See Pub Command Centre in Action: Live Demo Guide

Last updated: 8 April 2026

Most pub landlords never see a proper demo before they buy. They get a sales video or a few screenshots, then they’re left figuring it out alone. That’s how you end up with software gathering dust on a shelf while you’re back to running spreadsheets at midnight. A real demo should show you exactly what you’ll be doing on day one — not a polished fantasy version that takes weeks to set up.

At The Teal Farm, we’ve spent the last 15 years running pubs without proper visibility. We’ve lost track of labour costs, missed cash flow problems until they hit us, and watched inventory disappear without knowing why. The difference between guessing and knowing is the difference between surviving and thriving. That’s why I built Pub Command Centre — to show you exactly where your money is going, right now.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through a live Pub Command Centre demo, showing you exactly what you’ll see when you log in, how you’ll track your numbers, and why this changes everything about how you run your business. No fluff. No sales pitch. Just reality.

What You’ll See When You Log In

The first screen is your command centre. No clutter. No unnecessary tabs. One dashboard showing you the health of your business in a single glance.

When you open Pub Command Centre, you’re looking at a real-time overview of four numbers that actually matter: today’s sales, today’s labour cost, your cash position, and your inventory status. These are the four levers that control every pub business. Everything else is noise.

On the left side, you’ll see a date picker. Select today, yesterday, or any date in the past 12 months. The entire dashboard updates instantly. You’re not waiting for reports to run. You’re not digging through files. You’re seeing the information you need, when you need it.

The colour coding is intentional. Green means healthy. Orange means watch this. Red means act now. This isn’t guesswork — it’s based on your own numbers and the thresholds you’ve set. If your labour percentage hits 28% (when you’ve set 25% as your target), the system flags it. You see it before the problem compounds.

The Sales & Revenue Dashboard

The sales section breaks down every penny that came into your pub today, yesterday, or any period you want to review. Bar sales, food sales, accommodation (if you have rooms), function income — it’s all separated so you can see where your money is actually coming from.

Most pubs never know which part of their business is actually profitable. You might think food is killing you, but the numbers say otherwise. You might think your wine list is a luxury — actually it’s 40% of your gross profit and nobody ever told you.

With the demo, you’ll see three views:

• Total sales — the raw number you took today
• Net sales — what’s left after VAT and discounts
• Gross profit — what you actually made after Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)

This matters because turnover lies. A pub that does £2,000 in sales with 60% COGS is actually in trouble. A pub that does £1,500 with 40% COGS is beating it. Most landlords only look at the first number. That’s why they’re shocked when they run out of money.

In the demo, you can click on any day and see the breakdown by category — spirits margin, beer margin, wine margin, food margin. You can compare Monday to Friday. You can spot the moment your manager changed suppliers and accidentally lost 3% on your margins.

This visibility alone saves most pubs thousands a year. Once you can see what’s actually selling and what’s actually profitable, pricing and stocking decisions become obvious instead of guesswork.

Real-Time Labour Cost Tracking

Labour is the single biggest controllable cost in any pub. At The Teal Farm, we were spending £18,000 a month on wages without ever knowing if that was tight, wasteful, or reasonable. Now we track it to the hour.

The labour section of Pub Command Centre shows you your labour percentage in real time. Not at the end of the month when it’s too late to change anything. Right now. Today. This shift.

Here’s what the demo shows:

• Total labour cost — wages paid today (or any date you select)
• Labour percentage — labour cost as a percentage of sales
• Staff on duty — who’s scheduled, who’s clocked in, who’s taking a break
• Variance to budget — how far you are from your target percentage

If you budgeted for 20% labour and you’re at 28%, you’ll see it immediately. You’re not closing the books three weeks later and wondering where the money went. You’re making decisions in real time. Send someone home early. Ask if you really need both bars open. Call the owner and explain what’s happening before the damage is done.

Most pub owners find £1,000s in hidden savings in the first week just by looking at labour data they never had before. You’ll see shift patterns that don’t make sense. You’ll notice that Tuesday is overstaffed by 40% every single week. You’ll spot the person clocking in 45 minutes before they actually arrive. These aren’t accusations — they’re facts in the system.

