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How to Use Bar Tabs

The Bar Tabs functionality enhances the food and beverage capabilities at your location.

Lucia Burin Sestakova avatar
Written by Lucia Burin Sestakova
Updated over a week ago

The Bar Tabs feature allows customers at eat & drink locations to open a bar tab, adding items such as food and beverages, and settle the check at a later stage. Bar tabs are shared across all shifts, removing the need to close them at the end of each shift, providing a seamless experience.
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This additional functionality offers greater flexibility and convenience, ensuring a smoother and more enjoyable experience for both customers and staff.
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πŸ“— TIP

In its most recent version, only retail purchases can be added to tabs. Make sure to create your food and beverage products in the Items section of your dashboard and assign them to the correct destination.


Enable Tabs at Location

  1. In your Ventrata dashboard, go to Ticket Terminals > Locations.
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    Ticket Terminals - Locations

  2. Select your location or create a new one.
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    πŸ“’ NOTE

    Make sure to create the location under the desired destination.
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  3. Scroll down the form or simply search for 'Allow Tabs'.

  4. Check the 'Allow Tabs' box to enable the feature.
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    Allow Tabs

  5. Scroll further down the form and check the 'Allow Purchases' box.

  6. Next, whitelist or blacklist items as appropriate.
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    πŸ“— TIP

    Only whitelisted items will appear in the location's retail purchase offering.
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    Blacklist / White list Items

  7. Press the Update Location button to save your changes.


Bar Tabs Flow

Use your POS device with the Ventrata terminal app to take customers' orders.

πŸ“— TIP

If you need guidance on how to activate and log into your device, read through our article How to Activate a Terminal.

  1. In the Ventrata terminal app, go to the Sales page.
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    Sales

  2. Press the Products / Retail Purchases button.
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    Products / Retail Purchases

  3. In the Retail Purchases section,
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    • scan the barcode of an item,

    • select an item below the scan area,

    • or press the All Items label at the bottom to see all available items for sale
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    Retail Purchases

  4. When a new item is added, the shopping cart window opens. Here you can increase the quantity of an item.

  5. Once the order is complete, press the Checkout button at the bottom of the shopping cart.
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    Shopping Cart

  6. You are redirected to the Payment Method page. Press the Add to tab label to create an open order without payment.
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    Add to tab

  7. If there are more open tabs, select whether this order is new or belongs to an existing order.

  8. If this order belongs to an existing tab, press the Select button and select the corresponding tab.
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    πŸ“— TIP
    Notice the names above each tab. These are the names of the sellers, or servers, who created the tabs.
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    Select Existing Tab

  9. If this is a new order, enter the customer's name or other identifier, such as the number of the table where the customer is sitting.
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    Enter Tab Name


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  10. Then press the Continue button at the bottom of the screen.

  11. A confirmation message appears onscreen whether a new tab should be created / new order added to an existing tab.
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    πŸ“— TIP
    Take this opportunity to make sure the order is assigned to the right tab.
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    Confirm Tab

  12. Once the order is assigned to a tab, a success page appears onscreen and you are ready to create a new order.
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    Success


Add to Tabs

Above we already mentioned adding a new purchase to an existing tab. However, you have the option to open an existing tab first and then add new items to the order.

  1. In the Ventrata terminal app, go to the Sales page.
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    Sales

  2. Press the Opened Tabs button.
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    Opened Tabs

  3. Select one of the existing tabs.
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    πŸ“— TIP
    Notice the names above each tab. These are the names of the sellers, or servers, who created the tabs.
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    Select Tab

  4. You have the option to
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    • Increase the quantity of an existing purchase - press the green + sign to increase

    • Add a new retail purchase
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    Shopping Cart

  5. To add a new retail purchase, press the red New Retail Purchase label below the order.

  6. Add a new item by scanning the barcode of the item or adding one from the list of items (from the Product lookup at the top of the screen, or Basket below the scan area)
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    Retail Purchase

  7. Whenever you make a change to the shopping cart, increase quantity or add new retail purchase, press the Update Tab button at the bottom of the screen.
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    πŸ“— TIP
    Any time a tab is updated, other sellers in the same location will see the changes made to the tab on their own devices.
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    Update Tab

Close Tab

  1. In the Ventrata terminal app, go to the Sales page.
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    Sales

  2. Press the Opened Tabs button.
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    Opened Tabs

  3. Select one of the existing tabs.
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    Select Tab

  4. Press the Checkout button at the bottom of the screen.
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    Shopping Cart

  5. Select a payment method.

  6. Then, press the Continue button.
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    Payment Method

  7. Once the payment is successfully processed, a success page appears onscreen and you are ready to create a new order.
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    Success

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