Essential pub stocktaking equipment 2026

Last updated: 26 June 2026

Most pubs lose between 1–3% of wet sales through stock variance every single year, and nobody notices because it’s hidden in the noise of daily trading. What you don’t measure, you don’t control—and what you don’t control costs you money. After fifteen years running a Marston’s pub, I’ve learned that a 1% stock loss on wet sales quietly costs a typical pub £3,000–£5,000 a year, yet most landlords have no idea it’s happening because they’re using spreadsheets held together with hope and rough guesses. The good news: proper SmartPubTools and a basic set of pub stocktaking equipment can turn that variance into a controlled number you can trust within a fortnight. This guide covers the physical kit and systems you actually need—no more, no less.

Why stocktaking equipment matters more than you think

The number that actually matters is wet GP by line, not a single headline stock figure. I spent my first few years running stock on a tangle of spreadsheets and still losing track of partial kegs and spirit measures. I’d do a monthly stocktake, find I was down £300, and have no idea which line had gone wrong. Was it the bitter? The lager? Spirits? I couldn’t pinpoint it because I was counting everything at once instead of watching individual product lines week by week.

Then 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. The moment I could see which cask, which spirit, which line was losing money, I could fix it. That’s when the real control started.

Most stock ‘theft’ is actually measurement error and forgotten wastage. You don’t find this out unless you weigh open spirit bottles, dip every cask and partial keg, and reconcile against till data the same day. That reconciliation is where the equipment becomes your early warning system. Without it, you’re flying blind.

The physical equipment every pub needs

Cask/keg dipstick

This is non-negotiable. A simple steel or plastic dipstick costs £8–15 and tells you exactly how many litres are left in every cask or keg in the cellar. You need one per line, or at least one that you use consistently. A dipstick is the only way to know what you actually have in the cellar rather than what you think you ordered. Without it, you’re estimating by eye, which is why stock variance hides itself so well.

Buy a dipstick marked in litres. Laminate a copy of the conversion chart for your specific keg size and pin it in the cellar. That takes five minutes and saves you from guessing every single week.

Scales for spirit bottles

A simple digital kitchen scale (£15–30) is essential for tracking open spirit bottles. A full 70cl bottle of spirits weighs a known amount; when it’s half-full, you know exactly what should be there. Weigh every open spirit bottle at the same time each week, record the weight, and you’ll spot over-pouring (a free-poured 25ml is often 32–35ml in practice) almost immediately.

This is where most pubs leak money and never notice. The till says 40 spirits sold, the bottle says 38. Two measures missing. Over a week, that’s 10–15 spirits. Over a year, it’s a bottle a day you’re pouring away for free.

Thermometer for the cellar

A basic glass or digital thermometer costs £5–10. Draught beer is best stored at 50–55°F (10–13°C). If your cellar is too warm, the beer degrades faster, you lose more to wastage, and the pour quality suffers. A simple weekly temperature log prevents you blaming stock loss on “just the way it is” when actually the cellar is at 65°F and you’re pouring 20% of every cask down the drain as poor-quality head.

Till printouts or EPOS export

This isn’t a physical item, but it’s equipment you need to use. Your till (or EPOS system) is the truth check. A weekly till reconciliation against your stock count tells you immediately whether your numbers are real or whether you’re fooling yourself. Run your cask dips and spirit weights on the same day you pull your till report, and reconcile them immediately. Do not wait a week. Do not do it “roughly.” Same day, same numbers, written down.

Notebook or count sheet

I use a simple printed sheet with lines for each cask, each spirit, and a reconciliation against till. You don’t need a spreadsheet template the size of a tax return. Simple columns: product name, dip reading or weight, till count, variance, notes. Print fifty copies and work through them week by week. The discipline of writing it down (rather than just looking) forces accuracy.

Digital systems: spreadsheets vs. specialist pub software

Here’s the honest truth: a messy spreadsheet works if you’re disciplined about it. But the moment you skip a week or get lazy with the format, it falls apart. I’ve seen spreadsheets that go back five years and are completely useless because column B changed halfway through year two and nobody remembers what the numbers mean.

Most pubs that move from a messy spreadsheet to a disciplined count routine claw back 1–2 GP points within a couple of months. That’s the GP you’re already paying for; you just have to stop haemorrhaging it through stock variance.

