A notebook with three entries in a month
There is a wastage book by the till. It is supposed to record every pint poured away, every dropped glass of wine, every drink given to a regular on his birthday and every staff drink at the end of a shift. It has three entries this month, all in your handwriting.
Then the stocktaker's result arrives and shows a loss on lager, a loss on house wine and a loss on one of the spirits. You know some of it is pulled pints that were poured away when the gas ran out, the bottle of wine that fell off the shelf and drinks for the darts team after they won the league. But you cannot tell how much, so you cannot tell whether the rest is something more serious.
Why the wastage book goes blank
Recording wastage on paper happens at the worst moment: a pint spills, the queue is three deep, the barman wipes it up and serves the next customer. Walking to the book, finding a pen and writing it down is the step that gets skipped. At the end of the night nobody remembers.
There is also some awkwardness. Staff do not want to be seen to waste stock, and nobody wants to write down that they gave a free drink. So the book records the things that are easy to admit and misses the rest, and the stock result becomes a mix of honest waste and genuine loss that nobody can separate.
What unrecorded wastage hides
| Unrecorded | How it shows in the stock result |
|---|---|
| Spillage and pulled pints | Loss on draught lines |
| Line cleaning waste | A bigger loss in cleaning weeks |
| Staff drinks | Loss spread across popular lines |
| Drinks given away | Loss on whatever the regulars drink |
| Breakages | Loss on bottles and wine |
The real risk is the loss you cannot see behind this noise, such as drinks served and not rung in, heavy pouring or a leak. If honest waste is not recorded, those problems hide inside the same number, and every stock result becomes an argument.
Recording wastage where staff already are
- We add wastage, staff drink and comp buttons to your EPOS where it supports them, or a small tablet screen by the till where it does not.
- Each entry takes two taps: the product and a reason from a short list, such as spillage, returned drink, line clean, staff drink, given away or breakage.
- Comps and staff drinks can require a manager's code if you want that, and a note such as whose birthday.
- Line cleaning waste can be recorded once per clean for all lines, with typical quantities you set.
- Entries flow into the stock figures, so the stock result shows known waste by reason and the unexplained variance separately.
- A weekly summary shows wastage by reason, by product and by shift, so unusual patterns stand out.
The point is not to police staff. It is to make honest recording quick enough that it happens, so the variance that remains is small enough to be worth investigating.
A stock result you can read
The next result shows the lager loss split into line cleaning, pulled pints on the night the gas ran out and a smaller unexplained part. The wine loss is the dropped bottle. The spirit loss, which has no recorded waste at all, is the one to look at. You check the till button and the optic for that spirit and find the till is ringing a single for a double.
- Wastage recorded at the till, not in a notebook
- Comps and staff drinks recorded honestly
- Known waste separated from unexplained loss
- Stock results you can act on
Is your wastage book like this?
- The wastage book has hardly any entries.
- Staff drinks and comps are not written down.
- Line cleaning waste is not recorded.
- Stock results show losses nobody can explain.
- You cannot tell honest waste from real problems.