Goodbye madness, hello bar inventory happy place.

Absolutely, you can weigh your inventory. You can weigh your liquor bottles, wine bottles, and draft beer kegs. You can use Keyboard Wedge software and a compatible scale (USB, Bluetooth, RS-232) that connects to your computer to automatically transfer weights into Bar Cop or optionally any regular basic scale. If using a regular scale, weights can be entered into Bar Cop either by voice command or manually typing. A scale to weigh bottles needs to have an "Ounces" only unit of measurement option and weight capacity of about 10 lbs. A keg scale needs to have a large base (12x15 should be minimum size) and weigh capacity of a minimum of 320 lbs.

Maybe. If you want to use a scale that connects to your computer via USB, Bluetooth, or RS-232 you have to also have Keyboard Wedge software that is compatible with the scale. You can optionally use a normal scale (needs an ounces only unit of measurement option) and enter weights using voice command or manually typing.

Learn more about weighing your inventory.

With compatible Keyboard Wedge software and the computer you are using supports Bluetooth you should be able to. However, in general we do not recommend using a Bluetooth scale because of potential signal issues. A wire connected USB or RS-232 scale will be more reliable.

Learn more about weighing your inventory.

Not at all. In fact weighing with either a connected scale or normal scale and voice command takes only a few seconds each bottle.

No, trying to track drink recipes isn't an accurate or efficient way to take inventory. Why? Theoretically for it to work, you would have to have every recipe of every drink known entered in your inventory software and also your POS system. If you managed to accomplish that, then you would have to rely on your bartenders to hit the correct drink key, every single time. With potentially 1,000's of drink variations now in your POS - that just isn't going to happen.

In reality most POS systems have a button for each of their liquor types with up charges for the more expensive brands and possibly some specialty drink keys - making it impossible to track by drink recipes without a complete POS revision. As long as your mixed drinks are cost out correctly (mixed drink prices should be calculated using a standard shot size/price for each liquor poured in the drink) and your bartenders charge the correct price (not always hit the correct drink key) then your liquor will always be tracked accurately by comparing total sales versus total usage. Bar Cop will help you cost out your drinks correctly and track your inventory efficiently.

You can have up to 8 inventory locations in each main product category. So liquor, wine, bottle beer, draft beer, food, and miscellaneous categories will have their own independent inventory locations.

Yes! Every inventory location can have products arranged in the exact order that they are placed on your shelves or in coolers. So if you have 4 different inventory locations for liquor, example: a main bar, patio bar, and two storage areas. Each one of those four inventory locations can be arranged completely different than the others.

Weighing is by far the most accurate way to take inventory and there is still a 2% margin of error. This means that you will be in the 98-100% accuracy range with your inventory numbers. Point counting, slider apps, eye-balling... all of these methods are based on visually guessing how much product is left and have on average a 12-15% margin of error. With these methods you will usually be in the 85-88% accuracy range.

No expensive handhelds, scanners, or other complicated devices are necessary. A laptop, large tablet, or any computer with a PC version of Microsoft Excel 2013 or newer installed is all that you need. Bar Cop is optimized for a screen resolution of 1920x1080, however will work on screen resolutions of 1360x768 and higher. No internet connection needed to use Bar Cop (except to access online help documentation). If you want to enter data using voice command then you will need a headset and MS speech recognition (it's free) installed on your computer. If you want to weigh your liquor, wine, and draft beer products, you will need Keyboard Wedge software and a compatible scale - learn more. 

*Bar Cop is not compatible with the Apple version of Excel. To use Bar Cop on an Apple computer, you will need to install Windows PC Excel 2013 or later and run it on Mac Boot Camp or Parallels.

Voice command is simply talking to Bar Cop and telling it the numerical data that you want to enter. To use voice command - you will need a good quality headset with a noise cancelling microphone. A good headset doesn't have to be expensive, we like the brand Koss and use the CS100 which costs around $20.  Try a few different ones until you find one that works well for you. You will also need Microsoft's speech recognition installed on your computer (it probably already is). When you have those two things, read the using voice command help doc to get started. Once you are setup, start entering data by talking. It makes inventory lightning fast.

The product report breaks down each product's cost per pour or serving, cost percent, how much potential profit that product has at your current standard price, and more data that you can use to potentially adjust pricing for better profit margins.

The pricing calculator gives you quick insight to how individual pricing changes would effect that product's profit margin and cost percent, without having to change data in product setup. You can change a product's price up or down to compare against your current standard price to see if a real pricing change would make sense or not.

The pricing tool looks at the bigger picture, pricing out mixed drinks or food plates correctly. With the pricing tool you can enter the product mix to calculate an optimal sell price range based on the individual product prices that are included in the mix.

A product mix, in the case of a mixed drink would be the drink recipe. The price you sell your mixed drinks for should be cost out based on the standard price and pour size of each product that is included in that recipe. This ensures that you are not leaving profit on the table and your inventory will always be tracked accurately.

When you receive product into your stock during an inventory period, you will enter those purchases as part of the inventory process. Bar Cop will compare the purchases prices from one order to the next, showing you price differences from one order to the next so you can quickly adjust sell prices if needed to maintain healthy profit margins.

After received purchases are entered, Bar Cop calculates a purchase report that creates a new averaged cost for each product that is updated at the start of each new inventory period. This makes sure that product price fluctuations are always taken into account when compiling final inventory data.

At the end of each inventory period, you can adjust for happy pricing, discounted drinks, voids, spillage, or anything else you want to. When you make an adjustment for a product, the adjusted amount is factored into the calculated theoretical sales of that product. This is important, because you want the calculated theoretical sales to be as accurate as possible when comparing to your actual register sales.

