Bar and restaurant owners must be constantly vigilant to protect their businesses from leaking profits.  Modern bars employ one or more methods to protect their investments:

• Portion and pour controls employing various spouts and dispensers.  These dispensers range from low-cost bottle spouts to sophisticated dispensing systems

• Inventory controls which compare actual usage to theoretical usage based on sales.  These inventory control systems must be part of, or must automatically interface to a computerized point-of-sale system.

• Cash controls using various computerized point-of-sale systems

• Observation using video recording equipment or “mystery shoppers”.  

The above methods have advantages and disadvantages.  Portion controls maintain consistent portions.  Customers however, are somewhat resistant to measured portions because they naturally assume they are being served drinks with less liquor.  Portion-measuring devices do not address any potential problems with sales and collection of cash.

Inventory controls are somewhat effective in identifying problems in the bar.  The inventory- control method is highly labor-intensive and to be effective, must interface with a

computerized point-of-sale computer. 

A computerized point of sale system is needed to be able to report the detail of each and every item sold. This method is not able to discover exactly when or by whom the offending transactions happened. The inventory-control method is only able to detect discrepancies for the entire period of time between inventory counts.   

All bartenders fall into behavior patterns after working in the restaurant for a while. 

Cash controls can be effective if certain procedures are enforced.  The bartender must be prevented from preparing anything without a beverage preparation ticket printed by the point-of-sale system.  Each bar customer must have a tab in front of him so that the sales can be audited.  The manager should be able to display current tabs and be the only one able to discount or void items.  The manager should by the only one able to comp and enter breakage, spills, and other transactions such as walkouts and owner discounts.

Observation by managers, owners and “mystery shoppers is probably the most effective control method.  This method is also the most time-consuming and therefore, expensive.  Unfortunately, the managers and owners cannot possibly watch each transaction as it happens. 

Video recording equipment can be helpful, but the cameras can’t see everything – especially the amount the bartender actually rings up.  The videos must be viewed by someone with a trained eye to spot any offending activity.    

By far, the most effective approach is to use the processing power of a computer.  All bartenders fall into behavior patterns after working in the restaurant for a while.  “The challenge is to compare the behavior of all the bartenders to each other and to themselves over time.  This approach is the only way to consistently ferret out the potential losses. 

In Sight Commander Systems has developed a suite of programs that analyzes bartender behavior and activity in order to highlight potential problem areas.  If an alert is detected by The Analyzer, the owner or manager is notified by email.  The owner can then access the computer at the restaurant and view the actual detail of the behavior that caused the alert. 

Video cameras may be effective for insurance, Workers’ Comp, and liability issues, but need to be part of a more complete system in order to be effective as loss-deterrence tools.

Brian McMillan is Director of Product Development of In Sight Commander System, Inc.  a software development company specializing in restaurants and video surveillance systems.  He can be reached at (714) 940-9800 or http://www.insightcommander.com/