Stay On Budget And Keep Your Bartender Honest
July 25, 2011
BarTab Keepr ($0.99) by AE'G-wiz calculates your bill, tip, and so much more. This thoughtful little app does much more than your plane old calculator app does and you will put your mind and wallet at ease.
BarTab Keepr not only calculates the price of each drink you add to your tab, but comes loaded with alarms you can set to remind you to close your tab out before leaving (this feature uses your location and alerts you when you've left the premises). This, to me, is a brilliant use of the gps feature and comes complete with an FAQ section so users will know just how it works and how to best utilize it. There are also alerts you can set to go off once you've reached your "sobriety" or "poverty" limits.
The interface is pretty self-explanatory, but it doesn't hurt to check it out before you will actually use it. The tab-based menu makes it easy to jump to any part of the app you want to quickly access. This is key since the last thing you want to do on a night out is have your face glued to a phone navigating an app. I had no trouble quickly navigating to desired features.
Speaking of features, let's do a quick run down of what BarTab Keepr has to offer other than the few we've touched on. The app comes with preset, average prices of different drinks but you can easily edit these. Once you've set a price for each drink, simply touch the corresponding icon for each one you add to your bill and the app keeps a running tally for you. Add a tip percentage you'd like to calculate if you wish. Even enable power-saving mode when you know your night out is going to last for several hours. The app also comes with interesting tips and quotes just for the fun of it.
One feature I think will really improve the useability of the app is custom drink price profiles - and the developer assures me that this update is in the works. If you have a few bars or pubs you hit on a regular basis, it will be nice to save drink prices with a sort of profile of each place within the app. That way a user could simply select a profile and the saved drink prices would appear and you would be set to go.
If you don't like surprises at the end of a fun night out and are responsible enough to set limits for yourself, this app could really come in handy for you.
