Point of sale systems for bars and nightclubs in Arkansas
Tabs walk, rates get rung wrong, and both cost real money. This page covers tab handling, pre authorization and Arkansas mixed drink tax on a bar check.
A bar point of sale has two jobs that matter above everything else. It has to open, hold and close tabs fast, and it has to charge the right Arkansas tax on every line of the check. Beer, spirits and food are not taxed the same way here. SkyTab and Clover can both do it, but neither arrives with Arkansas tax groups built. Somebody has to build them and test them.
In this article
01How do I set up Arkansas mixed drink tax correctly on a bar point of sale?02How do tabs and pre authorizations work when a card sits behind the bar?03What happens to the tabs nobody closed at two in the morning?04Can the system handle bottle service, table minimums and cover charges?05Does a private club permit change how I ring drinks?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 do I set up Arkansas mixed drink tax correctly on a bar point of sale?
You build separate tax groups and you assign every item to one. In Little Rock, prepared food carries a combined rate of 10.625% while mixed drinks carry 32.625%. The 2% Little Rock hospitality tax applies to prepared food and does not apply to mixed drinks, so a single blanket tax rate across the menu will be wrong on half your check.
Fayetteville works differently again. Prepared food there runs 11.75%, and Fayetteville adds a 5% supplemental beverage tax that applies to spirits but excludes wine, beer and malt beverages under 5% ABW. That means your draft list and your well list belong in different tax groups. We build and test this before the hardware leaves our hands.
How do tabs and pre authorizations work when a card sits behind the bar?
A bartender opens a tab by swiping or dipping the card, and the system places a pre authorization to confirm the card is good. The tab then lives on a list by guest name or card name, and any bartender working the same station can add to it. Quick keys keep the common rounds down to one or two taps.
Pre authorization holds do not last forever. They expire, and an expired hold on a card that has since been declined is your loss, not the bank's. Both SkyTab and Clover need a closing routine that clears open tabs every night. We write that routine with your closing manager during install instead of leaving it to habit.
What happens to the tabs nobody closed at two in the morning?
The system will hold them open until someone acts. On both platforms you can auto close open tabs with a set gratuity at end of day, and you can print a list of everything left open before the drawer report runs. That list is the single most useful piece of paper in a bar.
The thing neither platform does is chase the guest. If a card fails on a tab closed the next morning, that is a chargeback conversation. Bars that keep this small do it with a hard rule at last call, not with software.
A real person calls you back within two hours, Monday to Saturday, 8am to 7pm Central.
Can the system handle bottle service, table minimums and cover charges?
Partly. Bottle service can be built as items with mixers attached and a server assigned, and a table minimum can be tracked as a check target that a manager watches. It works, but it is a workaround rather than a feature, and it takes discipline from whoever runs the floor.
Cover charge and door count are the real gap. Neither SkyTab nor Clover has a door module with headcount, guest list or reentry stamps. Most Arkansas clubs ring cover as a simple item on a door terminal and count heads separately. If the door is a serious part of your revenue, plan on a second tool.
Does a private club permit change how I ring drinks?
It changes the tax group, which means it changes the programming. A Little Rock private club rings mixed drinks at 27.625% rather than the 32.625% retail rate. If your permit type and your tax group ever disagree, you find out during an audit, and by then you have been collecting the wrong amount for months.
Arkansas has 75 counties and a patchwork of local rules layered on top of state rates, so a bar in Hot Springs, a taproom in Fayetteville and a club in Little Rock do not share a tax build. We set yours against your actual permit and your actual city.
Where SkyTab and Clover work behind a bar, and where they fall short
Both handle tabs and tax groups properly once they are built, and both leave gaps a busy club will feel.
What works
- Tabs open by card or by name and stay visible to every bartender on the station.
- Multiple tax groups on one check, so beer, spirits and food each ring at their own rate.
- Pre authorization on tab open, with an end of day list of everything still open.
- Handhelds work the patio and the back bar without a run to the terminal.
What does not
- Neither ships with Arkansas mixed drink or private club tax groups configured. This is manual setup and it is easy to get wrong.
- No door module. Cover charge, headcount, guest list and reentry are outside both systems.
- Bottle service and table minimums are workarounds built from ordinary items, not real features.
- Neither tracks liquor pour cost or bottle level inventory without a paid add on, and the add on still relies on hand counts.
- Handheld battery life through a long Saturday is shorter than the spec sheet suggests, and bar hardware takes abuse that voids assumptions about lifespan.
Questions restaurant owners ask
Will the system charge the right tax if a guest orders food and a cocktail on one check?
Yes, once the tax groups are built. Every item gets assigned to a group and the check calculates each line at its own rate. This is exactly why a single flat tax rate fails in an Arkansas bar. We build the groups against your city and permit, then run test checks with mixed items before install day.
What happens if my internet drops on a Saturday night?
Tabs and orders keep working across the local network. Card capture goes into an offline mode with a cap on how much can be held, and any declines appear after the guest has gone. A bar takes on more risk from this than a dining room does, so we set the cap with you rather than for you.
Can bartenders share tabs or does each one own their own?
Both models work. Shared tabs let anyone on the station add a round, which is faster on a busy night but weakens accountability. Assigned tabs tie every check to one bartender for cash handling. Clover leans toward assigned ownership and needs more configuration to run a truly shared bar cleanly.
Do I need a different setup for a private club permit?
You need a different tax group, and you need it right from the first day of service. A Little Rock private club rings mixed drinks at 27.625% instead of the 32.625% retail rate. We confirm your permit type in writing before programming, because correcting this after months of service is not a small cleanup.
How fast can someone get here if a terminal fails during service?
A real person calls you back within two hours, Monday through Saturday, 8am to 7pm Central. Judd Alsup leads the Arkansas team and we keep spare hardware in state, so a failed terminal is a swap rather than a wait on freight. We are also in the building on go live night, which is when most surprises happen.