Liquor inventory isn’t exactly the most enjoyable part of running a bar. It can be tedious work that eats up your time when there are always many more pressing issues to address. But doing liquor inventory is also an important tool to help you maximize the profitability of your bar, and it should not get overlooked simply because it is a bit of a chore.

When performed correctly using a modernized system, liquor inventory data can help you identify products which are underperforming, reduce shrinkage, and improve the efficiency of your bar. But if you are still going “old-school” and using a clipboard to take your liquor inventory, you are not only making the job harder, but you are missing out on the valuable data provided by an up-to-date inventory system such as Bar-i’s.

Still not convinced it’s time to update your liquor inventory system? Here are 5 problems with staying the course and doing liquor inventory the old-school way.

Your current inventory system only produces liquor cost and doesn’t allow you to measure or manage shrinkage.

The primary reason most bars take liquor inventory is to know how much stock they have on hand at the end of the month so that they can accurately calculate their monthly liquor cost. In this scenario, your accounting needs drive your motivation for doing liquor inventory.

The old way of performing liquor inventory (the “clipboard system”) accomplishes these accounting objectives, but it fails to help you accomplish the more important goal of identifying and improving underperforming products. Since this system doesn’t tell you what is missing, you lack the information necessary to measure shrinkage and develop solutions which will maximize the performance of every product sold at your bar.

The Bar-i Solution: Our system accurately calculates your liquor cost and breaks down performance product by product to help you determine what is missing and which products are performing poorly. This level of detail will help you more effectively manage your bar costs and maximize the performance of all products.

Your liquor cost is not consistent, which is a strong indicator that you have calculation errors.

Liquor cost rarely varies by more than 1% from period to period, so if you are noticing greater fluctuations in your cost, you most likely are experiencing calculation errors. Traditional liquor inventory systems do not provide you with the level of detail necessary to identify and correct these errors. As a result, the liquor inventory data you are receiving is not very useful.

The Bar-I Solution: Our liquor inventory system provides you with extremely detailed data, making it easier to spot any calculation errors. All of our reports and analyses are performed by independent professionals with extensive experience working with this data. When we notice errors, we will spend the time identifying and removing them to ensure you receive the most accurate data possible.

We have three more problems to highlight. To learn more about how an outdated liquor inventory system might be impacting your bar, please read Part 2 of this post.

If you are interested in updating to a more modern liquor inventory system, please contact Bar-i today to schedule your free consultation. We provide services to bars nationwide from our offices in Denver, Colorado.