Stock counts

Count the bar to know what is really on the shelf. Anyone signed in can count on the iPad; an admin or manager finalizes the count, which sets each counted item's stock to what was counted. Inventory is only on plans that include it — see Plans and billing. On a plan without inventory, the iPad has no Count in More, and its day-start sheet doesn't offer to count.

How a count works

• A count is a list of lines, one per item. Each line holds the quantity the books expected when the line was made, and the quantity counted.
• A full count takes a line for every active item — the whole bar. A spot count starts empty, and in the back office you add just the items you want to recount.
• Starting a count freezes each line's expected quantity at the item's on-hand figure at that moment.
• Only one count can be open at a time. Every iPad and the back office work on that one.

Start a count

On the iPad

Who can do this: anyone signed in.

1. Tap ··· › Count. While a count is open, the tile reads "X / Y counted"; otherwise it reads "no count in progress".
   • Before the day starts, you can also count from the PIN screen: enter your PIN and, on the day-start sheet ("Hi, …"), tap Count inventory — without starting the day.
2. If a count is open, it opens where everyone left off. If none is open, a new full count starts straight away — there is no "are you sure".

• The iPad always starts a full count. A spot count started in the back office opens on the iPad as it is, with just its items.
• Counting from the day-start sheet doesn't start the day. When you close the count, the day-start sheet comes back with Start the day and Not now (see Signing in).

In the back office

Who can do this: admins and managers.

1. Go to Inventory › Counts and click Start count. While a count is open the button is greyed out: "A count is in progress — finish or cancel it before starting another."
2. In Start a count, pick Full count ("Snapshots every active item — count the whole bar.") or Spot count ("Starts empty — add just the items you want to recount.").
3. Optionally type Notes, for example "End of month, bar only". Only counts started in the back office have notes.
4. Click Start count. You see "Count started", and the count's page opens.

Count on the iPad

The count is a full-screen clipboard: one card per category with its progress, a search across the whole count, and an entry card per item with its own keypad. The count is blind — it never shows the expected quantity. Every entry saves as you go, so you can stop, close the screen and carry on later, on any iPad.

Count a shelf

1. Open the count (··· › Count). The top reads "Counted X of Y items" with a progress bar, and "Every count saves as you go — close this screen and pick up where you left off."
2. Tap a category card: Spirits, Wine, Beer, Mixers, Garnish, Food or Consumables. Each card shows how many of its lines are counted, and turns green with a check when they all are.
3. The list opens on Pending (X); switch to All (X) to see the counted lines too. When you use stock areas, the lines are grouped by area, with Unassigned last. Type in Search items to filter the list.
4. Tap an item, enter the amount on its card (see Enter an amount) and tap Save count.
5. The line shows the saved figure, for example "1820 ml", with a green check.

• Categories come in the order above, and items run A–Z within each one. Items show by their main name.
• Searches ignore accents and capitals: "limon" finds "Limón".
• Saving a line again replaces its figure.
• Another iPad's counts appear within 20 seconds, or at once when you pull down on the list.

Find one bottle fast

• Type in Search items on the main screen: the cards give way to a list across all categories.
• Or tap the barcode button beside the search and scan the bottle: its entry card opens. A code the iPad doesn't know yet asks once which item it is (see Items and stock).
• "That item isn't in this count." — the bottle has no line in this count, for example a spot count without it.
• "That code belongs to an archived item — restore it in the admin first."

Count one area or category

Tap Count only… and pick Everything, an area under Areas, or a category under Categories. The top then reads "Partial count · Bar" (with the area or category you picked), and the progress is for that part only. This only changes what you see: finalizing still posts every counted line of the whole count.

Stop for now

Tap the X at the top left. Nothing is lost. If you can't finalize, you can tap Done for today first: "You counted X of Y — tell a manager to finalize."

If a save fails

If a line can't be saved — weak wifi, for example — the iPad keeps your number and shows a red banner, "Not saved: …" with the item and quantity, and Retry and Discard. Several can stack, one per line. If the count itself can't be opened, the screen shows the error with Retry.

• The iPad can't clear a line back to "not counted"; only the back office can.
• If the count is cancelled in the back office while you are counting, the list empties at the next refresh.
• Once a count is finalized, saving more on an iPad that still has it open doesn't change stock. Close Count; opening it again starts a new count.

