# POS System for small theater



## scotty269 (Nov 16, 2011)

Hi all,

I have a ~150 seat theater w/concession stand. I am looking to install a POS for ticket and concession sales. Total of 3 workstations. Any suggestions?


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## chausman (Nov 16, 2011)

A person with a calculator can probably handle 150 people, and a POS will be rather expensive. Most systems are complicated, and require a lot of training, where just doing things manually doesn't need as much training.

That said, If you want to go with a POS system, PCAmerica, and their Cash Register Express is popular and works very well. (I have used CRE). Beware of Harbortouch. I have not used it, and it may work well, but it will require a membership, and $80 a month, even though web searches may say it is free.

I suppose I should mention, PCAmericas solution, can be run standalone on a PC, but when you add things like cash drawers, magstripe readers, receipt printers, touchscreens, etc. it makes things much easier.


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## scotty269 (Nov 16, 2011)

Not to burst your bubble, but if I wanted to use a calculator then I wouldn't have posted on here. We're doing this for inventory control and overall ease of use. Currently, we've been using a program called Pool House Manager and have been selling movie tickets as "Deli" items. Money accountability is a big thing, too. We need to keep track of everything, so a POS is the way for us to go.


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## cpf (Nov 16, 2011)

DHPOS is free, and quite easy to use. Don't be scared off by the fact it's DOS, it actually makes it very fast to use, and since it's been around for yeeeaaaaarrrrs it has any feature you might need. It has a networked mode, too.

Edit: Just tried opened it up again, had it set up with basic items in 5 minutes. Also, it looks like it lets you sell assigned and rush seating tickets, so there you go.


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## Footer (Nov 16, 2011)

The regular ones as posted about, but... if you in for something different...

I have not used this app in this way, but take a look at Square. It is everything in one... and might get you up a running a bit quicker. 

https://squareup.com/square


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## scotty269 (Nov 18, 2011)

Any other theater/concessions-based software?


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## chausman (Nov 18, 2011)

scotty269 said:


> Any other theater/concessions-based software?


 
I downloaded DHPOS, and when you get used to it, it is actually quite useful.


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## echellis (Nov 22, 2011)

scotty269 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I have a ~150 seat theater w/concession stand. I am looking to install a POS for ticket and concession sales. Total of 3 workstations. Any suggestions?


 
I have been using OpenBravo, Openbravo POS: Open Source Point-of-Sale, for our POS system in our concession stands. You can network them together. I had some old POS stations from our school food service system that work great. It takes a little work getting going, but the reporting features are great.


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## themuzicman (Nov 22, 2011)

I second Square...I've seen a few local vendors use it when I go to farmers markets, it looks super nifty.


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## icewolf08 (Nov 22, 2011)

You might look into using Theatre Manager by Arts Management Systems. I believe they structure their software licensing fee base on venue size. It can handle your ticketing, donations, subscriptions and even do web sales if you want. I think with some tweaking it could do concessions. It runs on Mac and windows. May be worth looking into. 


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.764251,-111.854135


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## esmphoto (Nov 22, 2011)

My school is having the same issue.
Managing online sales and presales is reasonably easy through seatyourself.biz (though we are considering switching vendors.)
Sales at the door are another story however, im experimenting with openbravo right now, and looking at DHPOS aswell, we had a local vendor come give us a bid to install a credit/pos system. it was outrageous.
tried making a laminated floorplan and marking seats in the box office with dry erase markers but was too slow.

i'm interested to follow this one and will toss in any developments in my situation as well.


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## cpf (Nov 23, 2011)

If you're looking for more of a ticket-sales oriented solution, Tixato (from the QLab people) is very slick and very free. They even do online & in-person sales via credit card in the US (fees apply). The major issue last time I checked was a lack of assigned seating, you can sell tickets by section though.


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## esmphoto (Dec 4, 2011)

We started useing the cash register function of quickbooks, not the best (doesnt mark seats or anything) but works. 

I like Tixato better but district IT refused to support it


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## brucef2112 (Jan 4, 2012)

I'm going to second the DHPOS software choice above. It is completely free, and has a module that is fully functional venue ticket sales program. It has excellent instruction on how to setup the program, layout your venue seating, and seat pricing.

Here's a quick blurb from the developer:
Ticket sales
This program will sell tickets to just about anything, stage shows, movies, airline, train, stadium, theme park, etc. Tickets can be for something today or dated tickets for something in the future. Tickets can be sold as general admission (you have 100 seats, sell 100 tickets, and everyone finds their own seat) or you can sell individual seats (Main floor, Row G, Seat 8).

This feature was originally written for selling theater tickets. If you are selling tickets for something else you can probably make the adjustments. A "venue" can be a theater, stadium, aircraft, train car, boat, etc. An "event" can be a performance, flight, departure, etc.

There is no limit on the number of different venues that you may have. The same venue may have multiple seating / pricing layouts. The same venue may sell admission by individual seats or general admission depending on the particular event.

The program will keep track of which seats are sold and unsold. 
Here's the link: POS Tip 6a

Here's a link How to assign seats and more:POS Tip 6b

Here is the download page with instructions. http://www.keyhut.com/pos.htm

AND ITS FREE!!!!!!! REALLY, IT IS!!!!!

This also can be used as a regular POS register to sell just about anything.
Runs on any DOS PC, Windows XP. Can be run on Win 7 but needs to be run with DOSBOX. The developer is currently working on porting it to run native on Win 7. 

I run this on an old PC with Win XP. Works best. I have a parallel receipt printer but you can also use a standard printer to print tickets and receipts.


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## chausman (Jan 4, 2012)

Footer said:


> The regular ones as posted about, but... if you in for something different...
> 
> I have not used this app in this way, but take a look at Square. It is everything in one... and might get you up a running a bit quicker.
> 
> https://squareup.com/square


 
I just learned this about a week ago, but the square app and device can be dangerous. A Verifone developer wrote a small program that could be running at the same time as the square app in the background, that could store all the information of the card being swiped. With or without your knowledge. I know several people who will not pay if they have to use a square now. Just FYI.


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