The pub stocktaking checklist every operator needs

Last updated: 26 June 2026

Most pub licensees think their biggest losses come from theft — they don’t. The number that actually matters is wet GP by line, not a single headline stock figure. Spirits hide losses in over-pouring (a free-poured 25ml is often 32–35ml), draught hides it in poor cellar temperature and bad line cleaning waste, and most stock ‘theft’ is actually measurement error and forgotten wastage.

If you’re running stocktake on a tangle of spreadsheets or doing it every other month, you’ve already lost track of where the money’s going. The good news: a proper weekly line check catches this before it becomes a habit. A 1% stock loss on wet sales quietly costs a typical pub £3,000–£5,000 a year — but most pubs that move from guesswork to a disciplined count claw back 1–2 GP points within a couple of months.

This checklist is what I’ve used at my own pub to go from guessing at stock variances to having a number I can trust within a fortnight. It covers draught, spirits, cask, and the measurement errors that actually matter.

What You Need Before You Start

You don’t need expensive equipment or fancy software to run an effective weekly stocktake. You need three things: a dipstick (for cask depth), a set of scales accurate to 0.1kg (for open spirit bottles), and a record of what you sold that day from your till.

At my pub, I was using a mess of spreadsheets and still losing track of partial kegs and spirit measures. I built a simple count routine around a dipstick and a set of scales, and the weekly variance went from guesswork to a number I could trust within a fortnight.

Here’s what to gather:

• A calibrated dipstick (most breweries provide these free if you ask).
• Digital scales (£15–30 from any supermarket — accuracy to 0.1kg is enough).
• A pen and notebook, or a simple record sheet (spreadsheet or app).
• Your till readout for the day — filtered to show wet sales only.
• Your opening stock figure from the previous count (or your par level if new).

The SmartPubTools approach is to make this repeatable. If you’re still building the habit, a physical checklist works fine. Once you’re consistent, a StockTap pub stock app automates the recording and flags variances the moment they happen.

The Weekly Draught Line Check

Draught line waste is invisible until you measure it. Bad cellar temperature (too warm = over-carbonation and spoilage), line cleaning debris, and the first pint after cleaning all add up. Most operators lose 2–4% of draught sales before a single glass hits the bar.

Check each line in this order:

• Cask depth: Use your dipstick to measure the remaining volume in each cask. Record the depth in inches (or cm if you prefer), not a guess. The same cask at the same depth every week means you’re pouring consistently.
• Keg pressure: If you run kegs with a gas mix, check the regulator reading. Pressure drift causes over-pouring or flat beer, both invisible to the eye.
• Cellar temperature: A thermometer costs £3. Record it every count. If it’s above 15°C, your beer is spoiling faster than you’re selling it.
• Line condition: Look for debris in the taps. If you see buildup, your lines need cleaning or your cleaning routine is failing. Record the date you cleaned them and measure waste on the day after cleaning — it should be minimal.

The key insight nobody talks about: the variance between what the till says you sold and what your cask depth says you poured is your actual waste or over-pouring. If your till says 40 pints sold and your cask says 42 pints poured, that’s your baseline waste. If it jumps to 46 pints next week, something changed — temperature, line, or staff pouring.

Spirit Bottle Stocktake

Open spirit bottles are where over-pouring hides, and it’s the easiest place to fix. A free-poured 25ml measure is routinely 32–35ml. A single bottle poured free per shift across a week adds up to 2–3 bottles of unrecorded cost.

For every open bottle of spirits (vodka, gin, whisky, rum, etc.):

• Weigh it to 0.1kg precision. Note the weight and the date you opened it. Spirits are roughly 0.9kg per litre, so a 0.7kg bottle is roughly 750ml.
• Cross-check against till data: How many of that spirit did the till record sold? If you poured 35 measures but the till says 30, you’ve got 5 measures unaccounted for (either over-poured or given away).
• Repeat the same day every week. If you always weigh spirits on a Tuesday morning, your numbers become comparable week-on-week. Variance is your signal.
• Flag bottles that age too fast. If a bottle of vodka opened on week 1 is empty by week 3, and the till says 25 measures sold, you’re pouring 32% above measure. That’s the conversation to have with your team.

This is the most operator-relevant insight I can give you: the person pouring isn’t usually stealing. They’re being generous, or they’re not using a measure consistently. Once they see their own numbers on paper, they fix it themselves.

Cask & Keg Reconciliation

A cask stocktake is worthless if you don’t reconcile it against what the till says left the building. Most operators measure cask depth and then forget to compare it to actual pints recorded sold.

