Bar Cop is the leading inventory control + theft prevention software application for bars and restaurants since 1998.

Setting up inventory products

When you first start using Bar Cop, you need to setup your products. Products are broken down into 6 main categories: liquor, wine, bottle beer, draft, beer, food, and miscellaneous. *If you do not want to track a specific type of product, then you will not use that category.

Important: We recommend putting products in alphabetical order in product setup.

There are two main reasons do this:

1) The order that your products are placed in product setup will be the same order they are listed in most of the program: reports, purchases, orders, pricing, data entry forms, etc. It is much easier to find products in these places when they are entered alphabetically.

2) Your inventory locations are setup independently. In these areas you can put your products in the exact order that they are placed on shelves. To do this, you will use drop-down lists that are populated with the products exactly as they are entered in product setup. It is easier to find products in the drop-down list when they are in alphabetical order.

Let's start setting up your products.

When you first go to "Product Setup", your product category sections will be blank. First add the total number of product rows needed (see adding and deleting rows) before starting to add product data.

For Bar Cop to function correctly, it needs to know basic information about the products you will be selling. Columns you enter information into will be light grey in color. White columns are automatically populated by the software. At the top of each column is the column header ie. "Liquor Products", "Bottle Cost", "Pour Size", etc. To find out what data to enter into each column, click the "+" icon next to each column header and an information box will open with a description and example.

Bar Cop adding new products 1

Continue from one column to the next entering your product information. You can enter information by manually typing it in, using voice command (see voice command data entry) to enter numerical data, and paste your product data into Bar Cop from an outside Excel spreadsheet (see how to copy and paste data). *If copying product names from Excel, make sure they are in the order that you want before copying and pasting the data into Bar Cop.

Warning: Do not paste a column of data (ie. product names) from an outside Excel spreadsheet into product setup before you have added the number of product rows needed (see adding and deleting rows). For example: If you have 120 product names in your Excel spreadsheet, make sure you add at least 120 product rows in product setup first.

Bar Cop add products 2

Note: Each product can only be entered into setup one time with a standard pour (or serving) size and regular price. If you have pour size variations and they are cost out correctly based on the size and regular price entered in setup, then theoretical sales and variance data will be calculated accurately. If size variations are not cost out correctly, then sales adjustments (see entering sales adjustments) should be made to avoid getting inflated variance and theoretical sales numbers. To cost out pour size variations, drink mixes, and food plates correctly, use the pricing tool (see using the pricing tool).

Once you have your product names entered, setup your vendor names by clicking the gear icon.

Bar Cop setting up products 4

When you have your vendor names setup, select one for each corresponding product.

Bar Cop setting up products 4

Vendor names, product sizes (ie. bottle size, keg size, case size), and density are entered by selecting the correct option from drop-down menus. To make setup faster, you can use copy and paste (see how to copy and paste data) to quickly enter duplicate data entries.

When you are finished setting up your products, you product setup will look similar to this. *Setup will look slightly different if you are not weighing products and/or depending on what product section you are setting up.

Bar Cop setting products 8

Setting up batch products.

If you make batch products like Margarita mix, specialty shot, etc. you can easily track those batch mixes as individual products. To do this, the process is slightly different in setup and received purchases (see entering received purchases).

For example: If you sell frozen Margaritas from a one gallon batch mix, you do not enter the items that go into the mix individually in setup (unless those items can also sold as individual products). The product is the Margarita batch, the bottle cost is the total cost to make the batch, and the bottle size would be one gallon (or whatever the ending size of the completed batch is). The rest of setup for a batch product is completed just like any other bottle product.

Bar Cop setting products 8

Once you have setup your products setup in each main category that you are using, you need to do a quick customization of your inventory locations (see setting up inventory locations).

Moving a product to a new row.

IMPORTANT: Once a product's name has been entered into a specific row in product setup, that product is attached to that row throughout the program. If you want to move a product to a new row in the future, you CANNOT copy the product name and then paste it into a new row. Doing so will cause a #REF error that cannot be undone.

To move a product from it's original row to a new row, first add the new row where you want to move the product to and then manually type the product name and corresponding information into the new row. Lastly go back to the original row, select that product name and then delete the row.

Things to know:

1) A product name can only be entered into product setup one time. If you carry the same product brand in different sizes, the product names need to be entered with a slight variation. For example: If you carry standard (fifth) and one Liter bottles of the same product, enter one product name as "Brand Name (fifth)" and the other product name as "Brand Name (Liter)" or similar.

2) Adding or deleting products from your inventory is always done in product setup (see adding and deleting products).

3) Inventory locations are setup independently from product setup. We recommend entering products in setup in alphabetical order to make setting up inventory locations faster (see setting up inventory locations).

4) You can enter your product setup data using voice command (see voice command data entry), with the exception of product names. For example: Using voice command to enter Dewars may input a misspelling "doers" in the cell. So if you are using voice command, expect that you will need to type in product names or paste them from an outside Excel file and then the rest of the product information can be entered using voice command.

5) When setting up your products, remember to save regularly (see saving your inventory files).

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