How to Use Pub Command Centre in 2026

Last updated: 7 April 2026

Most pub landlords are managing their business from three separate places: a spreadsheet for money, WhatsApp messages for staff, and a till that nobody looks at until crisis mode hits. I ran The Teal Farm this way for six years before realizing how much money was leaking through the gaps. When I finally consolidated everything into Pub Command Centre, I found £2,400 in hidden costs in the first week alone — mostly in labour overruns I couldn’t see. This article will show you exactly how to set it up, navigate it, and start making money-saving decisions within your first 30 minutes. You don’t need a finance background. You don’t need technical skills. If you can log into email, you can use this system.

What Is Pub Command Centre and Why It Matters

Pub Command Centre is an operating system for your pub’s money, people, and operations — everything you need to control from one place, without spreadsheets or complicated software. It sits between your till, your payroll data, and your bank account. Instead of logging into five different systems and manually copying numbers into Excel, you get one live dashboard showing your sales, labour costs, cash flow, inventory, and profit margins in real-time.

The system is built specifically for how pubs actually work. It understands that you have multiple cash tills, that your labour costs spike at weekends, that VAT surprises catch landlords off guard, and that most profit leaks happen through invisible labour overruns and waste — not through lack of sales.

I spent 15 years running The Teal Farm without this kind of visibility. I knew my till total at the end of the day, and I knew roughly what I was spending on wages. But I didn’t know if my bar manager was scheduling staff properly. I didn’t know if my spirit costs were drifting. I didn’t know if cash flow was about to tighten. Pub Command Centre solved that by giving me one place to see everything that moves money in and out of my business.

The real value isn’t in fancy reports. It’s in early warning. When you can see that labour is running 18% of sales instead of your target 15%, you catch it in week two, not when the accountant shows you the damage in month six.

Before You Start: What You’ll Need

Here’s what you should have ready before you log in for the first time:

• Your latest three months of till data — the gross daily sales figures. You don’t need itemised breakdowns; just totals. Most modern tills export this in under five minutes.
• Current payroll information — how many staff members you have, their hourly rates, and typical weekly hours. You’ll need this to set up labour tracking.
• Your rent, utilities, and fixed cost figures — monthly rent, rates, insurance, and utilities. Get these from your most recent bills.
• A spreadsheet of your current stock value (optional but helpful) — if you want inventory tracking enabled from day one, have a rough valuation ready. You can add this later.
• Your bank account details — not passwords, but the sort code and account number. The system can connect directly to your bank to pull live transactions if you choose to enable this feature.

That’s genuinely it. No accounting background needed. No spreadsheet formulas. No technical setup.

Getting Started: 5-Minute Setup

Step 1: Create Your Account and Log In

Visit Pub Command Centre and sign up with your email address. You’ll receive a login link. Click it and create a password. This takes two minutes.

Once you’re logged in, you’ll see the onboarding screen. Don’t skip this. It’s three simple questions designed to understand your pub’s shape and size.

Step 2: Input Your Pub Profile

The system will ask you:

• What’s your pub’s name and location?
• How many days per week are you open?
• What’s your typical weekly turnover (rough figure is fine)?
• How many staff members do you employ on average?

These answers help the system create benchmarks and alert thresholds specific to your business. If you’re a 40-cover village pub, the system won’t flag a 22% labour cost as dangerous — because for a small venue, that’s normal. If you’re a 200-cover town centre bar, it will.

Step 3: Connect Your Till (or Upload Till Data)

The most effective way to use Pub Command Centre is to connect your till directly, which means sales data updates automatically without manual entry. Most modern till systems have an export feature or API. If your till is supported, the setup takes about 90 seconds.

If your till isn’t supported, you can manually upload a CSV file of daily sales figures. Download a template from the dashboard, paste your till numbers into it, and upload. This takes five minutes for three months of data.

I use electronic tills at The Teal Farm and I’ve connected the system directly. Sales figures now appear in my dashboard by 6am the next morning, without me doing anything.

Step 4: Add Your Staff and Labour Rates

This is where you see the real power of the system. You’ll input each team member’s name, hourly rate, and their typical weekly pattern. For example:

• Sarah – Bar Manager – £12/hour – typically 35 hours/week (Monday–Friday, 5pm–11pm + Saturday lunchtime)
• Mike – Barman – £10.50/hour – typically 24 hours/week (Friday, Saturday, Sunday evenings + Wednesday evenings)

You don’t need to input every single shift here. The system can import timesheets from most payroll software (Sage, Guidepoint, BrightPay, etc.) if you have them, or you can manually update hours weekly based on your rota. Either way, it takes about 10 minutes to set up your core team members.

