Overview

AccuBar is a sophisticated beverage management program that uses Pocket PC PDAs to scan the barcodes on the labels of liquor, beer and wine bottles, as well as virtually any other items you may have in inventory. The PDA quickly collects counts to simplify tracking of:

• physical inventory
• receiving
• perpetual inventory
• supplier ordering
• transfers between locations
• banquet and event consumption
• large wine cellars
• requisitions
• empties
• variances
• slow-moving stock
• cost of goods

Once the handheld has collected the data, it syncs with a PC (or wirelessly) to send the encrypted files to our innovative back-end software. From there the user can log in through a secure website to perform many of AccuBar's functions.

Time savings that matter

Customers are reporting 50% to 80% time savings when using the AccuBar system.  That's a key benefit, because often it means the difference between a thorough, insightful inventory and one that has been rushed through after hours. And it can mean one manager efficiently completing the process with time to spare, instead of several burned-out managers having to work late or off hours. The food and liquor inventory process is crucial to controlling your costs, so you need a way to get it done quickly.

If you think that saving labor hours isn't important for your salaried employees, ask yourself:

• Are your staff members staying late at night, coming in early or working their off days to do inventory?  
• Is your turnover high? 
• Are there often mistakes in your inventory, perpetual and ordering? 
• Are your managers skimping on necessary tasks such as promotions, quality assurance, staff management and customer satisfaction?

 If you answered “yes” to any of these, AccuBar can turn those answers to “no.”

Here's how AccuBar can lower your costs

Inventory losses in the hospitality industry, for liquor, wine and beer in particular, are an enormous drain on revenues that many write off as a cost of doing business. All too often, shoddy inventory practices are a main reason. Without consistent, thorough, accurate inventories, it can be impossible to pinpoint problem areas or maintain even minimal staff accountability.

No more. AccuBar gives you the information you need to keep your costs in check, which can be a key to survival in a tough industry. With a few clicks, you'll see which items you've come up short on for the inventory period, and cost of goods for the various categories you've set up. You can then do spot-checks on your staff members to ensure they're meeting performance standards. You can even take daily inventories on your highest-volume items to quickly expose any losses. And that's a key point that separates AccuBar from inventory services and other systems: Our handhelds are always available to you to be used whenever you think increased control is needed. And they're so fast, they open up new possibilities for figuring out what's going wrong.

Inventory and more

AccuBar's main functions are inventory, receiving, breakage (empties) and transfers.  Not only does this track what's going on, it also provides you with an automatic perpetual so you know what you should have on hand at any time. Transfers between locations and returns of defective items are also covered. AccuBar also gives you the power to find out which items aren't selling, allowing you to consider stocking something else that might bring a better return.

Data entry minimized

We eliminate the data transposition and keying errors so often found in the liquor inventory process.  Once you tap the bottle outline, data entry is complete. And the count sheets that you're printing out will be obsolete; AccuBar can be entirely paperless, or the Excel-based reports it produces can be printed as needed.

Reports generated immediately

Since there is no data entry or third party involved, you get your reports back now in the form of live Excel spreadsheets.

New for Version 4.0: Interactive reports make it much easier to investigate the causes of your variances, or to see trends in beverage costs and other numbers.

Ordering and receiving

AccuBar recommends what you need to order for each supplier based on your current perpetual, par and reorder point.  The order is totally customizable.  When the order arrives, you simply scan the items, and any discrepancy from what you ordered is caught while the driver is still standing there.

New for Version 4.0: You can now order by category groupings as well as by supplier, enabling you to order just the wine you need, for instance; you can change the supplier as you're ordering; and you can now edit orders and include the supplier's invoice number and other notes.

Wine list management

Large wine lists bring special management issues, but AccuBar offers a lot of tools for getting the situation under control. See our page on wine inventory management for more info.

Banquets made easy

With AccuBar, you can start your banquets with partial bottles -- no more marrying.  This means you can account for every drop of your liquor instead of donating partials to the main bar. Also, AccuBar's speed comes into play because you can quickly check beginning and ending inventory for an event and get consumption data back in minutes. Follow the link for more information on how AccuBar handles the banquet inventory process.

New for Version 4.0: The banquet/event report can now report on multiple inventory locations within a single report. You can also select different pricing tiers for your various events.

Internal requisitions

AccuBar gives you the power to do full-cycle requisitioning and restocking for each inventory location. Each night, you generate a requisition that can be customized before it is placed. When the requisition is filled, any deficiencies are noted and the requisition is processed. A transfer is automatically generated, which keeps your perpetual up to date.

Inventory anything

AccuBar isn't only about counting liquor -- our system is so flexible you can use it to track food, glassware, china, toiletries ... any items essential to your daily operations. Items not in our database can be added in seconds.

New for Version 4.0: You can now receive items in fractional quantities, which will make it easier to receive food and other items. We've also added a few more units of measurement that are common in food (lb, gal, grams, kg).

Consistent results from different users

Our unique, patented technology eliminates the need to estimate levels.  You simply tap the fluid level on the bottle outline.  It's that easy. 

Power at the handheld

The AccuBar handheld is not just a counting tool.  From the handheld, you can do functions such as set par levels, check your perpetual and input cost changes during receiving. Also, AccuBar is now available in both Pocket PC and Palm versions, providing additional computing power.

New for Version 4.0: Now you can do certain tasks from anywhere, thanks to our new mobile web support. If you have a Windows mobile phone, or a Blackberry that supports the Opera-Mini web browser, and have Internet access on your account, you can perform management tasks on your AccuBar account using your mobile PDA.

Comprehensive bottle database

Our extensive bottle database covers almost any bottle you're likely to encounter.  And if it's not already in there, you can add it easily with a few simple keystrokes.

Quick return on investment

AccuBar will save you so much time, and eliminate so many errors in the inventory process, it will pay for itself quickly.  You should be able to see as much as a 50% to 80% time savings in the the overall process.  In addition, you get your manager back to doing what he/she should be doing: running your bar.

Monitor and compare multiple stores

Struggling to stay on top of more than one store? AccuBar's corporate account module will enable you to compare and check up on the activities of even the largest of organizations. And if you're fighting a constant battle to standardize and monitor the inventory item lists of your stores without completely taking away their autonomy, AccuBar has a solution.