The spreadsheet trap

Spreadsheets are free and flexible, which is why most pubs use them. But flexibility is the enemy of consistency. You need a format that looks the same every single week, so you can compare week-on-week without thinking. Spreadsheets invite you to change columns, add new rows, reorganise the data, and suddenly you’ve spent an hour fiddling with formatting instead of actually doing the count.

If you’re going to use a spreadsheet, make a template and print it. Don’t use the electronic version. Write it by hand every week. I know that sounds backwards, but it works because you cannot skip it or rush it the way you can on a computer.

Why StockTap pub stock app beats both

StockTap is built by a working pub landlord (not a software company trying to guess what pubs need). It’s designed specifically around the three-number reconciliation: dip, weight, till. You log in, enter your weekly counts, and it shows you variance by line immediately. No formulas to break, no columns to reorganise, no spreadsheet drama. £97 once, no monthly fees, no subscription. It works on any device—phone, tablet, laptop.

The killer feature is that it tracks the same data the same way every single week. You can compare last week to this week without scratching your head trying to remember what column you used. And it exports to PDF so you have a paper trail for the breweries, the auditor, or the accountant.

Setting up a weekly count routine that actually works

Equipment is useless without a routine. Here’s the system that works in my pub, and I’ve seen it work in dozens of others once they actually commit to it.

Pick one day and time

Every Tuesday morning at 10am, I do the stocktake. Not sometimes. Not when it suits. Tuesday 10am. This matters because your staff know when it’s happening, you know when it’s happening, and it becomes a habit rather than a chore you forget about.

Do it in this order

• Step 1: Dip every cask and partial keg in the cellar. Write down the dipstick reading for each one.
• Step 2: Weigh every open spirit bottle. Write down the weight for each one.
• Step 3: Pull the till report for the last seven days (or whatever period you’re counting). Count the number of each product sold according to the till.
• Step 4: Enter all three numbers (dip, weight, till) into your count sheet or StockTap, same day, same hour. Do not wait.
• Step 5: Look at the variance column. If any line is more than 5% off, investigate immediately. Was there wastage? A spillage? A till error? Write it down.

That routine takes 45 minutes. It’s the difference between running blind and knowing exactly which products are losing money.

Common equipment mistakes (and how to avoid them)

Buying equipment you don’t need

I’ve seen pubs buy fancy automated stock-tracking scales, RFID systems, and cloud-based inventory platforms. Then they sit in a cupboard because the landlord couldn’t be bothered learning the software. A dipstick and a kitchen scale cost £30 total and require zero training. Use them first. If you’re comfortable with them after three months, then think about upgrading.

Not reconciling against the till

This is the number one mistake. You can have perfect dips and perfect scales, but if you don’t check them against what the till says you sold, you’re missing the biggest source of variance: till errors, comped drinks, or cash register mistakes. The till is not perfect, but it’s your only independent check. Use it.

Doing it too infrequently

Monthly stocktakes hide stock loss. By the time you realise there’s a problem, you’ve lost a month’s worth of GP. Weekly counts—even if they’re just a quick dip of the main lines and a weight of the spirits—catch the problem in days, not weeks. You don’t need to count dry stock weekly. Focus on wet, where the GP and the loss are both biggest.

Not recording wastage properly

Every time you pour a pint down the sink because the line wasn’t cleaned properly, or a spirit breaks because someone dropped it, or you comp a drink, write it down immediately. Don’t wait for the stocktake. Your count sheet should have a wastage column. Total it up at the end of the week and factor it into your variance check. If you’ve recorded 2 litres of wastage, the stock variance should match that within 100ml.

The real cost of cutting corners on stocktaking

I met a pub tenant last year who’d been running his pub for eighteen months without a proper stocktake. He thought he was making 65% GP on wet. His actual GP was 59%, and he’d never noticed. By the time he started counting properly, he’d already left £15,000 on the table.

The cost of not using stocktaking equipment is not the price of the equipment—it’s the stock loss you’ll never catch. A 1% variance costs £3,000–£5,000 a year. Most pubs run at 2–3% variance when they’re not counting. That’s £6,000–£15,000 a year. The equipment costs 30 quid. The cost of not using it costs you a car.

The brewery will do a stock check quarterly or when you change tenants. By then, the damage is done and you’re fighting to explain where the money went. Your own equipment and routine catch it in real time, which means you can fix it before it becomes a problem.