Bars care about three things a POS does: keeping tabs straight on a busy night, closing them out fast with the tip captured, and not losing money on walkouts. Clover handles all three. This page is the bar setup we install and the settings that matter.
The setup
| Position | Device | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Main rail | Station Duo (guests pay at the bar) or Station Solo (bartender closes, guests tap on Flex) | Tabs, split checks, tip prompts, printer built in |
| Second well or service bar | Mini | Same account, same menu, lower cost |
| Patio, tables, events | Flex, one per server or barback | Pay at table, cards stay with guests |
| Kitchen if you serve food | Kitchen printer or Clover Kitchen Display | Routing by station |
| Well printer | Bar printer via Station or Mini hub | Drink tickets |
The Duo vs Solo decision for the rail is on Station Duo vs Solo vs Mini.
Tabs and pre-authorization
Open a tab on a name or by swiping the card. With pre-authorization enabled, Clover authorizes the card when the tab opens (an amount you set, adjusted up as the tab grows on some configurations), so a guest who leaves without closing still settles. Rounds add to the tab; the final capture at close includes the tip. Guests close by tapping on the Duo screen or a Flex, or sign a printed slip for tip adjustment later.
Pre-auth is an account configuration. Ask for it; bars that do not have it enabled eat the walkouts.
Tips
- Tip prompts on the customer screen or Flex at close, with preset percentages.
- Tip adjust on printed slips for bars that still run paper.
- Tip pooling and tip-out reports by shift, by employee.
- Per-employee tip totals for payroll.
- Under dual pricing, the guest tips on the card total; staff receive the tip in full; the bar absorbs no processing on the tip.
Menu and pricing
Happy hour and daypart pricing by schedule. Modifiers for pours, mixers, sizes. Combos and specials. Categories for reporting: beer, wine, spirits, food. Item-level cost for pour-cost reporting through apps.
Age verification
Clover can require an ID check prompt before an age-restricted item is added. It does not scan IDs natively. Bars that want scanned and logged IDs use an App Market ID scanner app or a standalone scanner at the door. For venues with strict compliance needs, the standalone scanner is the reliable choice.
Dual pricing on tabs
The tab shows the cash total and the card total at close. The guest chooses. Card tabs settle at the card price, which covers the processing cost, so the bar nets its cash price on every round and pays $0 in processing. Receipts show the price paid and tender. Signage at the entrance and the rail, and a line on the menu, complete the disclosure. A bar doing $50,000 a month keeps roughly $1,300 a month versus a typical processing bill. The comparison with surcharging, which cannot apply to debit and is restricted in California, is on dual pricing vs surcharging vs cash discount.
Cost
Hardware placed at no charge for qualifying bars, or purchased; never leased. Software: Counter Service plan at $59.95 a month covers most bars; Table Service at $89.95 if you run table numbers and courses. Processing at $0 under dual pricing or interchange-plus. Month to month, fee schedule on one page. Install between service, with a cell number for the first weekend.