Stock Take Templates for UK Pubs

Last updated: 2 May 2026

Most pub licensees wait until they’re already losing money before they properly count their stock. You’ll know within 48 hours of taking on a pub whether someone’s been helping themselves — but only if you’ve done a proper stock take on day one. I found £3,400 missing from my first week at Teal Farm before I even knew the staff names. A stock take template isn’t bureaucracy; it’s your first line of defence against shrinkage, waste, and the theft that happens quietly in every pub that doesn’t count.

Stock take intimidates new licensees because it sounds laborious. It isn’t. A pub stock take template is simply a structured way to count what you have, compare it to what you sold, and spot where your money went. This article will give you a template you can use immediately, show you how to run one properly, and explain why it matters more than most pub operators realise.

Why Stock Take Matters in UK Pubs

Stock take is not about accounting neatness — it’s about spotting financial problems before they become crises. When you take on a pub, particularly as a tied tenant under a Marston’s CRP agreement or similar pubco arrangement, your stock is often the only asset you control fully. Your EPOS till tells you what you sold. A stock take tells you whether you sold what you think you sold, or whether someone poured it down the sink, gave it away, or took it home.

In my first three months at Teal Farm, I ran weekly stock counts. The first one showed 6.2% variance — that’s not normal wear and tear. By week four, after tightening pour controls and adding CCTV behind the bar, variance dropped to 1.8%. That difference, over a year, is the difference between breaking even and having a profitable business. Your pubco will absolutely hold you responsible for unexplained losses, and they’re right to — it’s your lease, your responsibility.

The specificity of a stock take template also reveals patterns. If beer variance is high but spirits are tight, you know the problem isn’t theft — it’s likely free pours or line wastage. If everything’s off equally, someone’s systematic. A template forces you to look at each category separately, which is where the real insight lives.

Every percentage point of shrinkage you eliminate is direct profit. If you’re turning over £15,000 a week across wet sales and that variance costs you 5%, that’s £750 a week. Over a year, that’s £39,000. No marketing campaign, no promotional event, no staff pay cut will ever recover that money as reliably as tightening stock control.

How to Use a Stock Take Template

A stock take template works only if you follow the process consistently. Here’s the real-world routine that works:

• Schedule it for the same day and time every week — I do mine Tuesday morning before service. It’s quiet, staff are fresher, and you can spot issues before the busy week starts.
• Count when the bar is closed — no service running, no distractions, no staff trying to pull drinks whilst you’re counting.
• Two people count, one person records — separation of duty. You can’t check your own maths when you’re stressed and counting 47 half-bottles of gin.
• Use the same template every time — consistency means you spot when something changes. If gin always balances and suddenly doesn’t, that’s actionable.
• Complete it the same day — don’t leave it. Calculate variance immediately. Talk to staff the same day if something’s wrong. Memory fades fast.

The template itself is a printed or digital form where you list every product SKU, record the opening stock from last week, note what you purchased this week, count what’s physically there, calculate what you should have, and spot the difference. The math is simple, but the discipline of doing it matters more than the maths itself.

The Template Itself: What to Count

A pub stock take template must separate wet sales into at least four categories: spirits, beer, wine, and soft drinks. Each has different characteristics. Spirits spoil slowly and are easy to track. Beer is volatile — head waste, line waste, temperature issues all affect variance. Wine goes off. Soft drinks are cheap per unit but high volume. Mixing them together tells you nothing useful.

Here’s the structure I use at Teal Farm, modified for our 180-cover setup:

Spirits Section
List each product: Vodka (own label), Vodka (premium), Gin (own label), Gin (premium), Rum, Whisky, Brandy, Liqueurs. For each, record: opening stock (bottles), purchases (bottles), physical count (bottles), expected closing stock, variance (bottles and %).

Beer Section
Separate draught from bottled. List each product (Guinness, Carling, Amstel, San Miguel, etc.). For draught, count full kegs, empty kegs in service, and note the keg size. For bottled, count cases and loose bottles. Record opening, purchases, count, expected, and variance for each.

Wine Section
If you sell wine by the glass, calculate the bottle equivalent. Count full bottles and opened bottles separately. Note the volume remaining in opened bottles. This category often shows high variance because glasses aren’t always filled the same way twice.

Soft Drinks and Mixers
Count the same way as beer. Don’t skip this because margins are lower — this is where bar staff often “borrow” stock for their own drinks or give freebies to friends.

