Bar-i offers a range of liquor inventory services in order to address the unique needs of every bar. For some establishments, our full service inventory system is the best option. With this service, your dedicated Bar-i account manager performs every inventory audit for you and provides detailed reporting that compares what is sold vs. what is poured at your bar. This information can help you make the adjustments necessary to significantly reduce your liquor cost and maximize profitability.
If you’re not ready to invest in our full service inventory system, you can still experience a significant improvement in your inventory results using our Speed Count option. While this service won’t provide the same level of detailed data, it will significantly reduce the amount of time you spend on inventory and deliver extremely accurate results. For many small to medium sized bars looking for an effective and affordable inventory option, Speed Count provides great value.
The best way to determine the right option for your bar is to schedule a free consultation with Bar-i. But you can get an overview of the many benefits you’ll experience from our Speed Count option by reading the information below.
You will need a PC laptop that runs Microsoft Excel in order to use Speed Count. Intaddition, there is a one-time equipment and setup charge of $650. While there’s an upfront equipment cost to use this system, the three pieces of hardware included in this cost (a bottle scale, a keg scale and a bar code reader) will provide significant benefits to your operations. And after this initial setup fee, your monthly cost will remain at the affordable level of $50.
Many of these apps are still working on a system that brings up a picture of the bottle and then requires you to manually indicate the level on the side of the bottle. This is essentially a digital tenthing method, and the results provided by these systems are neither objective nor accurate. Alcohol is sold in 1.5 oz. increments. This means your measuring system should be at least this accurate, and preferably more accurate, in order to leverage the benefits you should expect from sophisticated inventory software.
Bar-i uses scales to measure the amount of alcohol left in open bottles. Our scales are accurate to the hundredth of an ounce, ensuring the highly accurate and objective results necessary to improve profitability.
Bars that are efficient and well-run typically have a set place for their inventory so that everything (wells, back bars, beer coolers, etc.) is always set up the same way. The reason for this organization is that it increases speed and efficiency of your bar’s operations.
Bar-i can set up the inventory map so that it follows the order that products are stored in your bar. Once we set up the system, counting becomes a one-step process of putting the bottle on the scale. The weight value is automatically updated onto the proper line in the spreadsheet, allowing you to go down the row and measure your bottles very quickly.
Other scan-based systems often require you to scan every bottle every single time you take inventory, resulting in a two-step process that takes significantly longer to complete. By taking advantage of our map-based counting system, you can significantly reduce the amount of time spent counting bottles. Your manager can then use this extra time saved to focus on the many other important tasks necessary to run your bar at optimal levels of efficiency.
It’s also very easy to change the order on Bar-i’s map in the event that you change the order of items behind the bar. As a result, you have the flexibility necessary to always leverage the time-saving benefits of our map-based counting system.
This process is significantly more efficient than app-based systems that don’t use barcode scanners. Because these app-based systems fail to provide any hardware integration, you must manually type in the name of the product.
For example, if you type in “Jamieson” into one of these app-based systems, there will be three different sizes to record (750 ml, 1 L, 1.75 L). In addition, there may be special editions such as black barrels. This makes the process of entering products into your system much more time consuming, clunky and potentially fraught with errors.
By using hardware that scans the barcodes already on the bottles, you can set up your system much quicker and with a significantly higher level of accuracy.
Many inventory systems contain two manual elements:
Bar-i’s system eliminates both of these annoying manual tasks, allowing you to save a lot of time and reduce the risk of errors. Our mapping system eliminates the need to manually search for the product when you’re recording levels for each bottle. In addition, our system automatically transfers the value from the scale to an Excel spreadsheet, providing a level of convenience that isn’t offered by most app-based systems.
There are several ways our system can help you reduce errors:
Speed Count will compare your current count with pars that get established. This allows Bar-i to determine what needs to be ordered each week. This ordering list is organized by distributor to make the ordering process easier and more efficient.
The report Bar-i generates for you provides product by product counts and values. You’ll see the following items in every report you receive:
This provides you with product by product detail in terms of what was counted and how much product is on hand during every inventory period.
The pro version of our Speed Count service gives you performance data at the product level, allowing you to compare what was poured vs. what was sold. Speed Count provides a lighter level of analytics – you’ll receive liquor cost by category, not by product.
This data is graphed so that you can see how your liquor cost is evolving over time.
The counting system is the same for both Speed Count and Speed Count Pro. If at any point in the future you decide you want to leverage the profitability tools provided by our pro version, you can easily upgrade without having to set up a whole new system. You’ll already have everything in place to start leveraging our high end service right away.
If you’d like to find out if Speed Count is the right inventory tool to help you improve your bar’s operations and maximize profitability, please contact Bar-i today to schedule a free consultation. We serve clients nationwide from our offices in Denver, Colorado.