What should I check in a weekly bar sales review?
By Better Bartender · Published
Check reporting completeness first, then compare sales, quantities, realised prices and menu contribution over comparable trading days. In an illustrative week, £12,000 from 1,200 recorded serves means £10 revenue per serve; it does not mean a £10 average customer bill.
1. Confirm you have a comparable week
Write down the venue, currency, timezone and reporting cut-off. Confirm that every expected trading day is represented and distinguish a closed day from a missing report. A Friday shift ending after midnight can be split differently by different exports. Use the same rule for both weeks.
Note closures, private hires, opening-hour changes and items unavailable for sale. Keep gross sales, net sales and payment settlements separate. Choose the provider’s appropriate sales field and keep that definition stable across the comparison.
2. Separate revenue from the number of drinks
Suppose last week recorded £12,000 revenue and 1,200 serves, while this week recorded £12,600 and 1,050 serves on the same revenue basis. Revenue rose 5%, but quantity fell 12.5%. Average realised revenue per serve rose from £10 to £12.
Those figures do not prove customers accepted a price increase. Higher-priced drinks, fewer discounts, different variants or a change in recording can affect the average. Break the movement down by useful product categories, then examine the items contributing most to the difference.
3. Check the menu behind the total
For each relevant item, review quantity, realised revenue and a current ingredient cost where available. Missing recipe costs should stay unknown. Use menu engineering to compare popularity and contribution together, and note service complexity before promoting an item.
Do not describe a higher sales total as a profit increase without the cost evidence. Labour, rent and other operating expenses sit outside ingredient contribution. If your question is about physical usage, add stock counts and variance checks.
4. Turn one finding into an action
Choose a change small enough to evaluate: correct an item button, check a recipe yield, investigate a stockout or test a clearer menu description. Record the owner, the date, the expected sign of improvement and the follow-up period. Keep other changes visible rather than crediting everything to one intervention.
For example, a falling quantity for one cocktail alongside stable category quantity might justify checking its availability and staff knowledge. It does not justify assuming the guests dislike the recipe. Ask the service team what happened before changing it.
A reusable meeting agenda
- Are all expected reports present and reconciled?
- What changed in sales and recorded quantities?
- Which three items explain most of the movement?
- What service or availability context changes the interpretation?
- What one action will we take, who owns it and when will we review it?
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