Bar stock taking: a simple routine, and a free stock sheet

Suppose your bar starts with 48 bottles of malt, receives another 24, sells 30 and records two breakages. You should have 40 bottles left. You count 36.

The four-bottle difference needs an explanation. It does not tell you, by itself, what happened.

This example shows what a stock sheet is for: putting the physical count beside the records, so you know which questions to ask. The free Excel stock sheet does the calculation for up to forty items.

Work out what should be there

For each item:

Expected count = opening count + deliveries + stock moved in − stock moved out − recorded sales − recorded waste and breakage.

In our example: 48 + 24 − 30 − 2 = 40 bottles.

The sheet subtracts the expected count from the actual count: 36 − 40 = −4. A negative number means fewer units than expected; a positive number means more.

If each bottle cost ₦800, the difference is −₦3,200 at cost. That is a value to investigate, not proof of money stolen or lost sales.

Make the count comparable

Count before opening or after closing when possible. If service continues, record sales, deliveries and stock movements during the count so you can bring the figures to the same cutoff.

Use one unit for each item. If the sheet counts beer in bottles, convert every crate received into bottles before entering it. For spirits, a bottle-equivalent count can work: half a bottle is 0.5. Convert recorded measures into the same unit; thirty measures sold does not mean thirty bottles sold.

Have one person count and another record or independently check the count. Include stock in the store, fridge and serving area, or clearly mark which location the sheet covers.

Write down the count time. If you count at 8am and a crate arrives at 9am, that delivery belongs after the count. Including it in the records but not the physical count creates an apparent shortage.

Follow the four bottles

Before drawing a conclusion, check:

• Was the opening count correct, and did you count every storage location?
• Did the delivery contain the quantity recorded? Was it entered on the correct side of the cutoff?
• Was stock moved to another bar or the kitchen without an entry?
• Were all sales entered under the correct item and quantity?
• Were breakages, waste and complimentary drinks recorded?
• Does the same item appear twice under different names?

For mixed drinks, also check the recipe and serving measure. A recipe expecting 25ml will not explain stock used in 35ml pours.

If the four bottles were moved to the restaurant, record the transfer and keep its explanation. If you still cannot explain them, leave the difference visible and give someone responsibility for following it up. Do not change the opening figure just to make the sheet balance.

Decide what to count more often

Choose a schedule based on the value of the stock, how quickly it moves and how often differences appear. Expensive spirits or items with repeated discrepancies may need a more frequent count than slow-moving sealed stock.

Keep earlier sheets. Repeated differences help you decide where to investigate, but repetition alone does not establish a cause. A wrong recipe or unit conversion can produce the same discrepancy every time.

Use the stock sheet

Enter the unit, cost per unit, opening count, receipts, movements, sales and waste. Enter the physical count last. The sheet shows the expected quantity, the difference and its value at cost. Use the reason column for an explanation or the next check.

Janus can draw stock down from the recipes attached to recorded bar and restaurant sales. The physical count still matters: it tests whether those records agree with what is on the shelf. See how stock control works.