like craft beer versus house pours
- Campaigns that respect taste and protect wet margin
- Earn and redeem at bar and table with one profile
- Campaigns tied to actual purchase history, not stale email lists
- Compliance-friendly defaults for your market and licence class
High-volume service speed when the band starts at nine
Throughput is not only taps per minute, it is how fast orders reach the right station.
Keep bar, kitchen and online in rhythm when volume spikes.
- Handheld ordering with routing and bump screens for food and drink
- Throttle and realistic ETAs on online orders when the room fills
- Keep the kitchen and bar from drowning in tickets when the room fills
“We have run on Next Order since the day we opened, and it has been a game-changer. It is intuitive, genuinely easy to use, and keeps the whole floor organised. A great investment for any venue.”
Explore related pages
Frequently asked questions
What operators ask us before they sign.
Can we run open tabs and still split for groups?
Yes, pre-authorisation, item transfers and splitting the bill across cards all follow your pub’s rules. Staff permissions control who can void or discount, which keeps comps and walk-offs visible in weekly review instead of buried on handwritten tabs. Rounds and item moves between bartenders stay on the audit trail when service is four deep at the bar. Split-by-item or even splits work for stag parties and corporate tabs without a calculator at last call.
How do tabs stay safe when it is four deep at the bar?
Card-on-file and clear guest identity reduce walk-offs; audit trails show who opened, modified and closed each tab. Pre-auth limits can match your house policy for high-trust regulars versus first-time walk-ins. Manager overrides for transfers and comps require credentials, which tightens shrink without slowing every pour. End-of-night close packs list open tabs, forced closures and variance drivers so the licensee sees problems while memory is fresh.
Do bookings for sports and trivia clash with walk-ins?
Event blocks hold tables and capacity; general reservations respect the same floor map so the host is not juggling two truths. Sports, trivia and live music can reserve sections or the whole room while walk-in capacity updates live for what is still sellable. Deposits and minimum spends attach to large bookings so you are not holding prime tables for no-shows. Staff see one clear view, no parallel spreadsheet for “event night” versus normal service.
Can loyalty reward drinks without encouraging over-service?
Configure earn rules that fit your licence obligations, visit-based or spend caps, and staff training hooks in rollout. You can reward food-heavy visits or designated-driver soft-drink paths instead of uncapped shots-for-points programmes. Responsible-service prompts and manager approval for high-discount redemptions can align with your house policy and local rules. Reporting shows redemption mix by category so marketing sees whether campaigns lifted food attach or only moved drink sales.
What hardware works behind a wet bar?
Rugged tablets and spill-tolerant hardware built for hospitality; talk to us about your environment and compliance needs. Handhelds survive steam, splash-back and dim service bars better than consumer-grade devices on a three-year replacement cycle. Fixed terminals with customer-facing displays speed high-volume tabs while keeping tips and signatures compliant. We match the card readers, cabling and battery backup to your venue layout, so Friday night runs on hardware that holds up instead of a setup you are troubleshooting mid-rush.
Stress-test your Friday workflow
Walk bar tabs, dining service and loyalty with your actual menu structure.