Weekly pub stock check: what actually works

Last updated: 26 June 2026

Most pubs lose money on stock every single week without knowing it. A 1% variance on wet sales doesn’t sound catastrophic until you do the maths: for a typical £500,000 annual turnover pub, that’s a silent £3,000–£5,000 walking out the door each year. The worst part? You won’t find it in your headline stock figure. You’ll find it when you compare what should have been sold against what actually moved.

I spent five years running stock on a tangle of spreadsheets, dip charts I half-remembered, and a vague sense that something wasn’t adding up. Then I built a proper weekly stock check routine—nothing fancy, just disciplined—and the variance went from guesswork to a number I could actually trust within a fortnight. This guide tells you exactly what that routine looks like, why it works, and why every pub operator needs one.

You’ll learn how to set up a repeatable weekly count, what equipment actually matters, how to read the numbers that tell you whether you’re losing stock to over-pouring, line waste, or measurement error, and how to reconcile it all against till data before the week ends. Most importantly, you’ll understand why a brewery stocktaker’s annual visit doesn’t replace a weekly check—and why most pubs that move from scattered tracking to a disciplined count claw back 1–2 GP points within a couple of months.

Why weekly stock checks matter (and why your brewery stocktaker isn’t enough)

The most effective way to stop quiet stock loss is to measure what you have every week and compare it to what should have sold the same day. Here’s why the brewery stocktaker doesn’t do this job.

A brewery stocktaker comes once a year. They’ll count every bottle, every cask, every measure. If you’re down 5%, they’ll catch it. If you’re down 15%, they’ll definitely catch it. But a 1% variance—the kind that costs you 3-5 grand a year—lives in the space between annual counts. It’s the slow, invisible leak. Every week, your stock drifts by a small margin. Over a year, it becomes a wound.

And here’s the thing most pub operators don’t realise: that 1% loss is usually not theft. It’s over-pouring on spirits (a free-poured 25ml is often 32–35ml). It’s line cleaning waste you forgot to record. It’s a keg that’s still sat in the cellar at 8°C because the line temperature drifted and you didn’t notice. It’s measurement error. Once you know the difference between real loss and operational waste, you can fix it. But if you only look once a year, it’s too late.

A StockTap pub stock app or spreadsheet with discipline will show you week-by-week exactly where the drift is happening. Then you can close it—immediately.

What to count and what equipment you actually need

You don’t need much. I use a dipstick, a set of digital scales, a notebook, and a calculator. That’s it. Everything else is optional.

The essentials

• Dipstick: £3–5 from any brewing supplier. You’re measuring cask depth in centimetres and converting to litres using a cask volume chart. It takes 20 seconds per cask.
• Digital scales (kitchen scales work fine): For weighing open spirit bottles. A full 70cl bottle of vodka weighs 875g; you subtract the weight to get remaining volume. Accurate to the nearest 5ml with proper scales.
• A pen and paper, or a spreadsheet: Record the count as you go. Don’t rely on memory.
• Your EPOS till data: Pull yesterday’s sales report at the end of the count. You need this to reconcile.

Do you need an expensive app or a fancy system? No. But discipline matters more than software. If you use a battered spreadsheet with discipline, it beats a £300-a-month app you update once a month.

What you’re actually counting

You’re not counting every single bottle. You’re counting your biggest lines—the ones that move volume and hide loss.

• Draught lines: Every cask and every partial keg. This is where line waste hides.
• Spirits: Every open bottle. Over-pouring lives here.
• Wine and fortified: Any open bottles or kegs.
• Soft drinks: Only if you’re losing money on them, which is rare. Skip if cash-tight on time.

You do not count sealed stock. That’s inventory, not loss risk. You’re looking for the leaks in what’s actively being used.

The step-by-step weekly routine that takes 45 minutes

Run this every Monday morning (or your slowest day). Here’s exactly how.

Step 1: Cellar check (15 minutes)

Start in the cellar. Go cask by cask.

• For each full or partial cask: dip it, record the depth in cm, convert using the standard volume chart (which you’ll laminate and stick in the cellar). Write down the line name and volume remaining.
• Record the temperature. It should be 11–13°C. If it’s drifting above 14°C, you’re wasting product to line waste.
• Note any casks that are empty, or any lines that are disconnected or being cleaned.

Record as you go. Don’t try to remember eight cask dips five minutes later.

Step 2: Bar stock (15 minutes)

Move to the bar. Weigh every open spirit bottle. Record the weight, then subtract from the known full weight to get remaining volume. Do the same for any open wine or fortified bottles.

Note the date you opened each bottle. If a bottle’s been open for three weeks and barely moved, that’s a different problem—but you need to see it.

Step 3: Reconciliation (15 minutes)

Pull your EPOS till data from yesterday. For each line you counted, check what was rung through.

Example: You counted 32 litres of Guinness left in the cellar. Your till shows you sold 28 pints (about 16 litres). You started the week with maybe 55 litres (rough estimate from last week’s count). So: 55 – 16 (sold) = 39 expected; you have 32. That’s a 7-litre loss. Is there a partial keg on change-over? Did a line burst? Was there waste during a clean? Write it down.

The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is to spot patterns. If Guinness loses 7 litres every week for no good reason, you have a problem to investigate.

Step 4: Document and file

Keep a running record—spreadsheet, notebook, or app. At the end of four weeks, total the variances by line. That’s your real picture.

How to read your variance and spot real losses

The number that actually matters is wet GP by line, not a single headline stock figure. Here’s why and how to read it.

