Point of sale systems for barbecue restaurants in Arkansas
Meat sold by weight breaks a normal menu build. This page covers pound pricing, scales, sell outs and catering for Arkansas barbecue restaurants.
Barbecue asks a point of sale to do something most restaurant menus never ask. Price by weight, sell out an item mid shift and stop it everywhere at once, and take catering orders that are not really orders yet. SkyTab and Clover handle by the pound pricing and fast sell outs. Scale connection and true catering management are where both of them run thin.
In this article
01How does a point of sale ring meat by the pound?02Can I connect a scale directly to the register?03What happens when the brisket sells out at one thirty?04How do I take catering orders on the same system?05How many terminals does a barbecue counter need?06Questions restaurant owners ask
“We are not mosquitoes. You will not be swatting us away. But we are not disappearing after the install either.”
How does a point of sale ring meat by the pound?
The item carries a price per pound and the cashier enters a decimal quantity. Half a pound of pork rings as point five, and the system does the multiplication. That much works cleanly on both platforms, and it also lets you sell a quarter pound, a third of a pound or whatever your counter actually says.
The catch is that it is a keyed number. Somebody reads a scale, types a figure and hopes their thumb landed on the right key. Over a busy Saturday that is a small amount of drift in both directions. It is worth building your quick keys around the weights you sell most so the common ones are one tap instead of a typed decimal.
Can I connect a scale directly to the register?
This is the honest weak point. Neither SkyTab nor Clover offers the broad certified scale support that a grocery or deli system does. Supported models are limited, and a legal for trade scale that talks cleanly to the point of sale is not a given. Ask any dealer to name the exact scale model before you believe an integration exists.
What most Arkansas barbecue restaurants end up doing is weighing on a separate scale at the counter and keying the number. That is not elegant and we are not going to pretend it is. It works, guests can see the scale, and it keeps you out of a hardware dependency that breaks the whole line when it fails.
What happens when the brisket sells out at one thirty?
Somebody marks it unavailable from a terminal or a handheld and it comes off the register screens and off your online ordering menu. That is the behavior you want and both platforms do it. The gap is timing. An online order placed a minute before the toggle is still a real order in your queue, and a guest already mid checkout on their phone may not see the change.
So the routine matters more than the software. Mark it when the pan is low, not when it is empty. We build the sell out list as a single screen so the person on the line can do it in one motion instead of hunting through categories with a knife in their hand.
A real person calls you back within two hours, Monday to Saturday, 8am to 7pm Central.
How do I take catering orders on the same system?
You can build a catering menu with tray sizes and by the pound items, take a deposit as a payment on an open order, and hold that order until pickup. That covers a lot of everyday catering. What you do not get on either platform is a catering module. No event calendar, no delivery scheduling, no banquet event orders and no automated deposit reminders.
Restaurants doing serious volume run catering out of a shared calendar or a separate tool and use the point of sale to collect money. If your catering book is a Friday and Saturday affair, the built in approach is enough. If it is a business inside your business, plan on a second system and price it in now.
How many terminals does a barbecue counter need?
One register per active order taking position, a handheld for line busting when the line goes out the door, and a kitchen display or printer at the cut station. Sunday after church in Little Rock and a Saturday afternoon in the Delta look like different restaurants, and you size for the peak you actually have rather than the one you hope for.
We walk the counter with you before quoting hardware. Terminals that sit idle six days a week are a monthly bill with nothing behind it.
Where SkyTab and Clover fit a barbecue restaurant, and where they do not
Both price by weight and handle sell outs well, and both leave the scale and the catering book to you.
What works
- Price per pound items sell at any decimal quantity, with quick keys for your common weights.
- Sell out toggles pull an item from the register and the online menu in one motion.
- Handhelds let someone take orders and payment down a line that runs out the door.
- Online ordering with pickup times moves the church rush off the counter.
What does not
- Scale integration is limited on both platforms. Supported models are few and most shops key the weight by hand.
- A keyed weight is a training risk and a source of drift that no report will catch for you.
- No catering module. There is no event calendar, no delivery scheduling and no deposit tracking beyond an open order.
- Sell out changes are not instant across every channel, so an online order can still land after you toggle an item off.
- Neither tracks yield from raw weight to sold pounds, so your real cost on smoked meat stays outside the system.
Questions restaurant owners ask
Can I sell both plates and meat by the pound on one ticket?
Yes. Plates and sandwiches ring as fixed price items and never touch a scale, while meat by the pound rings at a decimal quantity against a per pound price. They sit on the same check with the same tax treatment. We build the screens so the two live side by side rather than in separate categories.
What scale should I buy?
Ask us before you buy anything, because the answer depends on which platform you choose and what is actually supported that month. We would rather tell you to buy a good standalone legal for trade scale and key the weight than sell you an integration that turns into a support ticket every other week.
How do I stop a guest ordering brisket online after we sell out?
Mark the item unavailable and it drops off the online menu right away. The exposure is the small window where a guest is already checking out, and that is not something either platform closes completely. The practical fix is toggling early, at low pan rather than empty pan, and we train the line on that.
Do you take deposits for catering on the system?
You can take a deposit as a partial payment against an open order and settle the balance at pickup. Both platforms handle that. What neither does is remind you or the customer that a balance is due, or put the event on a calendar. That part stays yours, and most shops run it on a shared calendar.
Do you install outside the bigger cities?
Yes, across all 75 counties. We install in person from the Ozarks down through Little Rock and Hot Springs and out into the Delta. Judd Alsup leads the Arkansas team and is in the building on go live day. A real person calls you back within two hours, Monday to Saturday, 8am to 7pm Central.