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Bar-i Liquor Inventory Blog

Should I Get a Bar-i Full Service Liquor Inventory Trial?

At Bar-i, our goal is to help you make more money. We accomplish this goal by providing you with more accurate inventory services that compare what is sold to what is being poured.

If you’re not currently using software for your inventory, you’re not alone. Most bars still don’t have an effective process in place for their inventory efforts. When you’re taking inventory with a clipboard and simply calculating your liquor cost, you’re not actually using your inventory efforts to drive profits. If you’re doing at least $20,000 in bar sales per month, you can make a significant amount of extra money due to the reduction in your liquor cost that is typically achieved using our system.

Depending on your current bar sales and performance, you can most likely experience a substantial improvement in your bar’s profitability. In general, most bars we work with reduce their liquor cost by about 3%. For a bar doing approximately $20,000 in sales per month, this equates to a monthly savings of about $600. Our least expensive full service inventory option costs $300 per month, which would allow you to experience a 200% return on your investment (ROI).

Our bar inventory services can save you a significant amount of time in addition to helping you maximize profits. Once you get set up with Bar-i’s system, you can cut the amount of time you’re dedicating to physical inventory in half. That will free up your bar managers to focus on other aspects of running your business.

In addition to the time and money savings, you will experience a variety of other benefits from using Bar-i’s full service inventory system. Some of these include a reduction in the amount of money you have tied up in on-hand inventory and an automated ordering process that ensures you will always have the right amount of product on-hand at any given time.

If you think these benefits might be of value to your bar, then we strongly encourage you to consider scheduling a full service liquor inventory trial with Bar-i. You can learn a little more about what is included in this trial by reading the explanation below. To move forward with the process, please call (970) 281-7779 today.

The Problem with In-House Inventory Systems

There are a variety of problems with performing inventory in-house using a clipboard. These include:

  • Problems with taking bar inventory with a clipboardManual and inaccurate measurements – Measuring bottles using a tenthing method is very subjective and therefore not accurate enough to provide the actionable information necessary to drive profits.

  • Time wasted from an inefficient process – Often, the alphabetical list used to record data on your clipboard doesn’t match the order in which the products are organized behind your bar. By using software, we can save time by mapping out the bar so that the order in which products are organized on our spreadsheets matches the order in which they are organized behind the bar.

    This improves speed and accuracy. It also records the information directly into the software, eliminating the time-consuming data transfer step which can potentially increase your risk of entering errors into the process.

  • Error riddled results – Taking inventory with a clipboard creates multiple opportunities for human error to impact your results. A common result of these errors is a bouncing liquor cost. Using a sophisticated inventory system can help you avoid these errors and eliminate your bouncing liquor cost.

  • Results aren’t very useful – When you collapse the performance of many different products into a single liquor cost figure (which is common when doing inventory manually), it lacks the granularity necessary to find errors and to accurately evaluate the performance of each individual product you carry. This makes your liquor inventory data much less useful.

    For example, if you find that your liquor cost goes up 1-2% from the previous inventory period, you might question whether there was a calculation error which caused this spike since you have no way to verify your results. Even if this increase in liquor cost is accurate, you won’t have the information necessary to determine what caused your liquor cost to spike or what needs to be done to correct the issue. This kind of granular, actionable data can only be obtained when you use a sophisticated bar inventory system.

Get a Low Cost Demo of Bar-i’s Inventory System and Use the Detailed Results to Inform Your Next Steps

Bar-i full service liquor inventory trialThe starting price for a Bar-i full service inventory trial is usually $500, depending on the number of products you carry. This is a relatively small investment considering the upside associated with significantly increasing your profits over the course of a year.

Bar-i doesn’t make any money off of these initial trials. On average, we spend about 20 hours of work on your initial trial. At $500 for 20 hours of professionally done work, you are receiving this trial at a very reasonable cost. There is also no obligation to continue using our services, so you have very little to lose and a lot to gain by scheduling a trial.

What Will You Receive from a Bar-i Initial Trial?

As part of your initial trial, you’ll receive:

  • Benefits of Bar-i full service liquor inventory trialDown to the serving accuracy – We measure the usage of every product down to the serving so that you can see the performance of every single product you carry. We will compare what was poured vs. what was sold in order to determine how much of each product is missing during that inventory period.

  • Precisely calculated liquor cost – We’ll calculate your current liquor cost and compare it to a figure that we call your “achievable liquor cost,” which assesses what your optimal liquor cost could be based on the specifics of your bar. This is much more effective than comparing your current liquor cost to an arbitrary industry standard, and it provides you with a realistic goal to strive for.