Enter an amount

The entry card takes the count the way a bar counts. For a bottle: whole bottles, plus the open bottle — by eye in tenths, or on a kitchen scale in grams. For anything else: the amount in its own unit. The card opens in your venue's counting method; switching on the card lasts for that card only. Waste uses the same card.

At the top, the card shows the item's name, the bottle size and area (for example "Bottle of 750 ml · Bar"), and the method: "tenths" or "weight".

Count a bottle in tenths

1. Type the number of full bottles on the keypad (Full bottles).
2. Under Open bottle (tenths), tap how full the open bottle is: 0, .1 … .9. The total shows as "= … ml".
3. Tap Save count.

Count a bottle on the scale

1. Take the pourer off and leave the cap on. Put the open bottle on the scale.
2. In weight mode, or after you tap ⚖ Weigh on the scale…, the keypad types into Open bottle on the scale first: type the grams. Then tap the Full bottles box and type the number of sealed bottles.
3. The card shows "open bottle … ml" and the total "= … ml". Tap Save count.

Count in tenths switches the card back to tenths.

Weigh a bottle for the first time

A count by weight needs the bottle's sealed weight (or its empty weight) first.

Who can do this: anyone can record a weight that's missing. Changing a weight already recorded needs an admin or manager: "This bottle's weight is already recorded — a manager can change it."

1. The card asks "Put a SEALED bottle on the scale": "This bottle's weight isn't known yet. Weigh one once — cap on, no pourer — and every later count weighs against it."
2. If Barform's shared catalogue knows the bottle, "Suggested weight from the catalogue: … g" shows with Use. Tap Use to take it. (This saves the sealed weight.)
3. Otherwise put a sealed bottle on the scale, type its grams and tap Save weight. The card then counts by weight.
4. No sealed bottle to hand? Tap Count in tenths this time — the line then says "No reference weight — counted in tenths" until you close the count — or Weigh an empty one instead.
5. Later, Weigh an empty one for exact counts records the empty weight too ("Put an EMPTY bottle on the scale"; Back returns).

• Weighing needs the connection: "Offline — the weight can be recorded once the connection is back."
• "That weight can't be this bottle — check the scale and the bottle." — the grams don't fit the bottle's size and category (see Items and stock).
• Other messages: "A weight must be between 1 g and 20 kg.", "This item is archived — restore it in the admin first.", "Only a bottle with a size in ml can be weighed.", "Sign in again to record a weight."
• If another iPad recorded the bottle's weight first, the card uses that weight instead of asking again.
• Changing a bottle's weight later doesn't change counts already saved.

Type the total instead

Tap Enter total in ml instead and type the millilitres (decimals allowed). Count in bottles instead goes back.

Count items that aren't bottles

Type the amount in Quantity (with the item's unit, for example Quantity (each)) — decimals allowed — and tap Save count.

Save a zero

An empty pad saves 0. If the line already holds a count other than 0, the card asks first: "Replace the saved count with 0?" — "This item was counted as …. An empty pad saves 0." — with Save 0 and Cancel. A 0 you type, or a bottle the scale says is empty, saves without asking.

How the amount is worked out

• Tenths: (full bottles + tenths ÷ 10) × the bottle's ml.
• Weight: full bottles × the bottle's ml + the open bottle's ml.
• Total: as typed.
• The open bottle from its weight:
  • with the sealed and empty weights: (grams − empty) × bottle ml ÷ (sealed − empty);
  • with only the sealed weight: bottle ml − (sealed − grams) ÷ density;
  • with only the empty weight: (grams − empty) ÷ density;
  • density by category: spirits 0.95 g per ml, wine 0.99, beer 1.01, mixers 1.04, anything else 1.00;
  • rounded to the whole ml, and never less than empty or more than a full bottle.
• Example: a 750 ml spirit that weighs 1,200 g sealed, with 900 g on the scale, has 750 − 300 ÷ 0.95 = 434 ml left.
• No grams, or 0, means no open bottle: just the full bottles.
• The keypad takes up to 5 digits. Full bottles and grams are whole numbers; a total or an amount for an item that isn't a bottle takes up to 2 decimals.

Choose the counting method

• Only admins can change it, and it shows only on plans with inventory (see Venue settings).
• The iPad reads it each time Count or Waste opens, so every iPad counts the same way.

Weigh new bottles after a delivery

A venue that counts by weight can't weigh an open bottle that has no reference weight. A delivery is when a sealed bottle is in your hand, so after you post a delivery on the iPad, Barform offers to weigh the delivered bottles that have no weight yet.