When you carry too much on-hand inventory it ties up cash in stock sitting on the shelf, which can create cash flow issues. Holding onto inventory that has a slow turnover rate hurts cash flow and growth.

It sounds like a good idea - buy in bulk and save a little money on the cost per bottle. You have to really look at your product turnover rate to see if the upfront savings are worth it. If you turnover at least 6 bottles a week then ordering by the case would make sense. If you buy a case of Scotch to save $20 and that product turns over a bottle every couple of months, the savings won't beat tying up the cash flow.

Bar Cop tracks your product usage from one inventory period to the next, averaging out each product's usage over a period of time. Dynamic par levels are then calculated factoring in a set par multiplier (can be changed at any time) and perfect orders are created based on that data.

Yes, par levels can be adjusted for any product. Example: If running a product special, you can increase that product's par for one order.

Par levels are the number of each product you should have in your inventory at the start of each new inventory period. Par levels in Bar Cop are dynamic because they automatically adjust from one inventory period to the next based on each products historical usage history. This ensures that as a product starts to trend with higher sales or sales start to slow down, your orders are always adjusting to quickly compensate for these changes. Bar Cop's order management keeps you from ordering too much or too little stock. 

Bar Cop has a built-in par multiplier that allows you to quickly adjust your par levels for circumstances like seasonal slowdowns or busier times of the year. The par multiplier is your safety net calculation for each product category. For instance, a "2" par multiplier for liquor means you want to carry 2 times your average usage giving you a good ordering safety net. If winter is a busier time of year for you, then you can change your par multiplier to "2.5", "3", etc. to raise your safety net during those months.

Bar Cop automatically creates final orders based on the calculated par level of each products (taking into account your par multiplier and any individual par adjustments you make). To order, filter your products by vendor name and then you can quickly export that order in Excel or PDF to email to your vendor or print any orders that you need to fax.

Theoretical sales are the calculated sales numbers in Bar Cop based on each product's actual usage from the start of an inventory period until the end of the inventory period. In other words, a product's theoretical sales are what should have been rang into your register based on how much of that product was used/poured/served.

The theoretical sales calculated by Bar Cop are used to determine if you have a theft problem and how bad that problem actually is. If a bartenders pours a product that has a retail sales value of $5.00 and puts that $5.00 in his pocket your POS system or cash register will not show you that when running your sales report.

Bar Cop on the other hand will know that product was poured and includes the $5.00 that should have been rang into your register in the theoretical sales. If you compared your actual register sales to the calculated theoretical sales in this example, the theoretical sales would be $5.00 more than what was rang into your register, showing you that you lost $5.00 in retail sales.

Variance dollars and percentages are two of the most important numbers the Bar Cop gives you. Variances are the difference between your actual sales and the calculated theoretical sales, or the amount of retail profit you lost to theft, over-pouring, giving away product, etc.

An acceptable variance percentage (and standard for the industry) is 5% and under. This 5% variance percentage takes into account the small margin of error when weighing products, normal spillage/waste that isn't accounted, etc. A variance over 5% means you might have theft issues, with the higher the percentage number equating to bigger theft. A typical bar on average has a 20% variance when an accurate inventory system is not in place.

The first step is taking an accurate inventory with Bar Cop by weighing your open products. You can optionally point count with Bar Cop, however inventory methods like point counting, slider apps, weightless inventory, eye-balling, etc. are all visually estimating and have a margin of error much greater than the 5% variance you should be targeting. Because the margin of error is so large, you'll never know if or how bad of a theft problem you really have. The second step is shift checking your bartenders.

The shift check feature in Bar Cop allows you to take inventory of any liquor or wine product before and after a bartender's shift and compare each products usage against their register sales. This gives you a quick insight to your bartenders pour habits and keeps bartenders honest when they know you can shift check them at any time without notice.

Think of counting your inventory as the tool and usage reports are the final results after you finish building something. Usage reports give you the big picture of what is really happening in your establishment after an inventory period is complete. The data metrics that product usage reports provide will help guide you to making better and more profitable decisions.

This report breaks down each product's usage from the start of an inventory period until the end, showing you exactly how many pour or servings where made, how much the product's usage cost, and the theoretical sales based on that usage (otherwise how much should have been rang into your register based on true usage).

Bar Cop takes the product totals from the usage data report and keeps historical records of the last 12 inventory periods that automatically update in each new inventory file. This gives you a snapshot overview of each categories product usage totals to quickly compare from one inventory period to the next.

At the end of each inventory period, you can see your starting inventory cost values, cost of purchases values, cost of goods used, and ending inventory cost values for every product in each main category. Next to each of the 4 listed cost values, Bar Cop also gives you the retail values for each so you can compare your cost values to potential retail sales.

The inventory most used report takes the theoretical sales data for each main category and compiles data of your top 20 used products. This catches products as they start to trend quickly, giving you the opportunity to boost profits with product specials and price increases.

The inventory least used report shows you products that are tying up cash flow sitting on the shelf and not selling, giving you the knowledge on what products can be liquidated. Getting rid of dead stock as quickly as possible frees up cash that can be used in better ways to grow profits.

Bar Cop tracks each product's historical usage for the past seven inventory periods, updating after each new inventory file, giving you an extended usage overview from one inventory period to the next. Each product's usage is then averaged for the previous seven inventory periods showing an accurate estimate for future usage.

The inventory stock check report looks at your product with the most on-hand inventory at the end of the inventory period and compares it to the product usage to determine if those products are holding excess inventory. If products have excess inventory, you can look at adjusting your orders and potentially liquidating stock to cash flow better. *Note if you use Bar Cop's built-in order management feature you will not have to worry about having excessive inventory on-hand.