Affordable Room Management Software

Club Billiards

Club Billiards

Absolute Billiard Service
Silver Member
Hey, what do you guys use in terms of software to manage your rooms? I know there's programs out there, but they seem pretty pricey. When I took over this room, they were pretty old-school. They wrote the table # and time-in on a piece of paper and stuck it in a slot for that table #. I brought them out of the 70's into the age of Microsoft Excel LOL but that just doesn't cut it. I want something with a graphic interface that can also handle inventory and lighting. Doesn't have to be touchscreen, but needs to look clean and be VEEEEERY user-friendly for my employees and preferrably something that doesn't cost half a month's rent! ;) I'm open-to suggestions, let's hear 'em!
 
First off

What type and how many tables do you have? How far is the furtherest table from your counter/PC/register? Lighting and inventory are not related at all, and you won't find 1 program to handle both.

If you want to make things easy, automated, you can't do it on a toothpick and a grin.

Do you have a store that sells clothing, cues, cases, etc.? Do you do cue repair? Do you need Point of Sale?

Capital Property system goes hand in hand with inventory.

At best, you will end up with 2-4 systems that can work and talk together, but it is just not plug and play. People actually make their living doing this type of stuff because to do it RIGHT takes a lot of work, and you have to know what you are doing.

I should know because I am a retired Sr. Software Engineer with experience in the Aviation and Medical fields, and have done consulting.
 
Club Billiards said:
Hey, what do you guys use in terms of software to manage your rooms? I know there's programs out there, but they seem pretty pricey. When I took over this room, they were pretty old-school. They wrote the table # and time-in on a piece of paper and stuck it in a slot for that table #. I brought them out of the 70's into the age of Microsoft Excel LOL but that just doesn't cut it. I want something with a graphic interface that can also handle inventory and lighting. Doesn't have to be touchscreen, but needs to look clean and be VEEEEERY user-friendly for my employees and preferrably something that doesn't cost half a month's rent! ;) I'm open-to suggestions, let's hear 'em!
Click to expand...

The best ones I've seen use magnetic strip card in Dave n' Busters.
 
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I am about to purchase this software, http://www.timemagic.com/phm/ , for our room....keep up with table time, lights, plus has full bar and kitchen menus....so we will use 2 touchscreen units with CC strips on each machine and 1 printer inthe kitchen and 1 PC inthe back office running the software and willrun us in the neighborhood of $6500 for software($600-$900) and computers systems ($5600).
 
Club Billiards said:
Hey, what do you guys use in terms of software to manage your rooms? I know there's programs out there, but they seem pretty pricey. When I took over this room, they were pretty old-school. They wrote the table # and time-in on a piece of paper and stuck it in a slot for that table #. I brought them out of the 70's into the age of Microsoft Excel LOL but that just doesn't cut it. I want something with a graphic interface that can also handle inventory and lighting. Doesn't have to be touchscreen, but needs to look clean and be VEEEEERY user-friendly for my employees and preferrably something that doesn't cost half a month's rent! ;) I'm open-to suggestions, let's hear 'em!
Click to expand...
Pete Campbell has a very affordable Billiard Room Managememt software package at only $295.00.

Check out his home page at http://home.att.net/~poolcue/ .., he offers a free demo.
 
I ahve worked in a few pool rooms and the best software for ease of use and functionality out there is Pool House Manager. You can lay the tables out on the screen according to your room very easily. Not only can you move players around from table to table, but you can transfer one player or tables charges for food and drink or any single item to another player. A lot of times, one person comes up to pay and says he wants to pay for the drinks or time a person on another table or his table while leaving that person still on time as he leaves. This is the slickest program out there. I am a software engineer and would use nothing else. It is in a lot of rooms in Florida because it works. http://www.timemagic.com/phm/ . get a free demo online and get the access code from them and you will see. Stop wasting your time looking and get poolhouse manager.

Larry
 
Dana Bufalo said:
Pete Campbell has a very affordable Billiard Room Managememt software package at only $295.00.

Check out his home page at http://home.att.net/~poolcue/ .., he offers a free demo.
Click to expand...

I used Pete's software in my room (not a relative by the way) for years. Very easy with good reports. It was also easy to teach the help, change rates, etc. The best part was, in the roughly ten years I used it, I had one problem. I called the help number and Pete answered the phone and had the problem fixed in minutes....

Bob Campbell
 
mikepage said:
How does this work?
Click to expand...

It's basically a tab. The attendant will give you a card when someone hands you the balls and that card will be assigned to a table, so the attendant will just have to re-scan the card during checked. Most of the time, they don't see the table area.

If you need to order food and drinks, you hand the card to the waiter.

Makes checking out a lot faster.
 
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We use pool house manager. It is very user friendly, Keeps track of pool time and inventory. Will add sales tax if needed. Keeps complete records of all sales and table time. Very nice program
 
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