Desktop software
Count the shelf.
Cost the drink.
Close the month.
BarLedger is beverage inventory for bars, restaurants and clubs. Your staff count on their own phones. The variance is waiting when they finish. And the same numbers carry through to pour costs, cocktail recipes and your cost of sales against budget, without being typed anywhere a second time.
It installs on your computer. Your inventory stays there.
Windows 10 or later. One payment, not a subscription.
The work it replaces
The count is only half the night.
Someone walks the building with a clipboard. Someone types it into a spreadsheet. Then a third version gets built to work out what the beverage cost actually was, and by the time anyone can act on the number, the month it describes is two weeks gone.
Places the same number gets entered. The count sheet, the inventory spreadsheet, and whatever the cost of sales lives in.
Categories that price differently. Wine by the glass, liquor by the pour, beer by the keg, and everything non alcoholic by the case.
Person with the clipboard is one person counting, however many are standing around waiting to go home.
Count sessions
Everybody counts. Nobody types.
A count session takes a snapshot of where inventory stood when you opened it, then holds every number your staff enter against that snapshot until you are ready to commit them.
Free to install. A license key, bought on this page, activates it on up to three computers.
Open the session
Count the whole operation or pick the locations you are doing tonight. The main bar on Tuesday, the cellar and banquet storeroom on Sunday.
Staff scan a QR code
The QR code on screen puts a counting page on any phone already on your wifi. Nothing to install and no accounts to create. Staff then scan barcodes with the phone camera, use a Bluetooth scanner gun, or search by name and key the number in.
Review the variance
When counting stops you get every item that moved, measured against the snapshot, before anything is written to your inventory. Recount the three that look wrong instead of re-opening the whole night.
Commit, or throw it away
Accept the session and the counted quantities become your inventory. Discard it and nothing changed. A half finished count on a busy Friday costs you nothing.
Who it is for
One beverage program, however many bars it runs through.
Inventory lives by location, and each location only holds the categories you say it does. The wine cellar does not ask about kegs.
Bars
Well to top shelf
Pour costs, house pour sizes and drink cost percentage per bottle, so the well pour and the reserve pour are both priced on purpose.
Restaurants
The list and the bar together
Wine by the bottle, the glass and the carafe, with pour sizes set separately for still, sparkling and dessert. Cocktails costed from the same shelf the bar drinks off.
Clubs and hotels
Several outlets, one number
Main bar, halfway house, banquet storeroom and cellar all counted into one picture, with transfers between them logged instead of argued about.
What it is worth
Every bottle knows what it costs and what it sells for.
Wine
Price by sliding scale, by markup, or set it yourself. Bottle, glass and carafe prices come from the pour size and the cost, and vintage, varietal and appellation are there because a wine list needs them.
Liquor
Set the house pour and the price of the pour, and BarLedger works back to the cost per drink, the cost percentage and the margin on every bottle behind the bar.
Beer and non alcoholic
Enter what the case cost and it works out the unit. Kegs are handled as kegs, with the deposit tracked apart from the beer so an empty barrel stops inflating your inventory. US or metric sizes throughout.
Cocktails
Build a recipe from the bottles you actually stock and see the cost per drink as you go, garnish fee included. Scale it up for a batch. When a price changes on an invoice, every drink using it reprices.
The rest of the cycle
The count is where it starts, not where it ends.
Ordering and receiving
Par levels turn the count into an order by vendor, with your rep, account number and delivery days on file. Receiving can send a recap to whoever signs for the truck.
Invoices that update your costs
Enter invoices by vendor, then link each line to the item it belongs to. BarLedger remembers that this vendor calls it something else, so next month it already knows. Linking can update the cost, which means next month’s count is priced on what you paid, not what you paid in March.
Transfers and waste
Move stock between departments and log what was spilled, comped or broken, with the cost attached. A number that dropped has a reason sitting next to it.
Monthly analysis
Opening inventory, purchases, waste and closing inventory become your cost of sales by category, next to your sales and next to the budget you set. The report you were rebuilding by hand every month.
Who sees what
Hand it to a bartender without handing over the books.
Counter mode is locked behind a manager PIN. In it, staff can enter quantities and nothing else. Costs, margins, orders, the checkbook, monthly analysis and settings are all closed, and you open only what you want open.
Anything new is locked until a manager unlocks it, rather than the other way around. Every change is logged with what it was and when.
Where your numbers live
On your computer. That is the whole answer.
A program, not a website
BarLedger installs on your machine. Your inventory, costs and sales sit there and on whatever backup you already run. There is no account holding your data and no monthly bill that can lock you out of your own numbers.
Phones never leave your wifi
Counting devices talk to your computer over your own network. Nothing routes through us. Point several computers at one shared folder and the whole property works from the same inventory.
Pricing
Buy it once. It stays bought.
One time purchase
Not a subscription. No renewal, no per seat charge, and no tier above this one holding a feature back.
Your product key arrives by email within a minute.
- Every feature, with nothing held back for a higher tier
- Unlimited items, locations, outlets and counts
- Count from as many phones as you have staff
- Three computers per key, released and moved whenever you like
- Updates included, with no upgrade charge
- No account and no password. The key is the login
- Support direct from the person who wrote it
Questions
Before you buy
Do my staff need to install anything on their phones?
No. A QR code can be scanned which opens a counting page in the browser the phone already has. Nothing to download and no account for anyone to create.
That matters most with seasonal staff. Nobody is left holding a login to your inventory after their last shift.
Can staff see my costs and margins?
Not unless you decide they should. Counter mode is held behind a manager PIN and allows quantity entry only. Cost data, cocktail costs, item editing, orders, the checkbook, monthly analysis and settings are all closed until a manager opens them.
Does it need the internet?
Only once, to activate. After that BarLedger runs offline. If the building’s internet drops during a count, the phones are talking to your computer over your own wifi and nothing stops.
We have more than one bar. Does that work?
Yes. Locations are yours to define, and each one carries only the categories you assign it. Count them together or one at a time, move stock between them with a transfer record, and see the whole property in one total.
Several computers can point at one shared folder on your network and work from the same inventory.
What happens if I replace the computer?
One key activates three computers. You can release an activation from inside the program and use it elsewhere, so a dead machine or a new office PC is not a new purchase.
Is there a subscription later?
No. $299 is the whole price. Updates are included for as long as they are published, and there is no separate maintenance fee waiting a year out.
What about refunds?
Purchases are final, because the product key is delivered immediately and cannot be recalled once used. If BarLedger will not activate or will not run, write to us before disputing the charge. We would rather fix it.
Windows only?
Yes, Windows 10 or later. The phones your staff count on can be anything, since they are only opening a page on your own wifi.
Get started
Try it on this month’s count.
One inventory night will tell you more than any description of it. Your product key arrives by email within a minute, and the building can be entered before the next count comes around.
Office hours Monday to Friday, 8am to 2pm Arizona time. (480) 420-8709.