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Read the Counter Chapter. Most of what you do as a barkeep is the same as the counter stuff. Read that chapter, and do all the stuff in it that applies, which is most of it.
The way you run the cash register is one of those things that must be done a certain way. The idea is to have transparency. Be open and clear about what you are doing with the big responsibility you have taken on. Doing things this way keeps everything above board and transparent. Here are some rules:
Everything gets rung.
Always ring everything. (“Ring” means enter it into the terminal/POS. POS is short for Point
of Sale… the computer system we use as cash registers and for running the store.) When something gets mixed/poured/served… it gets rung. There is never a situation where something is served, poured, or goes out, and no corresponding entry occurs on the register. Sometimes the price changes with discounts. Sometimes there’s a special. Sometimes there’s any number of different unique situations that alter how things are treated on the terminal. But everything always is entered, one way or another.
Ring items at the time they are mixed/poured/served.
Enter stuff into the terminal when you serve it. Don’t wait till later. Don’t keep track of things in your head. Don’t write things down on a piece of paper and ring it all at the end. Don’t serve Billy-Bob a pint at the bar and not ring it, then another a while later and not ring that one, then his last one later still, and then ring them all up at the end. Ring them up each time he’s served, and make him pay each time. Or, if he runs a tab, enter each pint onto his tab as he gets them. (More on tabs later.) Ring everything immediately before, during, or immediately after, the time that it is poured, mixed, opened, or served.
Always ring what you serve.
Don’t ring one item, but serve another. If you serve a bottle of Bud, ring a bottle of Bud. If you serve a pint, ring a pint. Don’t ring a 16-ounce pint and serve 22-ounce Shakes cup, or ring a single mixed drink and serve a double or triple. If you want to do a legitimate comp and charge a good customer a lower price for a sound business reason, then ring the 22ounce and change the price to the 16-ounce price. (More on Comps to follow.)
Each sale gets its own total.
Don’t have a “running tab” for cash sales, and just keep adding to it as you go, and then total it at the end. If a customer buys a bottle of beer, then a different customer buys a couple of mixed drinks, that’s two separate sales, two separate tab numbers, and two separate totals. Even if they pay cash and are one right after another, they are separate customers and separate sales and separate tabs. The record on the POS system should reflect what happened.
Don’t take shortcuts. All of these rules for handling sales are to keep things on the up-and-up. It doesn’t matter if it takes a few seconds longer, this is the way we do it.
