Craftable Review 2026
Last updated: 26 June 2026
Most pub landlords think their spreadsheet is “fine” right up until the moment a 1% stock loss quietly costs them £3,000–£5,000 a year. That’s when they start looking at tools like Craftable. But before you hand over your stocktaking process to any software, you need to know exactly what you’re getting — and what you’re not. I’ve run my own pub on a tangle of spreadsheets and built count routines from scratch, so I understand why operators are curious about platforms that promise to simplify inventory. This review cuts through the marketing and tells you whether Craftable is worth your time and money.
Key Takeaways
- Craftable is a general inventory management platform, not a pub-specific tool — it handles stock tracking but lacks built-in cellar controls like cask dipsticks, line temperature logs, and wet/dry GP splits.
- The platform works well for counting and reconciliation if your team is disciplined about data entry, but it requires you to map your own workflows and doesn’t automate cellar-specific variance tracking.
- A 1% stock loss on wet sales costs a typical pub £3,000–£5,000 per year, and catching it requires real-time dip readings and till reconciliation the same day — not just a counting app.
- Most pub operators moving from spreadsheets to a structured count routine claw back 1–2 GP points within weeks, regardless of tool choice — discipline and weekly counts matter more than the software itself.
What Is Craftable?
Craftable is a cloud-based inventory and stock management platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It lets you log stock counts, track stock levels, set minimum thresholds, and generate reports on usage and variance. The company positions it as a flexible alternative to spreadsheets for businesses that need to manage multiple product lines across locations.
The key thing to understand upfront: Craftable is a general inventory tool, not a pub management system. It was built for retail, hospitality, and service businesses broadly — not specifically for the way pubs manage wet stock, cellars, and draft lines. That distinction matters more than you’d think when you’re running a stocktake.
How Craftable Works for Pubs
In practice, Craftable lets you:
- Create a product list (beers, spirits, soft drinks, etc.)
- Set opening stock and log counts via the app or web interface
- Track usage by comparing stock in vs. stock out
- Flag variance when counts don’t match expectations
- Generate reports on stock value and movement trends
You’d typically use it to count your back-of-house stock — bottles on the shelf, kegs in the cellar, spirits behind the bar — and then compare those counts to your till data to spot discrepancies.
The workflow is straightforward: log what you’ve got, note what you’ve sold, investigate the gap. If you’ve got an honest team and a till system that talks reasonably well to a spreadsheet or export, Craftable can help you move that reconciliation into something slightly less painful than a Google Sheet.
What Craftable Does Well
Simple, clean counting interface
The app itself is intuitive. You can photograph stock, manually enter counts, and sync data across devices without much faffing about. For a bar manager who’s already running counts on paper and clipboard, moving to Craftable feels like a genuine step forward — no more squinting at your own handwriting three days later.
Flexible product categories
You can set up custom fields and categories to match your range. If you sell 40 draught lines and 120 bottled products, you can structure the app to reflect that without forcing everything into a generic template.
Variance reporting
Craftable will flag when your physical count doesn’t match your predicted stock (based on sales). This is valuable because it forces you to investigate losses instead of ignoring them — and most pubs ignore them for years.
Multi-location support
If you’re running more than one pub, you can manage stock across locations without juggling separate systems. That’s useful if you’re a multi-unit operator or managing a pub group.
Where Craftable Falls Short
No cellar-specific tools
Craftable doesn’t have built-in features for the actual mechanics of beer and cider management. There’s no cask dip tracking, no line temperature logging, no bad-pour tracking, and no automated cellar variance analysis. You’d have to build those workflows yourself using custom fields and notes — which defeats the purpose of having purpose-built software.
In my own pub, I learned quickly that 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. Weigh open spirit bottles, dip every cask and partial keg, and reconcile against till data the same day. Craftable doesn’t automate any of that.
Requires accurate till data
For Craftable’s variance tracking to work, your EPOS system has to give you reliable sales data for every product line. Most pub tills do — but many pubs don’t categorise their sales correctly, don’t update their product lists, or sell items off-system entirely (cash-only spirits, sample pours, management drinks). Garbage in, garbage out.
No built-in P&L or GP tracking
Craftable will tell you what you’ve got and what you’ve sold, but it won’t tell you whether you made money on it. You can’t see wet gross profit by line, labour costs mapped against sales, or a real-time P&L. You’re stuck feeding data back into a spreadsheet or another system to get actual financial visibility.