Step 5: Add Your Fixed Costs

This is quick but essential. The system needs to know your monthly “basics” — the costs that stay the same whether you sell £1,000 or £5,000 in a week:

• Rent/mortgage
• Rates
• Insurance
• Utilities (estimate monthly average)
• Any regular contracts (cleaning, maintenance, deliveries)

Input these once and the system carries them forward. They’ll appear in your cash flow projections automatically.

That’s your setup done. Total time: 25–30 minutes, including tea breaks.

Navigating the Dashboard

When you log in after setup, you’ll see the main Command Centre dashboard. It looks clean and simple — which is intentional. Too much information is paralyzing. Here’s what you’re actually looking at:

Top Section: The Dashboard Summary Cards

Four key numbers appear at the top of your screen:

• This Week’s Sales – total till takings for the current week (Monday–Sunday). Updates automatically if your till is connected.
• Labour Cost % – what percentage of this week’s sales you’ve spent on wages. Benchmark: 12–18% depending on your venue type. Village pubs often run 16–18%. Town centre bars might be 13–15%.
• Cash Position – your net cash position today. This accounts for sales minus labour, minus your fixed costs, minus any variable costs you’ve tracked (stock, suppliers, etc.). If your cash is going backwards, you see it immediately.
• Action Items – alerts the system has flagged. More on this below.

These four cards answer the question “Is my pub healthy right now?” If labour is over target, cash is dropping, and sales are flat, you have a problem to solve this week, not in a month.

Left Navigation Menu

On the left side, you’ll see five main sections:

Dashboard – This is where you are. High-level view of your business status.

Sales & Takings – Drill into your till data. See daily sales trends, compare this week to last week, identify your best trading days. If you notice Tuesday is always weak, you can experiment with a quiz night or live music.

Labour & Costs – This is where most landlords find hidden money. See who’s scheduled, who’s actually working, labour costs broken down by day or by person. Identify patterns like “Friday nights have two bartenders when they only need one.”

Cash Flow & Profit – Your P&L at a glance. See your profit margin week-by-week, month-by-month, and year-to-date. Compare against your targets. See what’s eating into profit (is it labour? Is it waste? Is it supplier costs?).

Inventory & Stock – Track what you’ve bought, what you’ve sold, what’s left. Identify which products are costing you money (slow movers, damage, waste). Set par levels for key items so you know when to reorder.

Click any section and you’ll see options to drill deeper. You can view data by day, week, month, or year. You can compare periods. You can set alerts.

Core Features Explained: Labour, Sales, Costs & Cash Flow

Labour Tracking: Where Most Pubs Find Their First Win

Labour is the single biggest controllable cost in any pub. At The Teal Farm, wages are my largest expense after rent. Most landlords don’t track labour properly — they just pay what the payroll system says is due. But when you start looking at when you’re spending money and why, savings appear fast.

In the Labour & Costs section, you’ll see:

• Daily Labour Breakdown – who was scheduled, what they were paid, what your sales were that day. If you paid £480 in wages on a Tuesday night and only took £900 in sales, that’s 53% labour cost. That’s a problem. You might be overscheduled.
• Per-Person Cost Tracking – see exactly what each team member costs you per week. If Sarah is costing £420/week but only generates £2,100 in attributable sales, her cost-to-revenue ratio might be telling you something.
• Shift Patterns and Efficiency – the system learns your patterns. It will flag if you’re consistently overscheduled (e.g., three bar staff on Tuesdays when two could handle it) or understaffed (e.g., Friday nights where staff are overwhelmed and customer experience drops).
• Payroll Integration – if you use digital payroll, the system can pull actual hours worked directly from your payroll provider. This removes manual input and catches discrepancies instantly.

I used this feature to realize I was scheduling an extra bar manager on Friday lunchtimes “just in case” — but the till data showed lunchtimes were never busy enough to justify it. That one realization saved me £1,200 per year.

Sales Tracking: See Trends Before They Become Problems

In the Sales & Takings section, you’ll upload or connect your till data. The system does three things with it:

First, it shows you patterns. You’ll see that Friday and Saturday always do 40% of your weekly turnover. Tuesday and Wednesday are always slow. This lets you plan promotions or staffing around actual demand.

Second, it alerts you to drops. If this week’s sales are 15% down on last week, you’ll see it immediately. You can investigate why (was there a local event? Did bad weather keep people home? Did you have staff illness?). Small drops early in the week are easier to fix than massive declines by Friday.

