Uses

Where Plink is used

A tap puts a line on somebody's tab. What the line means is up to you: a sale to settle up later, a serving to keep count of, a piece of kit signed out. Here is the same app doing rather different jobs.

Selling

A bar at a weekender

Wristbands go on at the gate. Staff ring up rounds on quick sale tiles and tap to put them on the tab, with no card reader to hire and no float to count down at the end of a shift. Guests settle up on the way out, and anyone who wants to know what they have run up asks at the till.

Selling

A food stall

One phone, a handful of items, variants for regular and large. The queue moves at the speed of a tap rather than a card terminal, which matters most when the queue is longest. Sales carry the name of whoever served them if you turn the till lock on.

Selling

A merch stand

Sizes and colours sit as variants under one item, so a T-shirt is two taps rather than a scroll through a list. Tags can be stuck to the goods themselves where that suits the stand better than handing something out at the door.

Selling

Extras beyond the bar

A bike lock-up, a shower token, a workshop place, a printed programme. Anything with a price can go on the menu, and a phone stood up in self service mode will sell it without anybody behind it.

Counting

Servings at a private party

No money changes hands, so prices are hidden at the till and the tap keeps count. At the end you know how much went, when it went, and what people actually reached for, which is the part that decides what you order next time.

Counting

A members' club

Members tap a card for what they take, the tab runs across the month, and the committee settles up with everyone on whatever cycle it already uses. The same records settle who has had what since the last time.

Counting

Kit in and out of a store

Sign a radio, a harness or a set of keys out against a person by tapping their tag, and sign it back in the same way. Nothing is priced; the value is the log, and the export that tells you what never came back.

Counting

An honesty fridge

A phone on the wall beside the fridge, in self service mode. People tap for what they take and the tab keeps the count, which works better than a jar and a biro.

Selling and counting

Prices are a setting. An event can hide them at the till entirely, and a tab then reads as a log of what somebody had. The counting jobs above use the same selling flow with the prices switched off.

Everything the app records comes back out as CSV, so what you do with it afterwards, whether that is an invoice, a stock order or your own spreadsheet, is your business. The FAQ covers tags, readers and what happens when the signal drops.

Plink in self service mode at the Millpond Weekender, asking the customer to tap their tag to order a bike lock-up for the weekend at 4.00.
Self service mode
A self service menu offering chips, cider, a foraging walk session at 12.00 and a programme at 5.00, showing that a menu need not be food and drink.
A self service menu
Plink reporting showing revenue split across drinks, food, merch, workshops and other, with a ranked list of top sellers and takings by staff member.
Revenue by category
Tap the tag. It's on the tab.