In the demo, you can also see a 30-day rolling average. This shows your true labour percentage over time, smoothing out the lumpy days. If you’re consistently at 26% and your target is 25%, you know you have a systemic problem — not just a bad Tuesday.

Cash Flow Forecasting That Actually Works

Cash flow kills more pubs than lack of profit. You can be profitable and still run out of money on a Thursday. This is the number that keeps landlords awake at 3 AM.

Pub Command Centre forecasts your cash position seven days out based on your actual trading patterns and known expenses. No guessing. No prayers. Just maths.

In the demo, the cash flow section shows:

• Today’s bank balance — the absolute truth from your account
• Expected cash in — based on your average daily sales for this day of the week
• Fixed costs due — rent, rates, loan repayments, known invoices coming
• Projected balance in 7 days — where you’ll stand next Thursday

If your forecast shows you’ll be £2,000 short next Wednesday, you’re not standing in a supplier’s office on Tuesday begging for credit. You ordered stock yesterday when you saw the problem coming. You delayed a non-essential payment. You called your bank before they called you. You made decisions from information, not desperation.

We’ve all been there — the moment when you realise payday is Thursday and you only have £1,500 in the account. It’s terrifying because it’s always a surprise. Pub Command Centre makes it never a surprise again.

The demo also shows you a rolling 12-month view so you can see seasonal patterns. Your cash position is usually tight in January and strong in August. Knowing this, you can plan ahead. You don’t panic in December thinking you’re going under — you understand it’s normal, and you’ve already set aside money from November to cover it.

Inventory Control at a Glance

Inventory is the easiest place to bleed money in a pub. A bottle of spirits costs £15. If you lose one a week to spillage, overpours, or just poor tracking, you’re losing £780 a year. Most pubs lose much more.

The inventory section of the demo shows you what’s in stock right now, what’s running low, and what’s been used since yesterday.

Inventory in Pub Command Centre works in two ways: automatic and manual. If you have a tills system that talks to the software, every pour updates your stock levels instantly. If you don’t, you do a weekly count and the system calculates what should have been used versus what actually disappeared. That difference is your wastage, your spillage, or your theft.

In the demo, you’ll see:

• Stock value — how much inventory you have on hand (at cost)
• Stock turns — how fast you’re moving product (weekly, monthly)
• Variance — what should be gone versus what is actually gone
• Low stock alerts — items that need reordering

If your variance is 5%, that’s normal. If it’s 12%, you have a problem. Is someone pouring too heavy? Did the new manager not get trained on measures? Is someone stealing? The system doesn’t judge — it just shows you the facts so you can investigate.

Most pubs using SmartPubTools inventory tracking reduce wastage by 30% in the first month just by having visibility. You’re not accusing staff — you’re managing better. You’re training to the numbers. You’re making decisions based on data.

How Fast You Can Get Set Up

A proper demo needs to show you the real experience — and that includes setup. The good news: there is no complex setup.

Pub Command Centre takes 30 minutes from first login to full operation. No formulas. No technical knowledge. No consultant needed.

When you first log in, the system asks five questions:

1. What’s your pub name and address?
2. What’s your current bank balance?
3. What are your monthly fixed costs (rent, rates, loan repayments)?
4. What’s your target labour percentage?
5. What’s your target gross profit margin by category (beer, spirits, wine, food)?

That’s it. Ten minutes to answer those. The system builds your dashboard instantly. Your numbers are live. You’re ready.

In the demo walkthrough, you’ll see this setup in real time. It’s anticlimactic because there’s nothing to be complicated about. You’re not installing servers. You’re not learning database structures. You’re telling the system what matters to you and it shows you the data against those targets.

From day one, you have a working command centre. You start entering today’s sales, labour, and costs. The system shows you your numbers. You see patterns. You make better decisions. That’s the entire promise.

If you have a tills system or an accounting package, the demo also shows how Pub Command Centre integrates with it. Many pubs upload their till data weekly. Some integrate directly so it’s automatic. The demo will show both flows depending on what you use.

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