For cask and partial kegs:

• Measure depth at the same time every week. Ideally Tuesday morning before service, so you have a 6-day window of consistent data.
• Record opening depth (from last week), closing depth (this week), and till pints sold. The maths is: opening depth minus closing depth should roughly equal till pints sold. If it doesn’t, you have waste, over-pouring, or till error.
• Flag new kegs or casks the moment they’re hooked. If you hooked a new keg mid-week, your variance will be skewed. Note the exact time it went on.
• Identify partial kegs. A half-empty keg sitting for 3 weeks isn’t a stock issue — it’s a rotation issue. Measure it, note it, and decide whether to pull it or finish it.

This is where most stocktakes fail: operators measure stock but never check it against till data the same day. By then, they’ve forgotten which cask was on which line, or they’ve moved kegs around. Do both at the same time, same day every week.

Reconciling to Till Data

This is the step that transforms a stocktake from guesswork into actual intelligence. Your till records what you say you sold. Your physical count records what you actually poured. The gap is your answer.

At the end of your count:

• Pull your till readout for the past 7 days, filtered to wet sales only. Some EPOS systems let you do this; others require manual addition. If you can’t access it easily, your EPOS is working against you, not for you.
• Compare till wet sales £ to your physical variance. If the till says you sold £2,000 in wet but your stock figures say you only poured £1,950 worth, you have a £50 variance. That could be till error, measurement error, or legitimate waste.
• Work backwards from the variance. A £50 variance on £2,000 sales is a 2.5% loss. Is that normal for your pub? Most operators find 1–2% is their baseline (line waste, evaporation, spillage). Anything above that needs investigation.
• Don’t chase every small variance. If you’re within 1–2%, you’re operating normally. If you hit 3–4% consistently, something is wrong: temperature, pouring, or till calibration.

This is the real metric: wet GP by line, not a single headline stock figure. You want to know that your Guinness is pulling 65% GP, your house lager is 68%, and your spirits are 72% — then you know your pricing is right and your pouring is consistent.

Recording & Spotting Trends

A stocktake that doesn’t get recorded is just an inventory visit. You need a record you can compare week-on-week to spot patterns, not just numbers that disappear into your phone.

For each weekly count, record:

• Date and time of count.
• Cask depths for each line (opening and closing).
• Spirit weights for each open bottle.
• Till wet sales for the past 7 days.
• Variance (what you poured minus what the till says you sold).
• Any notes: new keg hooked, line cleaned, staff changed, temperature issue, etc.

After 4 weeks, you’ll see patterns. If draught variance spikes the week after cleaning, your cleaner is wasting beer. If spirit variance jumps when a certain person’s on shift, you know where to coach. If every cask on the cold line consistently reads 2 pints deeper than expected, your temperature is too low and you’re under-pouring.

Most pub operators never do this because they don’t have a simple way to record it. That’s why the StockTap pub stock app exists — it automates the recording, flags the variances, and shows you trends without the spreadsheet labour.

Common Objections & Reality Checks

I don’t have time for a weekly stocktake.

A proper line check takes 20 minutes. If you’re doing it every week at the same time, it becomes muscle memory. The time you save by catching a 2% loss and fixing it is worth far more than 20 minutes. A typical pub loses £5,000–£10,000 a year to untracked variance — that’s 500 hours of wages, not 20 minutes.

My spreadsheet works fine.

Spreadsheets work until they don’t. I ran on spreadsheets for years and still lost track of partial kegs and forgotten weights. The moment you switch to a tool that forces consistency (same fields every week, flagged variances, trend graphs), you realise how much invisible error you were carrying. It’s not about the tool being fancier — it’s about the tool not letting you skip steps.

Do I really need special equipment?

No. A dipstick from your brewery and £20 scales from Tesco are enough. What you need is discipline: same time every week, same process every time, recorded the same day. The equipment is secondary to the routine.

Won’t the brewery stocktaker just do it?

The brewery’s stocktaker is checking their stock, not your profit. They’re measuring what you owe them, not whether you’re losing money in the cellar. Their count is for them. Your count is for you — and it happens weekly, not quarterly.

Is an app safer than a spreadsheet for my records?

Both are only as secure as your password and your backup routine. The difference is that an app can flag anomalies automatically and keep your data in one place across devices. A spreadsheet scattered across your phone, laptop, and email is worse for security and worse for accuracy. Consistency matters more than the medium.