Square charges your taproom per tap but can't tell you which keg ran dry mid-Friday-rush
A custom POS for a Wellington craft venue or multi-site operator runs NZD 60,000 to 200,000 over 3 to 7 months. Build custom when your selling reality outgrows a generic till: rotating taps tied to keg stock, multi-venue reporting, festival pop-ups, and integration with your own brewing or roasting inventory. Square, Toast, and Clover run a counter beautifully. They can't natively connect a tap pour to the keg depleting behind it.
You run a Wellington taproom, a roastery cafe, or a venue with a rotating craft list, and Square takes the payment fine. What it doesn't do is tie a pour to the keg behind the tap, so on a busy Friday you find out a beer's gone only when a customer's glass comes back half-poured. Your tap list rotates weekly, you run pop-up bars at events, and you have two sites whose numbers you reconcile by hand. Toast and Clover assume a fixed menu and a single fixed counter, which is not how a craft venue actually trades.
The gap is the link between the sale and the stock that the sale consumes. A generic POS sells; it doesn't know that this pour just emptied a keg or that the cold brew is about to run out across both sites at once.
Why the usual tools struggle in Wellington
- A tap pour doesn't decrement the keg behind it, so you discover a beer's gone mid-rush
- A weekly-rotating craft list fights a POS built for a fixed menu
- Pop-up and festival bars need the POS to work offline and reconcile later
- Two sites' sales and stock are reconciled by hand instead of in one view
What a custom pos build changes
A custom POS ties every sale to the stock it consumes, so a tap pour decrements the keg and you see a beer running low before it runs out. It handles a rotating craft list as normal, works offline for pop-ups and festivals, and gives multi-site operators one live picture instead of two spreadsheets reconciled on a Monday. It connects to your brewing or roasting inventory so the bar and the cellar finally agree.
The features that matter for Wellington
What we build under POS in Wellington
Digital Heroes builds the full POS stack for Wellington teams. Typical engagements cover Clover, Lightspeed, mobile POS, payment processing integration, custom POS system and point of sale software.
- Sales must decrement real stock like kegs or bean lots in real time
- Your menu rotates often and fights a fixed-menu POS
- You run pop-ups and festivals needing offline operation
- You operate multiple sites and reconcile by hand
- You're a single venue with a stable menu
- Square or Toast already cover your selling and reporting
- You don't need sale-to-stock linkage in real time
- You can't own uptime, hardware, and PCI responsibility
POS pricing in Wellington: the real numbers
| Project scope | Typical cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Single-venue POS with stock linkage | $60k to $100k | 3 to 4 months |
| With offline and rotating-menu support | $100k to $150k | 4 to 6 months |
| Multi-site build with integrations | $150k to $200k | 5 to 7 months |
From kickoff to launch: the schedule
Exactly what you get
A till that knows what it's selling. Every pour decrements the keg, every sale touches real stock, and you see a beer running low before it's gone. The rotating list is routine, pop-ups work offline, and multiple sites share one live picture. It connects to your inventory management software and accounting software so the bar, the cellar, and the books finally tell the same story.
How to choose a developer in Wellington
Choose a developer who has built POS with real stock linkage and PCI-compliant payments, not just a payment screen. Ask them to walk a single tap pour through to the keg emptying and the stock alert firing. Wellington's craft-venue scene runs on rotating taps and busy Fridays, so the developer must understand selling and stock as one connected thing.
- Pours and sales that decrement real stock, so you see a keg running low before it's dry
- A rotating craft list handled as routine, not a workaround against a fixed-menu POS
- Offline operation for pop-up and festival bars with clean reconciliation afterwards
- One live view across multiple sites instead of hand-reconciled spreadsheets
- Integration to inventory management software and accounting software for true margins
- A custom POS costs far more upfront than a Square or Toast subscription
- Payment processing, hardware, and PCI compliance are real responsibilities you take on
- You own uptime: a POS outage on a Friday night is your problem, not a vendor's hotline
- A single simple venue may be perfectly served by Square and not need this
- !They treat the POS as just payments. Ask how a pour decrements the keg behind the tap.
- !No offline plan. Ask how a festival pop-up keeps selling and reconciles afterwards.
- !They ignore multi-site. Ask how two venues share one live stock and sales view.
- !No PCI or NZ payment-provider experience. Ask which providers they've integrated.
- !No uptime plan. Ask what happens when the POS fails on a Friday night.
Teams investing in pos in Wellington usually scope it next to supply chain, business intelligence dashboards, booking & scheduling, since these systems share data and budgets.
Rohan advises mid-market and enterprise teams on ERP, CRM and custom software, and has led delivery on dozens of business-software builds.
Writes for Digital Heroes, shipping business software for 2,000+ brands across 55+ countries since 2017.
Frequently asked questions
Why isn't Square enough for a craft taproom?
Square takes payments well but doesn't tie a pour to the keg behind the tap. A Wellington taproom with a rotating list discovers a beer's gone mid-rush. A custom POS links each sale to the stock it consumes so you see a keg running low before it's dry.
Can it work at festival pop-ups?
Yes. A custom POS runs offline for pop-up and festival bars where connectivity is unreliable, then reconciles cleanly when it's back online, so no sales or stock movements are lost in the field.
How does multi-site reporting work?
All sites report into one live view of sales and stock, so you see that the cold brew is running low across both venues at once instead of reconciling two spreadsheets on a Monday. It connects to your inventory and accounting tools for true margins.
What does a custom POS cost in Wellington?
NZD 60,000 to 200,000 depending on stock linkage, offline support, multi-site reporting, and payment integration. A single-venue build is at the low end; a multi-site build with integrations reaches the top.
Who handles payments and PCI compliance?
A custom POS integrates a PCI-compliant payment provider, and you take on responsibility for that integration and uptime. It's a real trade-off against a managed tool like Square, which is why custom suits operators whose stock-linkage needs justify it.