Investing in a bar point of sale (POS) system is one of the best investments you can make for your business. In addition to increasing efficiencies, a bar POS system can save you money. Here’s how.
1. Enhanced inventory control. With a bar POS system, you can easily monitor pour levels to ensure that employees aren’t using too much alcohol in cocktails or pouring excessive amounts of beverages served on tap. This saves you money by keeping a lid on waste and preventing customers from enjoying more than their money’s worth your expense. The ability to program drink recipes into the software cuts down on ingredient waste, too.
Additionally, you can better track quantities of products that come in bottles and cans. Consequently, you’ll never pay for inventory you ordered, but never received.
The enhanced inventory control — and subsequent savings— you reap by implementing a bar POS system also comes from leveraging the technology to automate the ordering process. You can set optimal inventory levels for each liquor SKU and program the POS system to generate orders when quantities have been depleted to these levels. This prevents you from purchasing overages and also eliminates the need to place potentially more costly rush orders when inventory levels are critically low.
2. Decreased shrinkage. By some estimates, bars shoulder an average shrinkage rate of 28 percent to 38 percent. Some of this shrinkage is caused by accidental spills, but there are other factors.
For example, when employees must log in to a POS system using individual employee numbers that will be associated with each transaction, they’ll be far more likely to make sure the till balances at the end of the shift.
What’s more, a good bar POS system will allow you to monitor liquor levels (e.g., through bottle-scanning) and your inventory of wine and spirits. When employees know that you have the capability to connect alcohol quantities dispensed to alcohol quantities sold, they’ll think twice before trying to take some for themselves. The same will be true if you have a POS system that permits customers’ receipts to be correlated with transaction information in your records. Employees won’t want to be associated with suspicious-looking transactions.
Additionally, a bar POS system typically gives you the ability to produce liquor inventory reports and access to real-time inventory information, allowing you to quickly spot negative trends and stave off unnecessary expenditures.
3. Regulatory compliance. Many bar POS systems have an age verification component. Without such a system, you may inadvertently serve alcoholic beverages to customers who are under the legal alcohol consumption age. The consequences for doing so may include citations, fines, or loss of liquor license, any or all of which have the potential to negatively impact or even cause you to lose your business.
Owning a bar can be a very lucrative proposition. However, there is significant potential to incur unnecessary expenditures. A bar POS system keeps these expenditures in check and yields significant savings over time