  • Assess your current POS setup – We will evaluate how effectively your POS system is organized and identify opportunities to improve this organization. These improvements are easy to incorporate into your business even if you don’t continue using our services, and these tips on how to optimize your POS system will generally help you make more money by ensuring all drinks are being charged the proper price.

  • Assess current inventory on hand – Most bars are tying up more money in their on-hand inventory than they need to. We’ll give you an assessment of this and provide feedback regarding ways to free up some money so that you can invest it into other areas of your business.

  • Measure what products are missing – We will provide you with a detailed report explaining precisely how much of each product is missing. Most bar owners find that the amount of product missing is much larger than they had expected.

    By having the data explaining what is missing, you can make informed business decisions regarding how to improve performance moving forward. This data will also help you make an informed decision regarding whether Bar-i’s services can help you make significant improvements to your profitability.

What Does the Initial Full Service Liquor Inventory Trial Involve?

Your initial trial involves a multi-step process that provides you with a clear understanding of the types of services and results you can expect to receive if you continue working with Bar-i for an extended period of time. This process involves:

  • Performing two very detailed counts over a one- or two-week period – Everything in your bar will be counted. All open bottles will be weighed, ensuring the most precise measurements possible. This meticulous weighing process is what allows us to achieve our down to the serving accuracy.

  • Mapping out the bar and adding new products into the system – This ensures our counts are accurate and can be verified or double checked at a later date. If you continue using our service, all of this mapping setup will have been completed, allowing you to hit the ground running. Since this mapping was done at the discounted trial rate, it provides additional value and savings.

  • Writing recipes for every button in your POS system – This isn’t a generic process. All recipes are created specifically for your bar based on the way you serve your drinks. Factors such as the size of your wine pour, the amount of head you have on your beers, and the proportions of ingredients used in your signature cocktails will be considered when writing these recipes to ensure they are truly customized. This process will also identify any holes in your current POS system setup that can be addressed to ensure that moving forward your POS is organized in a way that will help you maximize profits.

  • Precisely accounting for deliveries – We will go through all of your invoices to make sure all deliveries are accounted for when calculating your usage during the inventory period. This process, combined with the accuracy achieved when we weigh open products on-hand, allows us to calculate usage down to the hundredth of an ounce for every product at your bar.

  • Verify results and provide our most detailed report of the performance of every product served at your bar – We’ll walk you through the process of how we arrived at our results and provide you with a detailed performance report which is specific to your bar. This is the most detailed level of reporting that we provide for our clients.

Next Steps after the Completion of Your Initial Inventory Trial

Bar-i bar inventory next stepsAs we stated earlier, there is no obligation to continue with our services after your initial inventory trial. If you decide that Bar-i’s services aren’t right for your bar, you are still free to use the information we provided you to make any changes necessary to improve performance and profitability.

However, if you feel that your bar would benefit from using Bar-i’s inventory services on an ongoing basis, you have several options to choose from:

  • Speed Count – If you determine that your bar is performing well and your current liquor cost is very close to your achievable liquor cost, then you may be able to meet your inventory needs with our Speed Count Since the setup has already been performed, it will be very easy to switch over to the Speed Count system. This option costs $50 a month. It provides you with a very fast way to perform inventory and it calculates your liquor cost. However, Speed Count does not provide the detailed report necessary to make changes that will improve profitability.

  • Full Service Inventory System – There are no upfront equipment costs for our full service system, and you don’t have to sign a contract. After your initial trial, we’ll let you know how much it will cost to perform your weekly or bi-weekly inventory audits. You can have as many additional audits done as you feel is beneficial to your bar. If you like the service, but aren’t sure whether you want to commit long term, you can schedule a few more audits to get a better sense of whether our service provides you with the ROI you’re looking for in a liquor inventory system.

  • Self Count – Bar-I also offers a hybrid option called Self Count. You can get the same results and detailed reports that are provided by our full service option, but for half the cost. We’re able to provide these services at a reduced cost since all counting is performed by your staff instead of by your Bar-i account manager. Keep in mind that there will be some up-front equipment costs if you choose the Self Count option.

If you’d like to schedule an initial inventory trial, please contact us today. Bar-i serves clients nationwide from our offices in Denver, Colorado.

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Topics: Liquor Cost, POS Systems, Liquor Inventory

  
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