For bars & counters

Every restaurant assumption, and what replaces it.

Software built for dining rooms carries assumptions that quietly cost you time behind a bar. These are the ones that matter.

The assumptionWhat a restaurant system doesWhat Hanna does instead

A guest has a booking Everything hangs off a reservation. Walk-ins are the exception, handled awkwardly. Bookings are a function you switch off. Nothing in ordering or payment assumes a diary exists.

A table has a sitting Turn times, courses and a bill at the end of a defined service. Open sessions with no expected end. A tab runs until somebody closes it.

One bill, one party Splitting is a feature at the end. Rounds bought by different people are a manual exercise. Splits by item or share at any point, across people who joined the tab at different times.

Stock is portions Ingredients per dish. A 70cl bottle poured 25ml at a time doesn't fit the model. Bought in cases, held in millilitres, poured by measure — conversions set once per line.

Orders go to a kitchen Tickets, coursing and a pass. A drink made two feet away goes through the same machinery. Bar items settle at the bar. Only a kitchen order goes to a kitchen screen, if you have one.

Three hours, six people, four of whom left early.

This is the moment most tills fall over. A tab opened at eight, added to across the night by people arriving in ones and twos, and settled at eleven by whoever is still standing — some of them paying for what they drank, some splitting the rest.

Hanna holds it as one session with items timestamped as they were rung in, so a split by item is a selection rather than an argument. Card pre-authorisation is there if you hold cards behind the bar, and the whole thing reconciles against the terminal at close like any other session.

Every drink still moved its own measures off the shelf at cost, so a busy Friday behind the bar produces the same margin picture a restaurant service does.

Tab 7 · open 3h 04m23:04

2 × Negroni20:12 · Marta£26.00

3 × Highball20:48 · added by Joe£33.00

1 × Martini, wet21:30£14.50

2 × Snacks21:34£11.00

4 × Highball22:20£44.00

Tab total£128.50

Card 1 · by item£51.50

Card 2 · the rest£77.00

Where a bar's margin actually leaks.

Not in the price list. In the difference between the measure on the spec and the measure that reaches the glass, multiplied by a busy Saturday.

A cocktail is a recipe

Measures of spirit, vermouth, syrup, citrus and garnish, each with its own cost. Sell a Negroni and all five move — so you know what it cost you, tonight, at what you last paid.

Bottles in millilitres

Bought by the case, held in millilitres, poured by measure. The conversion is set once per line and never thought about again.

Variance is the finding

The gap between what the recipes say should have gone and what the count finds is priced per line. Over-pouring, spillage and shrinkage stop being a feeling and become a number.

A bar uses less of this, and that's fine.

We would rather show you the shape of it than sell you six functions you don't need. Brass Bar runs the till and nothing else, and has done since it went live.

Usually on

The till — tabs, splits, payment, close
Menu and pricing, including timed lists
Stock, if you want pour-level cost
Staff clock in and out
Daily close and reconciliation

Usually off

Bookings and the guest chat — unless you do private hire or ticketed events
Table plan and turn times
Kitchen display, if there's no kitchen
Coursing and pacing
Guest marketing, where there are no guest records to build on

The bar that made us build this properly.

Brass Bar

Cocktail bar · London · live since 2026 · point of sale only

Brass Bar arrived with none of the restaurant assumptions and no interest in acquiring them. No diary, no covers, no coursing — just tabs, rounds and a Friday that doesn't stop.

It is the venue that forced fast tabs and open sessions to become first-class behaviour rather than a restaurant bill with the bookings removed. If your room works like theirs, it is the one to ask.

See the venues →

Where we'd be straight with you: if your bar is high-volume, wet-led and has no interest in stock at the pour level, a good conventional till may serve you perfectly well and cost less. The argument for Hanna gets stronger the more your bar behaves like a kitchen — food, a real spec, several suppliers and a margin worth watching.

The questions bar operators actually ask.

We don't take bookings at all. Is this still for us?

Yes. Brass Bar takes no bookings and runs Hanna as a till alone. Bookings are a function you switch off rather than a requirement you work around, and nothing in the ordering, tab or payment flow assumes a diary exists. If you run occasional ticketed events or private hire, you can switch that part on for those nights only.

How does stock work for spirits and cocktails?

A cocktail is a recipe like any dish — measures of spirits, syrups, juice and garnish — so selling one moves each component at its own cost. Bottles are held in millilitres and bought in cases, with the conversion set once. Pour variance and shrinkage show up as the gap between what the recipes say should have gone and what the count finds.

Can it handle a tab that runs for three hours?

That is the normal case for a bar and it is treated as one. A session stays open, items are added across the night, people join and leave, and the bill splits by item or by share at the end. Card pre-authorisation is supported where you want to hold a card behind the bar.

Do we get less for our money than a restaurant would?

You use less of the platform, and we would rather say that plainly. A bar with no diary and no kitchen genuinely does not need the booking chat or the recipe depth a tasting menu demands. Talk to us about what you actually want switched on, and we will price the conversation around that rather than around a tier sheet.

A bar is not a restaurant with the bookings switched off.