Which software should I use for a billiards hall?
Most systems sold to billiards halls are restaurant tills with a timer bolted on or cafe software built for computers. A pool hall bills a table by the minute and sells drinks against the same tab. Here is what to actually look for.
Key takeaways
A billiards hall needs three things a normal till does not do: a per-table timer that starts and stops, a rate that applies itself without mental math and a snack tab that lands on the same bill. It also has to keep billing when the internet drops. CafeTimer is built for exactly that. If your venue also has gaming PCs, that is a different product.
- A pool hall sells time. The timer is the core, not an add-on.
- The rate must apply automatically or the counter argues with customers.
- Table time and the drinks tab belong on one bill.
- Offline billing is not optional; your till cannot stop when the line drops.
- PCs in the room change the answer entirely.
On this page
Walk into most billiards halls and the billing is one of three things: a restaurant till with a timer taped onto the workflow, software written for internet cafes that keeps asking about computers you do not own or a phone stopwatch next to a notebook.
All three fit badly, for the same reason. A pool hall does not sell items. It sells time on a table, plus whatever the players ordered while they were on it. Almost no software treats that as one transaction, which is exactly what it is.
The four things that actually matter
Strip away the feature lists and a venue like yours needs four things to work on a full Saturday.
A timer per table that a person can trust. Start when they rack up, pause when they take a break, stop when they hand back the cue. One screen showing every table with its running total. You can answer "how long have they been on six" without walking over.
A rate that applies itself. The moment your staff is calculating two hours and forty minutes at your evening rate in their head, you have a slow counter and an argument waiting. The software should produce the number and the number should never be up for debate.
One bill. The drinks and the table time belong on the same tab. Two separate systems means somebody has to remember the cola and on a busy night somebody will not.
Billing that survives a dead connection. This is the one people skip until it burns them. If your till lives in a browser tab and the line drops at nine on a Saturday, you are running the rest of the night on paper. Software that runs locally on your counter machine does not care about your internet.
Everything else is a nice-to-have next to those four.
What that looks like in practice
CafeTimer was built for this shape of venue: tables and consoles rather than computers.
It runs a start, pause and stop timer per station, applies your rate automatically, keeps the snack tab on the same bill and closes the whole thing in one step. Station management handles both hourly charging and fixed-price items. It carries membership and prepaid balances for the regulars who come every week. It reports the things you actually decide with: daily revenue, which station earns the most, how a shift went. Multi-venue owners get a cloud dashboard across branches.
It runs as a Windows counter application and it is offline-first, which is the point of the fourth requirement above.
There is a free tier that covers two stations. You can test the workflow on a couple of tables before committing anything. The detailed version of how the timing side works is its own article.
The question that changes the answer
Before you choose anything, answer this: are there computers on your floor?
The public CafeTimer releases manage and bill offline consoles and tables only. For a pure billiards hall, a snooker club, a PlayStation lounge or a board game room, that is the right fit and the simplest thing that works.
The moment your venue also has gaming PCs, that changes. Computers bring a whole layer CafeTimer does not cover: client software on each machine, session control and lockdown, member accounts and wallets, remote management, app and game handling. That is HandyCafe Genesis and in a mixed venue it is not optional. Think of a mixed room as a Genesis venue that happens to have tables, not a CafeTimer venue that happens to have PCs.
Plenty of halls add a few gaming PCs in year two and discover this the expensive way. Decide early which venue you are building.
How to choose without wasting a month
Ignore the feature list and test the four requirements on your own floor.
Time a real table through a real session, from rack to bill, with a drink in the middle. Watch how many taps it takes and whether anyone does arithmetic. Then unplug your internet and do it again. Software that passes both is worth paying for. Software that fails the second test will fail it on your busiest night.
If your venue leans toward computers rather than tables, the guide to choosing internet cafe software runs the same exercise for that side of the room.
Frequently asked questions
What software do billiards halls use?
Most use one of three things: a restaurant point of sale with a timer bolted on, cafe software written for computers or a phone timer and a paper pad. All three fit badly, because a pool hall's core transaction is time on a table combined with what the players ordered while they were on it.
What must billiards hall software actually do?
Start, pause and stop a timer per table. Apply your hourly rate on its own so nobody calculates at the counter. Put food and drink on the same tab as the table time. Close it all into one bill. Report daily revenue, the busiest tables and how each shift went. Keep working when the internet drops.
Why does offline matter so much?
Because a billiards hall takes money at the table. If your billing lives in a browser tab and the connection drops on a Saturday night, you are back to paper mid-service and you will lose minutes and drinks. Software that runs locally keeps charging regardless of the line.
Can I just use a restaurant point of sale?
You can, badly. A restaurant till thinks in items, not in elapsed time. Timing a table becomes a manual note, the rate becomes mental math and the two halves of the bill live in different places. It works until you are busy, which is when it costs you.
What does CafeTimer cost?
There is a free tier that covers two stations, which is enough to test the workflow on a couple of tables. Paid local licensing is a low monthly figure per venue. Check cafetimer.com for the current numbers.
My venue has pool tables and gaming PCs. Is CafeTimer enough?
No. The public CafeTimer releases manage and bill offline consoles and tables only. Once there are computers on the floor you need HandyCafe Genesis for the PC side: client software, session control, members and reporting. A mixed venue is a Genesis venue with tables in it.
Built for tables and consoles
CafeTimer runs per-table timers, combined tabs and offline billing. PCs in the room? HandyCafe Genesis covers those.
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