Who can do this: admins and managers — whoever posts the delivery on the iPad (see Receiving and supplier invoices).

1. Post the delivery on the iPad. If the counting method is Weight and a delivered bottle has neither a sealed nor an empty weight, Weigh a sealed bottle now opens. It says "These bottles have no reference weight yet, so a count by weight can't read them. Put a sealed one on the scale." and lists the bottles with their sizes. The first one is selected.
2. On the right, under the bottle's name:
   • If the catalogue knows the bottle, "Catalogue suggestion: … g sealed · … g empty" shows with Use. Tap Use to save that pair.
   • Otherwise put a sealed bottle on the scale (cap on, pourer off), type the grams under Sealed bottle on the scale and tap Save sealed weight.
3. The pane shows "Saved" and the weight in green, for example "Saved · 1200 g sealed", and the bottle gets a green check in the list.
4. The sheet moves to the next bottle still to weigh. Repeat.
5. When every bottle is saved, it reads "All bottles weighed" with a Done button. Tap Done. The delivery's own "posted" notice then shows.

• To correct a weight you just saved, type on the pad again — Save sealed weight comes back — and save the new figure.
• To skip, tap Later at the top left (it becomes Done once every bottle is saved). Bottles you didn't weigh stay without a weight; weigh them in the next count or type them in the back office.
• To weigh a different bottle first, tap it in the list. With none selected, the pane says "Pick a bottle to weigh."

Good to know:

• It lists each bottle in the delivery with a quantity above zero and no weight at all, once, in the delivery's order.
• Save sealed weight records the sealed weight. Use records the catalogue's sealed and empty weights together.
• The pad takes whole grams, up to 5 digits, and the same checks as the count card apply.
• The "Saved" line shows the weights Barform kept: if another iPad recorded the bottle first, its weight is the one shown.
• Every weight recorded here also teaches the shared catalogue.
• It never appears when the counting method is Tenths.
• A weight saved here can't be undone from this sheet. A manager corrects it on the item in the back office, or you type a new figure here.

Items added during a count

An item you create in the back office, import, or restore from the archive while a full count is open joins that count straight away, so it can be counted on the iPad. And when an iPad opens a full count that's already in progress, Barform adds any active item the count is missing. Spot counts never change this way.

Count a bottle added mid-count

1. Add the item in the back office (Items › New item), or restore it from Archived.
2. On the iPad's open count, wait for the refresh or pull down on the list. The item appears in its category as "Not counted".
3. Count it like any other line.

To pick up items that a long-open count is missing, close the count on the iPad and open it again (··· › Count). Every active item without a line is added.

• A new item joins expecting 0, because its opening quantity is recorded a moment after it's created. Its variance then reads as the whole counted quantity, which makes the count's total variance look bigger. The stock correction is still right.
• A restored item joins expecting its on-hand figure at the moment you restored it.
• An item that already has a line keeps it — no duplicates, however often it's archived and restored.
• The back office's count page doesn't add missing items by itself; the iPad does, when it opens the count.

Count in the back office

Who can do this: admins and managers.

The count's page lists every line with its expected and counted quantities and the variance, updated as you type. You can enter or correct counts there, clear a line and — on a spot count — add and remove items.

Enter or correct a count

1. Go to Inventory › Counts and click the open count. It shows All lines, grouped by stock area when you use areas; Counted and Uncounted narrow it. Search items filters by name.
2. Click the Counted box on a line and type the quantity in the unit shown beside the box — millilitres for a bottle, for example 1820 — not bottles.
3. Click away or press Tab. The line saves, and Variance and Variance ($) update.
4. To make a line "not counted" again, empty its box and click away.

The box reads numbers like the other inventory boxes: 1,500 is fifteen hundred, 1,5 is one and a half, and a figure that could mean either, such as 1,50.0, shows "Enter a valid quantity" instead of a guess.

Build a spot count

1. In Add an item to count…, type and pick an item. It's added at once, expecting its on-hand figure now, and the box is ready for the next one. When nothing is left to add, it reads "All items added".
2. To remove a line, click its X (Remove item).

Good to know

• Variance = counted − expected. Variance ($) = the variance × the item's average cost, rounded to the cent.
• Lines run A–Z within each area; areas come in walking order, with Unassigned last.
• "Enter a valid quantity" — the figure is negative or can't be read.
• The page doesn't update by itself when an iPad saves; reload it.
• Only a spot count takes items by hand ("That item is already in this count." if it's there). A full count takes its items automatically.

