Shift Control is the only section that runs while you are open. Inventory is weekly and Labor is mostly planning and close. This is the one your managers touch on a Saturday night, in the middle of service, usually on a phone.

What it is for

Most of what a bar loses does not show up in a report. It happens on the floor, at the register and at the safe, and it is gone by the time anyone looks. Shift Control catches those things while they are still facts rather than arguments: who was short, what got comped, what was spilled, what broke, what happened.

Everything here is optional. A bar that does not reconcile drawers in Bar Cop simply does not use Cash Control, and Close The Week marks that row optional rather than nagging.

The nightly rhythm

1. Before doors, run the Pre-Shift Briefing and the opening checklist.
2. During service, log the exceptions as they happen: voids, comps, walked tabs, waste, anything worth a record.
3. At close, count the drawers and run the closing checklist.

None of it is a form to fill in later. Logged in the moment is the whole point, which is why these screens are built for a device in your hand.

What it feeds

• Cash over and short on Close The Week.
• Voids and comps on your Hub and in the Profit Audit.
• Loss Prevention and the theft signals in Profit Recovery.
• Waste feeds back into inventory as stock that left without a sale.

Cash

Cash Control

The one place you handle cash: drops, the safe, and counting a drawer down. Built for a phone at the safe.

Add Registers

Every register in your operation: the main bar, a service bar well, each floor register. Optional to set up by hand, because dropping a drawer report on Close The Week offers to create each register it finds, keeping your POS's own spelling.

Cash History

The read-only record of every cash move: drops, safe activity and drawer variances.

What went out the door

Void and Comps

Your exception transactions. Logged per shift, they become a pattern rather than a pile of receipts, and they are one of the strongest theft signals Bar Cop reads.

Walked Tabs

Real money out the door: a customer who leaves without paying, a mis-billed check, a lost ticket.

Waste and Spills

Product that left the building without making you a dime: a spill, a broken bottle, a dumped drink, an expired item. Logging it is what stops it turning up later as variance nobody can explain.

Things you will want a record of

Incidents

When something happens on the floor that you would want a record of later, log it while it is fresh. It is a record-keeping aid, not legal advice.

Maintenance

Equipment breaks and falls through the cracks between shifts. This is where it stops doing that.

Licensing

Tracks your permits and licenses by renewal date so none of them lapse. Add each with its type, next renewal date and recurrence, and Bar Cop watches the calendar. More than 30 days out is On Track, inside 30 days is flagged, inside 14 is more urgent, and past the date is Expired. Anything due soon or expired also shows on your Hub under Needs Attention, naming the permit and how long it has left.

Bar Cop tracks the dates you enter. It does not verify that a permit or license is valid, current, or accepted by any agency, and it is not legal advice. Confirm requirements and deadlines with your issuing agency.

Marking one renewed sets the next date and nothing else. What the renewal cost is a bill like any other and lands on your P&L through Close Books, so it is not entered twice.

The routine

Build Checklists

Where you create every checklist Bar Cop uses. Write them once, in your own words, for your own bar.

Run Checklists

Where a manager runs the opening and closing routine each shift.

Pre-Shift Briefing

The line-up sheet, read to the floor before doors. What is 86'd, what to push, who is on, anything the crew needs before service.

Every screen here has its own step-by-step directions in the app. Open the screen and tap the i in the top bar.