Bar & Pub Closing, Cash & Stock Reconciliation Checklist
A Bar & Pub closing checklist exists to produce three numbers before anyone goes home: the cash variance, the closing stock, and the difference between what you poured and what you sold. These 9 checks cover the blind drawer count and Z-report reconciliation. They cover void and comp sign-off, spirit dips and keg readings, beer wasted when a keg runs dry (fob) and breakage totals, and the actual-versus-theoretical calculation. ACFE data behind them shows a median fraud loss of $145,000 running for a median of 12 months. Surprise audits are associated with a 63% reduction in scheme duration. Every number here is one you generate, because no credible published benchmark exists.
The checklist · 12 checks
Cash
1. Count the cash drawer blind. Then check it against the Z-report and card settlement. Log the difference, in cash and as a percent of takings.Counting blind is what makes the difference meaningful. Counting the drawer against a total you already know tells you nothing.
2. Review voids, comps, refunds, no-sales, and re-opened tabs. A manager must sign every one.Misusing voids and comps is the most common bar scam. It stays hidden until someone reviews it every night.
3. Secure or bank the takings. Update the running trend of differences, by shift and by server.A scam can run for many months before anyone notices. Tracking the trend by person is what catches it sooner.
Stock and pour cost
4. Dip, weigh, or scan open spirit bottles. Count wine by the bottle. Put the numbers on the closing stock sheet.You cannot see spirit losses without counting. An extra 25 ml on every round never shows up on the till.
5. Read keg levels or flow meters. Log the volume of draught poured against the volume sold.Draught is the hardest stock in the bar to count, and the easiest to lose. The meter or the dip reading is the only honest number you have.
6. Add up fob and drip tray loss, spills, line-cleaning loss, breakages, and comps as recorded waste.Drip tray losses are real money, and can run to thousands a year on a bar with many taps. You can only cut what you have counted.
7. Calculate actual usage compared with expected usage, and pour cost. Look into any line or spirit that is outside the target range.Comparing actual usage with expected usage is the one check that catches over-pouring, unrung drinks, and short deliveries all at once.
Lock it down
8. Lock the spirits store, isolate the gas, and secure the cellar and ice machine. Keep the coolers, python, and cold store switched on.Turning the cooler off overnight is the most expensive way to save money in the building. Warm lines mean a whole cellar of cloudy, flat beer tomorrow.
9. Sign off the refusals and incident log. Book the next surprise stock count.A signed refusals log protects your licence. Surprise counts stop a small loss from running on for a year.
Hygiene & Safety
10. Wipe down and sanitize bar tops and touch points at close, at the correct sanitizer strength (ppm).Germs build up on touch points during service. Sanitizing at close stops overnight growth.
11. Look for signs of pests in the cellar and bar before you lock up.Pests often show up at night when the bar is quiet. Catch them early to stop an infestation.
12. Lock away cleaning chemicals (COSHH) from drinks, food, and glassware.Chemicals stored near drinks can contaminate them. Locked storage also protects staff and customers.
Frequently asked questions
What should a bar closing checklist include?Cash first. Count the drawer blind, then reconcile it against the Z-report and card settlement. Log the variance in cash and as a percentage of takings. Counting against a total you already know tells you nothing. Then review and sign off every void, comp, refund, no-sale and re-opened tab. Void abuse is the classic bar scheme, and it hides until someone looks nightly. Then stock: dip or weigh open spirits, count wine by the bottle, and read keg levels or flow meters. Total fob, spillage, line-cleaning loss, breakages and comps as recorded waste. Finally lock the spirits store, isolate the gas, and leave the coolers, python and cold store running.
What is a good pour cost percentage for a bar?There isn't a defensible published answer, and we would rather say so than repeat one. No statistical agency, regulator or audited study publishes a pour cost or liquor cost benchmark for bars. Every '18–24%' figure in circulation traces back to vendor blogs with no stated sample or method. The same is true of the widely repeated inventory shrinkage figures. Build your own baseline from four weeks of nightly closing counts and actual-versus-theoretical calculations. Then manage the trend rather than somebody else's number. What is measured and published is measure accuracy. Trading Standards found 96 short measures in 137 test purchases, with average deficits of 4% on beer and 5% on wine, and 41 of the 96 at 5% or more. Error of that size in your favour or against it is exactly what an actual-versus-theoretical check catches. The arithmetic itself is not in dispute, only the benchmark. Cost of product poured = opening stock + purchases − closing stock. Pour cost = cost of product poured ÷ the sales that product generated × 100. Theoretical usage = the sum of recipe measure × units sold. Variance = (actual usage − theoretical usage) ÷ theoretical usage × 100.
How often should a bar count stock and cash?Nightly for cash and for the fast-moving lines, with unannounced spot-counts on top. ACFE's Occupational Fraud 2024 report found a median loss of $145,000 per case and a median scheme duration of 12 months before detection. 43% of cases were found through a tip rather than a control. Surprise audits are associated with a 63% reduction in scheme duration. No study has yet tested nightly versus weekly versus monthly reconciliation against measured shrinkage. That is one of the gaps this pack is explicit about. What nightly counting does guarantee is that a variance is still small and still explainable when you find it.
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Sources
Every statistic on this page comes from public inspection and food-safety data:
- Journal of the Institute of Brewing & Distilling, 'Draught beer hygiene: a survey of on-trade quality'
- Cask Marque Beer Quality Report 2017
- Brewers Association, Draught Beer Quality Manual
- Cask Marque, 'Beer quality issues'
- Chartered Trading Standards Institute, 'Over two thirds of UK beer and wine is short measured'
- Cask Marque, 'Scores on the Cellar Doors' launch, citing Quality Report 2016
- ACFE, Occupational Fraud 2024: A Report to the Nations
- Toomey et al., 'Can Obviously Intoxicated Patrons Still Easily Buy Alcohol at On-Premise Establishments?'
- Toomey et al., 'Alcohol sales to pseudo-intoxicated bar patrons', Public Health Reports
- NHTSA, Countermeasures That Work - Alcohol Vendor Compliance Checks
- Ohio Administrative Code 3717-1-04.4
- FDA Report on the Occurrence of Foodborne Illness Risk Factors
- Journal of Water and Health
- Food Safety Magazine, 'The Sanitation of Ice-Making Equipment', citing NSF/ANSI 12-2012
- Miller, Buckingham-Meyer & Goeres, 'Simulated aging of draught beer line tubing increases biofilm contamination'
- Brewers Association, 'Economics of Draught Quality' November Power Hour Q&A
- British Guild of Beer Writers, analysis of Food Standards Agency FHRS data
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