Do you dread taking your bar inventory stock in Kenya? You’re not alone. Most restaurant and bar owners struggle with maintaining order of their inventory. It’s tedious and arduous, but when done right, liquor inventory management can decrease costs and increase profits.
Inventory is the entire list of liquors you have in stock in your bar. You should take inventory on a regular basis (daily.) to ensure you’re not stocking too many perishable items and that your bartenders aren’t pouring too much or giving away free liquor.
Do you dread taking your bar inventory stock in Kenya? You’re not alone. Most restaurant and bar owners struggle with maintaining order of their inventory. It’s tedious and arduous, but when done right, liquor inventory management can decrease costs and increase profits.
Taking liquor inventory is important because poor management of your inventory can be detrimental to your bar. If you have too little in stock, you’ll lose sales and end up with dissatisfied customers. If you have too much in stock, you’ll run the risk of wasting ingredients and taking up too much storage space.
Best Practices to Maintain Records for Bar Inventory Stock in Kenya
Inventory management starts by recording inventory on a frequent and consistent basis. Follow these best practices to set your bar up for success!
1) Take frequent inventory counts.
All inventory should be counted daily and all records verified. It’s important to ensure you know how much you have of each product and use this information to determine if you’re operating at an optimum level.
2) Take consistent inventory counts.
Pick a specific time to count bar inventory in Kenya, and never skip or change it. It’s important to stick to the same schedule week after week to have accurate inventory counts. If you alter the days or the times, there will be fluctuations in your records and you will have a difficult time using the results. You should also count the same way each time. For example, if you start from left to right, you should always count from left to right.
3) Take inventory when the business is closed.
It’s impossible to count inventory while goods are being sold. This is to avoid distractions, which can result in a lot of wasted time because you have to keep starting over again. You’ll also avoid overlooking items that have been sold during the inventory-taking period. Most businesses choose to count inventory after closing to account for sales of the day.
4) Take inventory before new orders arrive.
If you count inventory during shipments, you run the risk of counting the same goods twice. Instead, take stock of what you have before shipments arrive, and then add new deliveries to the count.
5) Standardize inventory count sheets.
Have different count sheets for daily, weekly, and monthly counts, and standardize the units by which items are counted. Define the units like tots, bottles, litres etc clearly so there is no confusion when counting.
6) Shelf inventory with first in, first out (FIFO) method.
To lower waste, move older items to the front of the shelf so that they are used first. Be sure your employees are trained to arrange the items this way. This will be a visual reminder for your bartenders to use older items, as well.
7) Task a pair of employees to take inventory count.
There are two reasons to task two employees to take inventory count. First, it minimizes human error. Second, it reduces the risk of theft or manipulating numbers. Have each employee count alone and compare results after.
8) The same employees should take inventory count.
Practice makes perfect! Have the same employees take inventory each time. By repeating the process over and over again, these employees will become faster at taking inventory, maintain their accuracy, and offer more consistent results.
9) Standardize your system.
Once the bar inventory in Kenya system is set, don’t make changes. Consistency is key to accuracy. If you constantly change your system, errors will be more likely to occur and your employees may be confused and take inventory incorrectly.
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