When considering how to measure your pub profit margin, remember that stock variance directly impacts your GP%. A 5% loss across all wet sales looks like a 2–3% profit margin erosion depending on your baseline GP.

Calculating Your Stock Variance

The maths is straightforward but must be exact:

Expected Closing Stock = Opening Stock + Purchases − Sales (from EPOS)

Actual Variance = Expected Closing Stock − Physical Count

Let’s use a real example from Teal Farm last month:

• Opening stock: 42 bottles of house vodka
• Purchases: 24 bottles
• EPOS sales: 38 bottles (at £2.50 per spirit measure = £95)
• Expected closing: 42 + 24 − 38 = 28 bottles
• Physical count: 26 bottles
• Variance: 2 bottles missing (7.1%)

Now, 7.1% on vodka is high but not catastrophic. But if spirits across the board are running 5–7%, you’ve found your problem. If it’s isolated to one product or one shift, you know where to look.

The critical insight: variance under 3% for spirits, under 4% for beer, and under 2% for wine is acceptable. Above that, something’s wrong. Below 0% (you have more than you should) means either your count’s wrong or EPOS isn’t recording sales properly — both are problems.

Your pubco will compare your variance to industry benchmarks. When my NSF audit passed in March 2026, variance was one of the first things they reviewed. Marston’s expect to see tight control, especially in tied pubs where the lease language often includes clauses about stock accountability.

Common Stock Take Mistakes

Mistake 1: Not counting opened bottles and partial stock. A half-bottle of wine left at the end of service is inventory. A three-quarter-full bottle of spirits is inventory. If you skip these, your variance calculation is worthless. Count volume where relevant. A half-empty bottle of Prosecco isn’t a full bottle.

Mistake 2: Using EPOS sales as gospel. EPOS can be wrong. Staff void sales, ring things into the wrong category, or forget to ring things at all. Your count tells you the truth. If you have 10 fewer bottles than EPOS says you should, EPOS is wrong, not your count. Investigate why. Is the barman voiding sales? Is the till misconfigured?

Mistake 3: Forgetting to count stock behind the bar during service. If you count after hours, you miss the bottles in active use. Either count after you’ve closed and removed service stock, or count before opening and account for stock taken to the bar at handover. Consistency matters more than timing.

Mistake 4: Not separating own-label from branded products. Own-label gin and premium gin have completely different margins and purchasing costs. If someone’s sneaking premium spirits, it costs you far more than they think. Track them separately and compare variance rates. Wide differences point to specific problems.

Mistake 5: Skipping soft drinks because margins are thin. Staff will steal what they use. If you’re losing cases of cola or energy drinks, your staff are taking them. This seems minor until you realise you’re subsidising their personal consumption. Track it. Call it out. It stops immediately once staff know you’re counting.

Making Stock Take Part of Your Weekly Routine

A stock take template is only valuable if you use it consistently. I’ve seen new licensees do a meticulous count on day one, then never again. Three months later, they’re shocked they’re losing money. Stock take isn’t a one-off audit — it’s a weekly habit.

Block Tuesday mornings. Print your template Friday before you leave (or set up a digital version — Google Sheets works fine). Arrive early, close the bar to service, and count. Same time, same day, same process. After four weeks, you’ll have data that matters. After three months, you’ll know your pub’s true variance profile and exactly where problems live.

When you’re learning how to use pub management tools for a small pub, stock counting should be your first manual process before you automate anything. You need to understand your numbers before you delegate them.

The template also becomes your early warning system. If variance suddenly spikes in week four when you hired a new bartender, you’ve found a training issue or a dishonesty issue — either way, you’ve spotted it before it costs you. Compare variance week to week. Trends matter more than individual numbers.

One practical detail only someone who’s run a pub would mention: keep your completed stock take templates. File them. At the end of a quarter, you’ll spot seasonal patterns — variance often rises during busy match days or quiz nights when control gets loose. Once you see the pattern, you can tighten management on high-risk days.

Stock variance directly affects the numbers you’ll need to understand before taking on a pub. If you’re seriously considering a tied tenancy, you need visibility into your financial position from day one. Real-time labour %, VAT liability, and cash position matter far more than any marketing metric. The Pub Command Centre gives you that visibility from day one for £97 once — no monthly subscriptions, no long contracts. Before you sign anything, know your numbers.

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For more information, visit best pub EPOS systems guide.