The best bar POS systems can track inventory, manage bar tabs and handle customer payments quickly and efficiently. Here are Forbes Advisor's top picks.

Upon arriving at a bar that uses Tally, a customer simply opens a tab from within the app and lets the bartender know when placing their first order. By integrating with the bar’s point of sale system ...

“Even before you go to a bar, you’re able to go onto this app and open your tab,” says Tab X co-creator Josh Taylor. “Then, when you’re ready to pay up, instead of standing in a line ...

Not really, says Crowl, although it depends on what system the bar is using. All financial exchanges must be closed out in order to close the establishment at the end of the night.

And if the whole gang would just run one tab, the bar pays just 34 cents. Over the course of a whole night and hundreds of customers, these figures matter. There's a staffing dimension here, too.

They secretly hope you will pay the tab so they won’t have to figure out who to transfer it to and how to do it. Yes, they’re asking your preference, but they know what they want for an answer.