Every week we are asked what are the ways bar owners could be losing money. We have come up with the 25 most common ways that your bar could be losing money.

1. Short Ring - Under-ring the correct price of item and pocket the
difference.

2. Phantom Register - Extra register put in bar and items not rung
in on main register.

3. Serve and collect while register is reading between shift
changes.

4. Claim a phony walk-out. Keep money received from
customer.

5. Phantom Bottle - Bartender brings in his own bottle and
pockets cash from the sale.

To get the rest of the list click here

To learn more how Scannabar's alcohol inventory software can start helping you save money today visit use at our website www.scannabar.com

The dictionary meaning of a dispenser is as follows: “a device that automatically dispenses a single item or a measured quantity” In the hospitality industry, we are sometimes faced with a decision; do we want our liquor to be poured by way of a dispensing unit? Do we want our bartenders to be “automatic” and potentially take away any flair our personable bar staff has to offer our patrons?

Liquor dispensers are designed to specifically pour a pre configured amount in a glass, no more, no less. There can be certain advantages:

1. Consistency of drinks
2. Controls over quantity poured
3. Less bartender training required

Liquor dispensers typically are available in two forms: guns & spigots.

Guns normally entail tubing to be run from the bar to an area where the liquor is poured into small vats. From there, as a product is selected at the bar, the liquor from the liquor room runs along the line into the patrons drinks. Many times, operators will limit the guns to rail product like vodka, gin, rum…or what we call high moving products.

Spigots or what can be best described as “time release valves” are systems in which a ring is placed around a nozzle on the bottle. When a portion of liquor is requested, the bottle is put through the activator ring, the lever is pressed and an electrical courant opens the valve to dispense a portion of liquid.

Although we may perceive these systems as the ultimate controls, there are a few things to consider: 

1. If you have several pouring stations, they can become cost prohibitive
2. They can be impersonal: clients still like to see a bartender pour a drink straight into a glass without all the “mechanics” involved
3. Sweet liquors have a tendency to crystallize and cause back ups in the lines and spigots thus requiring regular maintenance.
4. Lack of inventory: as much as these systems can dispense exact amounts, they still require a separate system to conduct regular liquor inventories

In the end, as an operator, the decision lies in both the financial areas but also the image and feel you want your establishment to portray, both certainly will have an impact on your business and this is certainly a decision that takes time and research before adapting.  

Walking the Show

Are you or members of your management team thinking of attending a tradeshow soon?

If yes, here are a few things you may want to consider:

1. What are the specific needs of the company? Is it hardware, software…?
2. Before attending, visit the host tradeshow’s website and look for products you may be need or looking for information on.
3. Locate companies that supply products you may be on the market for and make note of their booth number and website
4. It is a good idea to visit the website of the company(s) who has products you may be looking to purchase to better understand how they work and how they compare to the competition.
5. When you visit a booth, it is always best to ask questions and wait and see how the people in the booth respond. Are they knowledgeable and wanting to understand your needs or are they just there to collect names? Remember, what you see and meet at the show may be reflective of the service you will get in the future
6. If you find the product you are looking for and are ready to make a purchase, a tradeshow is a good place to negotiate a “good deal”

 With the upcoming Florida Restaurant show, it might be a good idea to visit their website; you can even sign up and get a free pass! So, if you are looking for a glass washer, a wine cellar or liquor inventory control software, doing your homework before the show certainly has its benefits.

Please visit us at this years Florida Resaurant and Lodging show on Spetember 12,13,14 2010 we will be in Booth #2144.

Hope we see you there!!

Wine inventory software

If you a re considering a wine inventory software, it is important your start from the basics and move up. Simple questions you should ask yourself:

• How extensive is my wine list?
• Will I serve wine only by the glass or also by the bottle?
• Does my wine inventory software need to manage multiple wine storage cellars?
• Can the wine inventory software I plan to purchase offer a feature that allows and suggest the best marriages between wine and the meal that is being served?
• Can my wine inventory software not only manage wines by region, color and grape varietal, but also by vintage?
• Can my wine inventory software flag me when a specific variety in inventory has reached its peak and ready to be served?
• Does my wine inventory software consider the purchase price of the wine and with age its update value?

Wine inventory software is a tool that can help you increase sales and decrease shrinkage. Simply know what needs to be ordered and how much needs to be ordered can avoid the sometimes embarrassing scenarios when we are out a variety, but it also helps us control the quantity we are buying. We must consider the following when buying wine, ordering to much wine of a certain variety or vintage can lead to overstocking and that creates a situation where our money is tied up in inventory and not working for us.

That being said, there are some wines that can appreciate in both flavor and value over time, that is where a strong inventory software can help you better manage what can be the most important and profitable facet of your business.

To confirm we are making progress in our profit making goals, we need targets and ways to measure the success or failures our business may be encountering. It is for this reason, we create budgets which will allow us to better monitor and take the corrective actions needed to reach our goals.

What is a budget? It a financial plan for a specific period, month, quarter, year...where we try to compare the sales we hope to make versus the costs associated to these sales.

The budget we create will at first be just a plan that details the sales we expect to make, costs and the desired profits. But as we enter the budget period, the budget takes on a new personality; it becomes one of our control tools that help us compare the actual results versus the desired results. The liquor, beer and wine inventory software we choose to collect the data is a crucial tool to assure the accuracy of the data we utilize to compare and reconcile our budget results.

We must realize our budgets will go through certain phases and the set of figures we input can change as our business environment evolves. In the first phase, we project the financial future in detail and make sales realistic forecasts, but changes do occur and we may be obliged to review our budgets as we enter our specific period.

In the last phase of the budget, we compare the data and we are then in a position to analyze areas that require more attention or maybe modify the budget initially created as our goals are either unattainable or the "bar" has been placed too low.