Doesn’t catch measurement error or small losses
Craftable is reactive: it highlights variance after the fact. But it can’t prevent the actual losses. If your team is free-pouring spirits 3–5ml over standard, if your casks aren’t stored at the right temperature, or if your lines aren’t cleaned properly, Craftable will eventually show you a variance — but by then the money’s gone. A proper weekly line check with actual scales, a dipstick, and temperature readings catches it in real time.
Relies on disciplined data entry
The system only works if your staff log counts accurately and consistently. In reality, bar staff are busy, counts get rushed, and data entry lapses happen. If someone skips a week or counts only the high-value items, your variance numbers become unreliable. Craftable doesn’t force accountability or standardise your counting method — you have to build that culture separately.
Cost, Features and Real-World Value
Craftable operates on a tiered subscription model, typically £25–60 per month depending on features and number of locations. That adds up to £300–720 per year. For a single-unit independent pub, that’s a meaningful line item.
What you get for that money: a cleaner way to log counts and track variance than a spreadsheet. What you don’t get: pub-specific controls, automated cellar management, or financial integration that actually changes your bottom line.
Here’s the honest part: most pubs that move from a messy spreadsheet to a disciplined count routine claw back 1–2 GP points within a couple of months — regardless of which tool they use. The tool matters less than the discipline. At my own pub I was running stock on a tangle 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. A £97 one-time tool beats a £50-a-month subscription if it actually addresses the thing that’s losing you money.
The StockTap pub stock app is designed specifically around this: actual dip readings, till reconciliation, and wet/dry split tracking — without the monthly subscription trap.
Is Craftable the Right Fit for Your Pub?
Craftable might work if:
- You run a multi-unit operation and need centralised stock reporting across locations.
- Your team is already disciplined about counts and you just need a cleaner way to log data.
- You sell a lot of packaged goods (retail products, bottles to take away) and less focus on draught and spirits.
- You’re happy spending £25–60 per month on inventory software.
Craftable probably isn’t the right fit if:
- You run a single pub and need cellar-specific controls (dip tracking, temperature logs, line cleaning records).
- You want real-time financial visibility — actual wet GP, labour %, cash position — not just stock counts.
- Your team struggles with discipline or you need a system that forces accountability.
- You want to avoid monthly subscriptions and prefer a one-time tool investment.
- You want something built by someone who actually runs a pub and knows where the losses hide.
Craftable is a solid general inventory tool. If you’re comparing it to a spreadsheet, it’s an improvement. If you’re comparing it to purpose-built pub stocktaking software, it’s missing the core features that actually stop you losing money on wet stock.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Craftable integrate with pub EPOS systems?
Craftable can integrate with some till systems via API or CSV export, but the integration depends on your specific EPOS brand. Most modern tills allow data export, so you can usually get sales data out — but the setup is manual and varies by system. It’s not a seamless, built-in connection like you’d get with dedicated pub software.
Can Craftable track draught beer and cask stock separately?
Technically yes — you can create separate product lines for draught and cask. But Craftable doesn’t have built-in cask dip readings or cellar temperature tracking. You’d be manually logging data into custom fields, which defeats the purpose of having dedicated software. A proper cellar system needs actual dip records and temperature logs, not just notes in a general inventory app.
Is Craftable cheaper than hiring someone to do stocktake?
Craftable costs £25–60 per month. Hiring a manager or dedicated staff member to run weekly counts costs significantly more. But Craftable still requires someone to log data — it just makes that process slightly less painful. If you’re choosing between no counts and Craftable counts, Craftable wins. But the real saving comes from having someone actually do the counts properly, regardless of which tool they use.
Will Craftable reduce stock loss in my pub?
Only if you’re already doing counts and not investigating variance. Craftable highlights the problem — it doesn’t solve it. To actually reduce losses, you need someone physically checking stock weekly, dipping casks, weighing open bottles, checking cellar temperatures, and reconciling to till data the same day. The tool is secondary to the process. A 1% stock loss costs you £3,000–£5,000 per year, so discipline pays off regardless of which software you choose.
How does Craftable compare to doing stocktake on a spreadsheet?
Craftable is cleaner, faster to use on mobile, and easier to track variance over time. A spreadsheet is free and flexible but requires manual reconciliation and is easy to mess up. For a single pub operator, the jump from a spreadsheet to Craftable is a quality-of-life improvement, not a game-changer. The real improvement comes from moving from irregular, casual counts to a structured weekly discipline — and that works with either tool.
You now understand what Craftable does and doesn’t do. But there’s a bigger question: are you tracking your wet profit by line, your labour costs in real time, and your actual cash position?
Most pubs leave money on the table because they see headline stock figures instead of the numbers that actually matter.
For more information, visit SmartPubTools.