About Bar Cop

Bar inventory software built by an operator, since 2004.

Bar Cop was founded by Kyle Odom, who has done nearly every job in a bar and spent years auditing other people's bar inventory for a living. He built the software for himself first, and still runs Bar Cop today.

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Where It Started

It started behind the bar.

Kyle started at fourteen shucking oysters for cash under the table, then cooked, tended bar and waited tables before opening his own place at twenty-two. He has done nearly every job there is in a bar, and he kept bartending off and on for years afterwards because he liked it.

The First Version

The first Bar Cop was a spreadsheet.

Nothing on the market did what he needed, so he built his own tools to run inventory in his restaurant and hold his pour cost down. Years later, that spreadsheet became Bar Cop, and in March 2004 it went online as one of the first bar inventory programs on the internet.

The Work

He counted other's bars for a living.

After selling his place, Kyle started auditing bars and restaurants on site, by hand, with that spreadsheet. He counted somebody else's shelf and then told them where their money had gone. Every gap Bar Cop looks for now is one he found running his own place, walking other's bars, and crunching the numbers.

How It Grew

Then it became the whole back office.

Over the years, Bar Cop changed from only tracking inventory to what actually puts money back in your pocket every month. That change turned into the rest of it: closing the week, the audits, the floor tools, menu costing, events and the books, every one of them built on the same inventory count.

The Long View

One of the first, and still here.

2004 online since

Bar Cop has been online since March 2004, one of the first bar inventory tools on the internet. A great deal of software has come and gone in the years since. This one is still run by the operator who built it, and still built for the independent restaurant and bar.

Run It For Yourself

Run what he built.

Get Bar Cop   → Or try the live demo first. No signup needed.
Straight Answers

Questions people ask.

What operators want to know about who is behind the tool they are trusting.

Who makes Bar Cop?
Kyle Odom, an operator rather than a software company. He has done nearly every job in a bar since he was fourteen, spent years auditing other people's inventory on site for a living, and he still runs Bar Cop himself. There are no investors behind it and no board to answer to.
How long has Bar Cop been around?
It went online in March 2004, which makes it one of the first bar inventory tools on the internet, and it had already been doing the same job by hand for local bars before that. A great deal of software has come and gone in the years since. This one is still here.
Is Bar Cop a big software company?
No, and that is deliberate. It was never built to be the biggest name in the room. It was built to do the job an operator actually needs, sold straight to the operators who use it, and kept small enough that the person who wrote it still answers the email.
Does Bar Cop have investors?
None. Nobody has put money in and nobody is waiting to get money out, so there is no pressure to add a tier, chase a chain, or sell the thing to somebody who would. What you pay is the only money in the business, which is why the pricing is one line.
Who was Bar Cop built for?
The independent operator. It was built by one, for the bars and restaurants with no corporate office and no back-office team, where the person who needs the numbers is also the person working the floor on a Friday night.
What does Bar Cop do now, beyond inventory?
Inventory is still the foundation and everything else is built on the same count: closing your week, four audits that score how the place is run, the floor tools for schedules, hours, tips and drawer cash, menu costing, events and catering, and your books. You turn on what you want.
Who do I reach when something breaks?
The person who wrote it. Support is not a queue, a chatbot or a team that turns over, and there is no tier that buys you a faster answer. Email support@barcop.com, or send it from inside the app where a bug report already carries the screen you were on.
Do you sell my data?
No. Bar Cop makes money one way, the subscription you pay. Your numbers are not sold, rented or handed to anybody, and they are not pooled into a benchmark that gets sold back to you. That has not changed in over twenty years and it is not going to.
Why does it matter that an operator built it?
Because the arguments were had before the code was written. Why weighing bottles is not the best way for an operator to count inventory, whether stock you took in but have not counted is on your shelf yet, what a spot check is actually for. Get one of those wrong and every number built on top of it is wrong as well.
Is Bar Cop still being worked on?
Constantly, and by the same person. Screens get rebuilt when operators say they are awkward, numbers get corrected when one turns out to be measured the wrong way, and none of it arrives as a version you have to install. You log in and it is already there.