Food & Beverage
Start tabs with a card hold instead of keeping cards behind the bar, send floor orders to the bartenders and split tips at close — Square's bar tools, with Payaroo helping you set them up.
Square, made easier with Payaroo.
What your bar or brewery needs
Bars run on open tabs. Someone starts one at 7, orders three rounds, moves to the patio and wants to close out at midnight — and the old way means a drawer full of other people's credit cards and a line at the register when the lights come up.
A brewery adds a taproom floor, a food menu and a shelf of cans, growlers and T-shirts to go. The setup that works keeps tabs secure, gets orders from the patio to the bartenders, splits tips fairly at close and brings people back for the next release.
Holding guests' cards behind the bar invites mix-ups, and forgotten cards pile up at close.
How Square helps Start a tab by tapping, dipping or swiping a card to place a temporary hold, hand the card right back and close the tab later against that hold.
Servers on the patio walk every drink order back to the bar and wait for a gap to ring it in.
How Square helps Square Handheld takes orders where guests are sitting, and Square KDS can route drinks to a screen at the bar and food to the kitchen.
Splitting card tips between bartenders, barbacks and servers eats the last half hour of the night.
How Square helps Tip pooling splits card tips by hours worked or by job percentage, and automatic gratuity covers big groups. You'll need Square Plus or Premium for both.
Tuesday trivia and a Saturday can release only work if regulars hear about them in time.
How Square helps Square Marketing sends email and text campaigns to your customer list — texts only to people who opted in — and Square Loyalty gives regulars a reason to show up on a slow night.
Recommended setup
The Square tools that matter most for a bar or brewery — and why each one earns its place.
Bar mode keeps open tabs, card holds, floor orders and food on one system, with drinks and food routed where they belong.
Guests keep their cards: a tap or dip places a temporary hold, and the tab closes against it at the end of the night.
Take orders on the patio and in the taproom so servers aren't walking every round back to the bar.
Drink orders from the floor land on a screen at the bar while food tickets go to the kitchen.
Pool card tips across bartenders, barbacks and servers by hours or job share instead of doing math at 2 a.m.
Email and text campaigns for trivia nights, tap takeovers and release days; texts go only to guests who opted in.
Regulars earn points by visit or by spend and redeem them at the bar or online.
Gift cards sit next to the merch at the bar and on your website, and Square says they don't expire.
How Payaroo helps
Tell us how your business works. We'll help you understand the Square tools that fit.
Core capabilities
Tap, dip or swipe to place a temporary hold, return the card and keep adding rounds; at close, the tab is paid against the hold. Square lists card holds for Square Register, Square Terminal and iPads, and you set the hold amount within Square's limits.
Square KDS sorts each ticket by routing category, so the IPA and the margarita show on the bar screen while the wings go to the fryer. Each KDS screen is a per-device add-on to a paid plan.
Add gratuity automatically by party size or by hand when a birthday crowd runs one tab, and keep more than one rate if you need it. Automatic gratuity needs a paid Square plan.
Mark that beer sold out and it comes off the POS and your ordering page right away. For a limited can release, set a count that drops with every sale.
Build a happy hour menu with its own hours, and it takes over the POS at 4 p.m. and steps aside at 6 without anyone swapping screens.
Item and modifier sales show which beers and cocktails move on which nights, and reports by team member show each bartender's sales.
Hardware options
You don't need every device. Start with what matches where you take payments — and add more later.
A countertop point of sale with two touchscreens: one for your team and one that faces the customer.
Behind the bar for opening tabs with a card hold, closing out and tips on the customer-facing screen.
A pocket-sized point of sale with a built-in barcode scanner and camera.
For floor and patio service: take orders and payments where guests are sitting.
A compact, battery-powered card machine with a built-in receipt printer.
Walk it to a table to close out and print a receipt; it can also start tabs with a card hold.
A kitchen display app that replaces paper tickets and sends each order to the right prep station.
A screen at the bar for drink tickets and one in the kitchen for food.
Software and tools
Open tabs with card holds, floor ordering, drink routing and split checks.
Schedules and timecards for bartenders and barbacks, with tip pooling at close.
Event and release-day campaigns by email and text.
Points for regulars that redeem at the bar or online.
How it works
One realistic day at a bar or brewery, with the setup above doing the work.
Setup finder
Answer a few quick questions about your bar or brewery. We'll stop as soon as we can point you to a useful starting setup.
Tell Buckaroo how your business works and he'll help you figure out which Square tools make sense.
FAQs
A typical bar setup puts Square Register behind the bar to open and close tabs, adds Square Handheld for patio and floor orders and uses Square Terminal to close out at tables with a printed receipt. A Square KDS screen at the bar can show drink tickets from the floor. Bar mode runs on Square hardware or an iPad, not on phones, and KDS needs a paid plan plus a per-device add-on.
Yes. You start a tab by tapping, dipping or swiping a card to place a temporary hold, then close it later by paying against that hold, so the card goes straight back to the guest. Square says card holds work on iPads, Square Register and Square Terminal, and you set the hold amount within limits Square allows.
Not in Bar mode. Square documents age-verification prompts and ID scanning for its Retail mode only, so don't count on the POS to prompt for IDs at the bar.
Yes, as regular items. A four-pack, a growler fill, a pint glass or a shirt each gets its own price, variations such as sizes and a stock count, and low-stock alerts flag anything running short after close.
Square sets and publishes its own pricing. Square Free carries no monthly subscription, though processing fees apply, and tabs with a card hold work on it. Paid plans add tip pooling, auto-gratuity, split checks, loyalty and marketing, and each Square KDS screen is a per-device add-on on top of a paid plan. Square's pricing page has the current numbers.
Tell us how your bar runs — tabs, floor service, food, events — and we'll suggest where to start. Square then reviews your application and verifies your identity and business before approving an account, and Payaroo helps you set up tabs, menus and tip rules from there.
Related businesses
Floor plans, tableside ordering, coursing, split checks and tip pooling.
Barcode checkout, age prompts at the register and orders to your distributors.
Size and topping modifiers, KDS stations, pickup, delivery and phone orders.
Tell us how your tabs, floor and taps work, and we'll help you put the pieces together.
Square reviews and approves every account. Call Payaroo at 972-431-0439.
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Square product details on this page were checked against Square's website on September 25, 2026. Square sets its own features, plans, pricing, fees, eligibility and hardware availability, and these can change. Confirm current details on Square's website before you sign up. Square pricing · Square fees
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