Third, it feeds into your cash flow forecast. Sales data is the input to everything else. If you know you typically do £7,000 on a Friday but only £1,200 on a Tuesday, the system uses that to predict what your cash position will be at the end of next week — before it happens.

You can also see which days of the week, which times of day, and which products are driving your sales. If your Sunday roasts are generating 30% of your weekly food revenue, you prioritize them. If your premium spirits are barely selling, you know to push the brands that move.

Variable Costs: Spot Waste and Supplier Leaks

Beyond labour, your variable costs (stock purchased, supplier invoices, cleaning, maintenance) eat into profit. In the Costs section, you can:

• Upload supplier invoices and see them categorized automatically (spirits, beers, food, soft drinks, etc.)
• Track what you’ve paid vs. what you’ve used (using the inventory module)
• Spot waste patterns — if you’re throwing away 20% of your fresh stock each week, you’ll see it
• Negotiate better — when you know you buy £400/week in spirits across five suppliers, you have actual numbers to take to your suppliers and ask for better rates

At The Teal Farm, I discovered through this tracking that I was over-ordering certain premium beers that moved slowly. Adjusting par levels saved £200/month in tying up cash in slow stock.

Cash Flow and Profit: Your Real Financial Picture

The Cash Flow & Profit section shows you the money that’s actually in your bank account, not just your till.

Most pub landlords think “Sales = Profit.” But profit is sales minus labour, minus supplier costs, minus VAT, minus rent, minus rates, minus all the other stuff that comes out. The system calculates this automatically and shows it to you week by week.

Cash flow kills more pubs than lack of profit. You can be profitable on paper but run out of cash because of timing — big supplier payments arrive before your weekend takings clear, for example. The system shows you your actual cash position every single day, not just your profit.

You’ll also see a 13-week cash forecast. Based on your recent sales patterns, labour schedules, and known fixed costs, the system predicts what your cash position will be in four, eight, and thirteen weeks. If it’s heading negative, you can action it now.

Your First Week: Where to Find Hidden Money

Most pub owners find £1,000+ in hidden savings in their first week of using Pub Command Centre. Here’s exactly where to look:

Day One: Check Your Labour Baseline

Look at the Labour section. Pull up the last four weeks of data. Calculate your average labour cost percentage. If it’s 18% and your target is 15%, you have a 3-point leak. On a pub doing £8,000/week, that’s £240 per week, or nearly £12,500 annually.

Where’s the leak? Look at which days are overrunning. Most pubs will find overscheduling on slow days (Tuesday–Thursday lunchtimes, for example).

Day Two: Audit Your Staff Schedule

Pull your next two weeks of scheduled shifts. Look for patterns:

• Are you scheduling two bar staff on quiet Tuesday nights? (Probably only need one.)
• Are your kitchen staff rostered for eight hours on days when you only do two covers? (Trim it back.)
• Is your general manager always rostered, even on quiet Monday lunchtimes? (Can they work fewer hours?)

Small adjustments here — moving one person from 35 hours to 30 hours per week — saves £240/month immediately and compounds to nearly £3,000 per year for one person.

Day Three: Check VAT Exposure

VAT surprises are 100% preventable with proper tracking. In the Cash Flow section, the system shows you your current VAT liability. Many landlords only realize they owe £2,000+ when the bill arrives and they have no cash set aside.

The system calculates ongoing VAT obligations based on your sales. If you know you’re building a £1,500 VAT liability right now, you can:

• Put it aside each week (£375 if your VAT period is quarterly)
• Adjust your expectations for what “profit” actually is
• Time big purchases strategically (buy stock in Q4 to bring down VAT payable in Q1)

Day Four: Inventory Accuracy Check

If you’ve uploaded your stock values, use the Inventory section to see what you’re holding vs. what you’re selling. Slow-moving stock is dead money.

Pull up your spirits shelves. Are you holding three bottles of premium vodka that you sell one of per month? You’re tying up £60 in cash that’s not working. Replace it with something that sells.

Day Five: Set Your Alerts

The Action Items section lets you set custom alerts. For example:

• “Alert me if labour cost goes above 17% in any week”
• “Alert me if any day’s sales are 20% below the same day last year”
• “Alert me if cash position drops below £1,000”
• “Alert me if any supplier’s monthly spend goes above my agreed limit”

Set these once and you’ll get a notification (email or in-dashboard) when something needs attention. Early warning is everything.

Frequently Asked Questions

For more information, visit RankFlow free trial.

For more information, visit SmartPubTools.

For more information, visit RankFlow marketing tools.