How liquor cost works
Liquor cost is what the liquor you poured cost you, divided by what you sold it for. You need two counts, your invoices in between, and your liquor sales for the same days.
Say your last count was $4,200 of liquor at cost. You bought $2,600 more. Today's count is $3,900. So you went through $4,200 + $2,600 − $3,900 = $2,900 of liquor. If your liquor sales for those days were $14,500, your liquor cost is $2,900 ÷ $14,500 = 20%. Before taxes, you kept 80 cents of every dollar.
Liquor cost at a glance
What you went through, against $10,000 of liquor sales.
| Liquor you went through | Liquor cost | Kept from each $1 |
|---|---|---|
| $1,500 | 15% | $0.85 |
| $1,800 | 18% | $0.82 |
| $2,000 | 20% | $0.80 |
| $2,500 | 25% | $0.75 |
| $3,000 | 30% | $0.70 |
Why it's higher than you expect
- Heavy pours. A 2 ounce pour on a 1.5 ounce recipe is a third more liquor in every drink.
- Comps, spills and staff drinks that never ring up.
- A price went up on an invoice and the drink price didn't.
- An invoice that never got added, or a count on the wrong day, so the two dates don't match your sales.
Get a number you can trust
Count on the same day of the week, before you open, and use the sales from the same days the counts cover. Value the shelf at what you paid, not what it sells for. Check it after every full count. One bad week is noise. Three in a row means something changed.
The hard part is the counting and adding up every invoice. That's the part Rotely does for you.
More free tools
Pour cost calculator: what every pint, glass and shot really costs you. Par level calculator: how many of each bottle to keep on the shelf. Bar inventory count sheet: your bottles in shelf order, ready to print. See all free bar tools.