Finalize a count

Finalizing ends the count and sets every counted item's stock to the quantity counted. Lines nobody counted are left exactly as they were. After that, the count is read-only history.

Who can do this: admins and managers. On the iPad, only a signed-in admin or manager sees Finalize Count — there is no way in with a manager's PIN. Everyone else sees Done for today and tells a manager.

On the iPad

1. On the main count screen, tap Finalize Count. It's greyed out until at least one line is counted.
2. Confirm "Finalize count?" — "Stock corrections post for every counted item. Uncounted items are left unchanged." — with Finalize.
3. "Count complete" says "X adjustments posted from Y counted items." Tap OK; the screen closes.

In the back office

1. On the open count's page, click Complete. It's greyed out until a line is counted.
2. Confirm Post count — "Post this count? X item(s) will be reconciled to the counted quantities." — with Post count.
3. You see "Count posted". The page now shows the posted count, with Draft purchase orders from this stock → (see Purchasing and suppliers).

What finalizing does to stock

• For each counted line, Barform posts a Count correction of the counted quantity minus the item's on-hand figure at the moment you finalize — not the expected figure. A correction of zero writes nothing. Uncounted lines are skipped, never set to zero.
• So sales made while the count was open are kept. Example: expected 10, 2 sold during the count, counted 7 — the correction is −1, and stock ends at 7. The count's variance (counted − expected) reads −3, because it includes what moved while the count was open.
• Finalizing on the iPad records each counted line's variance and its value at the item's cost at that moment.
• Counted lines of items archived during the count are posted too. The corrections show in Activity (see Items and stock).
• An empty count is refused: "Enter at least one count before completing."
• If two people finalize at once, the first one wins. The back office answers "This count is already being completed." or "This count is already complete." On the iPad, finalizing a count someone else has just finished still shows "Count complete", with "0 adjustments posted from Y counted items."
• If the back office can't post one of the corrections, the count is reopened ("Could not post the correction: …"); finalizing again skips the lines already done. If finalizing fails on the iPad, the screen shows the error with Retry, and nothing is posted.
• There is no undo: a finalized count can't be reopened or deleted ("Completed counts can't be deleted."). Correct a figure with a new count, or with Items › Adjust.

Review past counts

Counts lists your 50 most recent counts, newest first.

1. Go to Inventory › Counts. Each row shows the type (Full count or Spot count); a badge — In progress, Partial: X of Y or Complete; when it started or finished; "X/Y counted"; the notes; and, for a posted count with a difference, the variance in money (amber) over "variance".
2. Click a count. The summary shows Lines counted ("X / Y"), Net variance and Largest variances — the five lines that moved the money most, either way.
3. The table — Item, Expected, Counted, Variance and Variance ($) — opens on Counted for a posted count; All lines shows the rest. The footer totals the variance.

• Partial means the count was posted with fewer lines counted than it held.
• A count started on one day and finished on another shows both: "Started … · Completed …".
• Times are in the venue's time zone.
• All figures are in the item's unit — millilitres for a bottle. Count pages don't convert to bottles.
• Any variance other than zero is amber, a surplus as much as a shortage.

Cancel an open count

Who can do this: admins and managers, in the back office. The iPad can't cancel a count.

Cancelling deletes an open count and every quantity entered in it. Stock isn't touched. A finalized count can't be cancelled.

1. In Counts, click the bin icon on the open count's row, or Cancel count on its page.
2. Confirm "Cancel this count? Entered quantities will be discarded." with Cancel count.
3. You see "Count cancelled".

An iPad that has the count open shows an empty list at its next refresh. Opening Count again starts a new full count.

Reminders to count

Two places remind you to count: a line on Today and a banner on Items. Both say the on-hand figures are estimates until a full count is done.

• Today › Needs attention: "Stock has not been counted since …" or "Stock has never been counted" (see Today).
• Items: the banner with Start a count.

1. Click the line on Today, or the banner's link. Inventory › Counts opens.
2. Start a full count (or count on the iPad) and finalize it.

• Both look at the last finalized full count: they show when there is none, or when it was finalized more than 30 days ago. A spot count doesn't reset them.
• The Items banner also shows when fewer than 80% of active items have ever been counted, even after a recent full count.
• A full count finalized with only a few lines counted still clears the line on Today.

Related

• Items and stock
• Waste
• Receiving and supplier invoices
• Venue settings, hours and targets
• Today