Managing inventory levels at a bar or another type of hospitality business can be tricky. That’s especially true for establishments that have a lot of customers during peak hours and generate good revenue from beverage sales. Speaking of beverage sales, it’s common for businesses in the restaurant industry to have a higher profit margin for drinks compared to dishes. Thus, in order to guarantee restaurant success or the prosperity of another type of business, proper bar inventory management is a must. Nowadays, there are multiple types of software that help in that regard. These solutions can make the bar inventory management process much easier and way more efficient. In this post, we’ll shed some light on the trends in bar inventory tracking and management and how business owners can minimize losses and automate the process. Make sure to also read our posts on how to open a bar and is owning a bar profitable.
Key takeaway: Bar inventory management is done with modern software solutions. These innovative platforms help businesses to track stock levels, generate reports, and analyze sales trends.
What Is Bar Inventory Management
Managing bar inventory is a complex process that includes several procedures related to tracking, optimizing, auditing, and controlling stock levels of beverages and other items. Thanks to proper bar inventory management, businesses can reduce waste, maximize profitability, and ensure proper stock levels. In the past, bar inventory audits were done on spreadsheets, and the process was much more difficult. Nowadays, thanks to innovations and the latest restaurant technology trends, managing bar inventory is much easier. In fact, modern platforms and solutions allow managers to track and analyze inventory in real-time. Nevertheless, doing physical measurements of open bottles is also part of the process. But there are tools and bar scanners that make this activity much faster and more precise.
Why Bar Inventory Management Matters
There are multiple reasons why restaurant businesses need to manage their bar inventory properly. This allows them to reduce losses from overpouring, spillage, and other reasons for inventory shrinkage. Furthermore, tracking and analyzing bar inventory can help a company forecast demand and limit the chance of stockouts and all losses resulting from that. Controlling pour costs is very important, especially for beverages with multiple ingredients like cocktails or espresso drinks (latte, cappuccino, and macchiato). Thanks to tracking the costs of stock and sales, businesses can have a proper price policy and maintain their profit margin levels.
What’s Included in the Bar Inventory Management Process
There are several key processes in the complex bar inventory process. Let’s examine the main ones.
- Inventory planning and initial tasks like setting par levels, creating inventory sheets, organizing categories and items in the restaurant inventory management software, and more.
- Regular audits and physical counts to measure whether there are discrepancies between sales data and inventory.
- Calculating pour costs and assessing the profitability of beverage sales as well as potential losses due to overpouring, theft, or other inventory shrinkage practices.
- Ordering and restocking bar inventory based on current stock levels. Modern inventory solutions can be integrated with B2B sales platforms like BlueCart.
- Analysis and performance review to determine which are the most profitable beverages and whether certain drinks should be replaced on the menu.
What Are Bar Inventory Systems and Apps
These are software solutions that help manage bar inventory of restaurants, coffee shops, hotels, or other businesses in the hospitality niche market. Thanks to these systems, businesses can manage bar inventory more efficiently and analyze their performance. The difference between bar inventory solutions and other types of inventory software is that these apps have various features that are specifically designed to help hospitality businesses. Compared to old-school bar inventory practices, these platforms are more accurate, save a lot of time, and improve the profitability of businesses. They also help businesses by reducing human errors, minimizing waste related to spoilage or overordering, and aiding in tax reporting and other regulatory compliance.
Functions of Bar Inventory Software
Bar inventory management solutions have dozens of features. Some of them might be more suitable for wine bars, while others are important for establishments that serve a lot of cocktails. However, the most important features are used virtually by all businesses that serve beverages. Here are the main functions of bar inventory systems.
- Inventory tracking of beverages and different types of bar supplies. Monitoring real-time stock levels.
- Analytical capabilities that identify losses and compare expected vs actual usage.
- Cost controls that help set profitable drink prices. Especially important during times of restaurant inflation.
- Sales integration with POS solutions and other types of sales tracking software.
- Manual or automated ordering of items that are near or below par levels.
- Reporting tools with reports on important metrics like usage, profitability, and inventory levels. Most bar inventory management platforms also allow managers to create custom reports based on their needs.
Frequently Asked Questions about Bar Inventory
Whether you’re looking for resources on restaurant marketing and restaurant customer acquisition or wish to know more about how to manage bar inventory properly, BlueCart is the right place. We have hundreds of articles on a variety of topics. Check out our answers to common questions regarding bar inventory management.
What Is the Bar Inventory Cost Formula?
Bar inventory cost = cost of goods sold / total bar sales. Although this formula is used to calculate bar inventory cost as a whole, it can also be used to calculate a single product or specific category. Keep in mind that in order for the formula to be correct, you need to pick a long enough time period. For bars and restaurants with good revenue and inventory turnover ratio, a period of one month is usually enough. Keeping track of bar inventory costs is especially important during times of high inflation, as that can significantly reduce a bar’s profitability.
How to Do a Bar Inventory Audit?
It’s not enough to simply track bar inventory with software solutions. Instead, businesses should audit their inventory in order to guarantee that the data they have is accurate. Here are the steps to do bar inventory audits.
- Prepare for the audit by having the right templates, spreadsheets, or automated inventory scanner solutions;
- Choose the right time to audit stock levels;
- Do a first count to measure the starting bar inventory;
- After a set period of time (usually two weeks), do a second count which measures the ending inventory;
- Calculate inventory usage by adding received inventory between the two counts;
- Compare the data to POS and other bar sales data.
What Are the Main Product Categories in a Bar?
Companies divide their bar inventory into different categories based on their business needs. For example, a pub might divide beer sales into draft and bottled or imported and domestic beers. On the other hand, a wine bar is likely to separate its bar inventory based on the multiple wine categories. The main categories of alcoholic beverages are usually spirits, wine, and beer. Non-alcoholic beverages can also be classified into different categories, such as coffee, tea, and soda. Bars also track the inventory of wholesale barista supplies, cocktail ingredients, and more.
BlueCart: The Restaurant and Bar Inventory Solution You Need
Throughout the years, BlueCart has been a preferred software for specialized and broadline distributors. Our tool also has multiple features for businesses in the food and beverage industry, from the ability to find suppliers on our wholesale marketplace to features related to tracking restaurant and bar inventory. If you’re a restaurant manager or operate another type of business in the hospitality industry, sign up for BlueCart today. Wholesale distribution companies can schedule a demo and witness how BlueCart can help their wholesale sales and automation of processes.