Maintaining an accurate bar inventory is critical to the success of any bar or restaurant. Inventory data ensures that you have enough stock to meet customer demand, as well as have the insights you need to eliminate waste and to improve your company’s profit margins.
Yet to gain these insights, and improve the visibility and control your bar has over its stock, inventory data must be accurate.
That’s why measuring your bar’s inventory manually is simply ineffective. Using manual methods to record inventory (like pen and paper or spreadsheets) is not only time-consuming, but it leads to inaccuracies that hold back your decision making capabilities.
The most successful and profitable bars scrap manual inventory management and instead use inventory management software in its place. However, to maximize inventory management software, bars still need to conduct accurate counts of their liquor inventory.
So how exactly can bars do that? In this blog, we take a look at the different methods of measuring bar inventory, why weighing is the most accurate and what you should look for when investing in a bar inventory scale.
What are the different methods of measuring liquor inventory?
Tenthing
The traditional method of measuring bar inventory is known as tenthing. This method involves manually taking up every bottle, and then eyeballing its contents to estimate the bottle weight to the nearest tenth. As you can imagine, this method is not only slow, but it leaves a lot of room for error since those counting your inventory are guessing at how much liquor is left in the bottle. Bottles that aren’t transparent are also incredibly difficult using this method, which leaves even further room for miscalculations.
Electronic tenthing
As technology has advanced, so has inventory counting methods for bars. Electronic tenthing has made traditional teething easier through the use of technologies to make more accurate estimates. With electronic tenthing, teams counting liquor inventory can upload images of their bottles into an inventory management system, where a line is placed on the image where the alcohol starts to determine how much is remaining in the bottle. While this is more accurate than traditional tenthing, it still leaves room for error with the vast majority of systems not recording accurate data.
Weighing
Weighing liquor inventory is the most accurate method of counting. To do this, employees simply place each liquor bottle onto a scale and then record the weight of the bottle by entering it into their inventory management system. Electronic scales can be integrated into inventory management systems, automating the entire process of weighing and recording data. This means weighing is not only incredibly accurate, but it’s much faster as well.
The benefits of weighing your bar inventory with an electronic scale
- Speed up your inventory counts
Manual inventory counts are time-consuming and laborious for your employees. This not only wastes company time, but it makes human error and inaccuracies far more likely to occur. An electronic scale will significantly speed up this process, and further integration with your inventory management system will give your business fast access to KPIs and metrics that drive your profit margins.
- Cut down on the manual calculations
Rather than recording information and then manually calculating your inventory usage by calculating the difference between the starting and end inventory of each liquor bottle, electronic scales that are integrated with your inventory management system automate this entire process for you. Simply put the bottle on the scale, and the weight of the bottle will be sent straight to your inventory management system - which will perform the calculations you need to gain important insights into your inventory usage.
- Record all your data in one central location
Are you tired of trying to find relevant spreadsheets and fragmented data to make improvements to how you manage your inventory? When you use an electronic scale that’s integrated with your inventory management system, you’ll be able to manage and access all inventory data from one single pane of glass. Not only is this more convenient for you, it makes it far more efficient to perform tasks like recipe creation, ordering and menu analysis.
- Focus on customer satisfaction
When you use an inventory management system and a bar inventory scale, you can ensure that your back-of-house runs like a well-oiled machine. That means restocking inventory is easy, adapting your menu based on customer demand is simple and your entire team spends less time struggling through backroom tasks. The results? Your employees have more time to focus on truly valuable jobs, like pleasing customers and ensuring your profit margins remain high.
Interested in learning more about how you can improve your bar’s profit margins through the implantation of an effective inventory management system and an electronic bar inventory scale? Get in touch with Sculpture Hospitality today. Our team of bar inventory management specialists would love to help.
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