Let’s say your draught average variance is +2% (you count more than you expected). That’s fine—measurement error, a cask you topped up mid-week, something. But if your spirits variance is -3% every single week, something’s wrong. Either you’re over-pouring consistently (which you can fix by training or changing to metered pumps), or you’re not recording wastage (which you can fix by discipline), or you have a real leak (which you need to find).

The magic is in the consistency of the variance, not the size. A wild swing week to week (sometimes -1%, sometimes +3%) is measurement error. A consistent -2% every week is a behaviour or a problem.

Three common loss patterns

• Spirits variance (consistently -1% to -3%): Over-pouring. Free-pour a 25ml spirit and weigh it; you’ll usually find 32–35ml. Switch to optics or measured pours, or train bar staff on portion control. This is the biggest quick win in most pubs.
• Draught variance (fluctuates widely, sometimes -4%, sometimes +2%): Line waste or temperature. Check cellar temp is 11–13°C, ask staff if they’re running line clean twice a week (they should be, roughly 1–1.5 litres per clean per line), and check for keg leaks or tube splits.
• Wine/fortified variance (consistently negative, sometimes severe): Either staff are pouring large measures (common in gastropubs), or bottles are open too long. Introduce a glass pour control or a log of when bottles were opened. If a bottle’s been open more than two weeks, it should be in the bin.

The point: most stock ‘theft’ is actually measurement error and forgotten wastage. Once you know which line is the problem, you can fix it. And you can only know by counting weekly.

Common objections (and why they don’t hold up)

Objection 1: “I don’t have time to stocktake every week.”

A disciplined weekly count takes 45 minutes. You do it once a week on a slow day. Compare that to a 3-hour brewery stocktake once a year, or—more realistically—the hours you spend chasing unexplained discrepancies, wondering where money went, or finding out six months later that something was systematically wrong. Forty-five minutes a week prevents that.

Objection 2: “My spreadsheet works fine.”

If you’re updating it weekly with discipline, yes, it works. Most pub operators have a spreadsheet they think works, but they update it once a month, or forget to record wastage, or don’t reconcile to till data. Then it becomes cargo cult accounting—you have the data, but you’re not reading it. The system isn’t the problem; the discipline is. That said, if a spreadsheet is gathering dust, SmartPubTools has built StockTap pub stock app exactly for operators who know they should be tracking weekly but keep failing with a spreadsheet. It’s designed to make weekly counting feel less like an admin chore and more like a three-minute check-in. But the habit has to come first, regardless of the tool.

Objection 3: “Do I really need special equipment?”

No. A dipstick, scales, and a pen work. A £5 dipstick and a set of kitchen scales you already own will do the job. Don’t buy fancy kit before you’ve run a month of counts and proved the discipline works. Fancy kit is a confidence booster once you’re already committed.

Objection 4: “Won’t the brewery stocktaker just do it?”

Once a year. That’s the limit of what a brewery stocktaker can do, and they’re looking for major shrinkage, not your 1% weekly drift. They’re your safety net, not your weekly monitor. If you rely solely on the annual stocktake, you’ll miss the compounding loss that small weekly variances create. By the time the stocktaker arrives, you’ve already lost thousands.

Objection 5: “Is an app safer than a spreadsheet for my records?”

An app with cloud backup is technically safer (your data doesn’t disappear if your laptop fails). But the truth is that most pub operators lose data because they don’t back up the spreadsheet, not because the spreadsheet is inherently unsafe. If you’re disciplined about cloud backup or you use a system with built-in cloud storage, you’re fine either way. The question isn’t really about safety—it’s about whether the tool removes friction from the weekly habit. If a spreadsheet is sitting in an email you never open, an app you check in the morning is better. If you’re already checking the spreadsheet weekly, stick with it.

Making it stick: systems that don’t collapse

The hardest part of a weekly stock check isn’t the counting. It’s doing it every week for six months until it becomes automatic. Here’s how to make it stick.

Assign one person

If you say “everyone does it,” nobody does it. Assign one person—usually the manager or head cellarman—and make it part of their Monday routine. Fifteen minutes in the cellar, fifteen minutes on the bar, fifteen minutes reconciling. It becomes part of the week like any other task.

Do it on the same day at the same time

Monday 9am. Wednesday 10am. Whatever. Same slot every week. Your brain will slot it into routine muscle memory faster than if you chase it around the calendar.

Record it immediately

Write down the numbers as you count. Don’t estimate later. Estimation is where accuracy dies.

Reconcile to till data the same day

Pull your EPOS report and compare it the same morning. If you wait until Wednesday, you’ve already forgotten whether that keg change happened Monday or Tuesday, and the reconciliation becomes noise. Same day, same week.

Review monthly, not weekly

Don’t obsess over one week’s variance. Review the month. That’s where patterns emerge. One week you’re -2% on Guinness; the next week you’re +1%. Over the month, you’re dead-on or slightly negative. That’s normal. If the monthly variance is consistently -2%, that’s actionable.

Tell your staff

Don’t run stock checks like you’re auditing them. Tell your team: “We’re counting stock every Monday to check we’re measuring pours correctly, catching line waste, and making sure our numbers add up.” Most staff don’t want to cause loss. They want to work in a place that’s serious about the details. A weekly count, done transparently, usually improves behaviour because people know what’s being measured.

For the practical side of measuring what is actually left in a part-used container, see our full guide on how to measure a part-used keg or cask with the dipstick and weight methods.

This is part of our complete guide to cask ale wastage and loss control — where cask money disappears and how to protect your GP.