What you need instead of an integration
Check whether your register can export a sales report by item for the days you count. With that report, your distributor invoices, your last count and your drink recipes, you can estimate what should be on the shelf.
- Last count: what was on the shelf the last time you counted.
- Invoices: everything that came in since then.
- Sales by item: everything that went out, in drinks.
- Your recipes: how much liquor goes in each drink.
How to work out what should be on the shelf
For each bottle, start with last count, add what came in, and take away what you sold. Turn drinks into ounces with your recipe, then ounces into bottles.
Example, with made-up round numbers. Last week you counted 4 bottles of your house vodka, 1 liter each. An invoice shows 6 more came in on Tuesday. The sales report shows 60 vodka drinks at 1.5 oz each, which is 90 oz. A 1 liter bottle holds about 33.8 oz, so 90 oz is about 2.7 bottles.
4 plus 6 minus 2.7 is 7.3 bottles. That's what should be on the shelf. If you count 6.3, you're a full bottle short, and that's the one worth asking about.
Getting the sales report every week
Look for the report in your register's back office. It's usually called something like product mix, item sales or sales by item. Run it for the same days as your count: Monday to Sunday if you count on Monday morning. If your register supports scheduled reports, set one up so you don't have to remember.
Check that the item names match your shelf. If the register says "Well Vodka" and you pour two different brands in the well, write down which one is in there this week.
Where this goes wrong
- Comps and spills that never got rung in. Keep a sheet behind the bar and write them down.
- Heavy pours. A 2 oz pour on a 1.5 oz recipe uses a third more liquor than the report shows.
- Invoices that never made it to the office. If a delivery isn't added in, the bottles look like they walked out.
- Counting on different days. The sales report and the count have to cover the same days.