I’ve been searching for a system to assist our beverage department to reduce the amount of time it requires to take weekly inventory. The search stopped when I found AccuBar. When you have multiple units with multiple locations, you can imagine the amount of time spent manually counting inventory. The AccuBar system has dramatically reduced the time it takes to count inventory at every location. Not only is the system easy to use and extremely affordable, the AccuBar technical team created an interface to our inventory system which eliminates the manual entry of inventory and the mistakes that go with it. So there is time savings on the front and the back which translates to a very quick ROI. I cannot find one fault in the AccuBar system and highly recommend it to anyone looking to save time and money.”

AccuBar is an inventory software program that no beverage director or wine sommelier should be without. Our restaurants count inventory every 2 weeks and it used to take each of our 14 beverage managers upwards of 8 hours to count and enter inventory. It was also very inaccurate because after counting they would be so tired that there were many clerical errors in entering these counts. AccuBar not only makes counting easier but it eliminates any totaling or transferring of numbers to spreadsheets. As far as the wine cellar is concerned, AccuBar enables a sommelier to create barcodes and print them, which also keeps the room organized. I would highly recommend it to everyone but especially to multi-unit operators. We have saved money throughout our restaurant organization in time, labor and more accurate inventories.”

I geek out on that kind of stuff. Creating new categories was easy, adding new products was easy, along with getting it all organized how I wanted.

I’m able to uncover plenty of problems when using Profit Watch, While we have very high volume bars with cases of product consistently moving in and out, we can quickly check each location and match up what we are missing. From there we can figure out which camera to review when going back to check on bartenders if they’re over-pouring or theft.

Because AccuBar has the ability to generate bar codes, I thought it might benefit our Executive Steward in her efforts to more quickly and more accurately conduct quarterly inventory of china, glassware, silver, and other equipment. This helps better track breakage, maintain par levels, and generate supplier orders based on each quarter’s variance in inventory.

I would like you to know that I am very grateful for the acquisition of the AccuBar Handhelds and their uses at the Caribe Hilton. The acquisition of these handhelds for inventory purposes has been one of the best purchases we have made in many years. The AccuBar inventory system has been a considerable asset to the hotel and has helped us significantly reduce the costs of beverage. In addition, it has made the month end closing a much simpler and faster process. In fact, as recently as last month, an internal audit was made in the Hotel and the Inventory section of the audit obtained an A+ score, making the Caribe Hilton inventory section one of the bests in the region. In today’s fast paced, deadline oriented work environments, this handhelds are a convenient and very easy to use tool that makes the whole inventory process a simple and quick experience. I am very confident that we will keep using the AccuBar handhelds which, as a matter of fact, will me expanded to the Food, Supply, and Receiving areas of the hotel beginning in July, 2007. Thank you very much."

I have been extremely pleased with the AccuBar system and the tech support since we have successfully implemented it at David Paul’s Lahaina Grill. It is very user friendly and has certainly allowed us to improve cost controls, reduce labor costs and implement targeted profit watches, therefore well worth the initial investment. Rick Woodford and his team have always been extremely accessible and efficient in responding to questions or tech support. I can only highly recommend this system to my other colleagues in the industry.”

I have been in the food and beverage industry for the last 19 years. I have worked with various companies from restaurants, lounges, nightclubs and sports bars. Starting as a dishwasher to busboy, server to barback, bartender to manager and now general manager of a high volume sports bar. I have seen, worked with and developed the different practices of doing inventory (which I today believe is the most important and integral part of a successful company).As I (and most food and beverage managers) spend the majority of time dealing with inventory, you are always looking to increase efficiency. Spending a large amount of time with inventory, led the owner and I to not be able to focus on other important facets of our business. We decided to research for a more accurate, smarter and technological way of doing our inventory. After many Google searches and industry recommendations we landed upon AccuBar.I was originally stressed about having to implement an entire new system into our company but knew we needed to keep up with today’s competition. After being presented with the AccuBar product by their staff, it was such smooth sailing- seriously! Their customer service puts you at ease and helps you at every step.Using AccuBar has increased my understanding of how important inventory is to business. Most importantly, it gives me peace-of-mind knowing my inventory is precisely accounted for. One of my favorite things about using AccuBar for over a year now is having everything recorded and tracked online; therefore, anytime I need to go back and reference a price or a number – it’s right in front of me and easily readable.I would like to say thank you to the AccuBar engineers, sales staff and tech support for all your help and understanding to inventory as a whole. Being able to track my inventory and improve my pour cost, decrease my variances, order from my vendors with a single click and actually map my products through our POS has helped my restaurant in so many ways – especially time and profitability! The best part (besides the fun and time-saver of scanning barcodes) is keeping the owner happy by actually showing him the improvements through AccuBar’s tools and spreadsheets.

In the nearly 20 years I have been doing monthly beverage inventories, I have never been so impressed with anything to help with inventories as I have been with your AccuBar product. I used to delegate the process out, because it can be so tedious and frustrating. With your product, I do the inventory myself, quickly and accurately. No dread at all. It’s easy and I think a very good value. Has already paid for itself in just piece of mind (accuracy of inventory). Thank you very much.”

I spent countless hours developing my own inventory system utilizing multiple linked spreadsheets and complicated formulas. At the end of each inventory period, I would print out all the various inventory logs for my managers to utilize in performing the inventory. Three or four managers would then go through the entire restaurant calling out liquors, beers and weighing kegs while one manager was writing all the numbers down on the inventory logs. All the partial bottles would then have to be added up and entered into the computer. Once these logs were completed, I would spend on average 6 to 7 hours compiling the data to come up with my inventory numbers. The end product looked real nice, but the human error element was tremendous. I had been aware of the AccuBar inventory system for quite some time, but always had been putting off making that initial call. Once I did make the call, I never looked back! Not only was the price considerably less than what I had anticipated, the level of service from the first call, to final implementation and technical troubleshooting (Yanni is great) has been excellent! The hardest part of the whole process was convincing the staff that this was going to be significantly easier for them and would ultimately save thousands of dollars in labor and increase accountability. Two days after I placed the order, the scanner arrived and within one week we had all the managers trained, our Aloha POS interfaced with AccuBar for both sales and virtual consumption and we were gathering live data daily with extreme ease. The inventory process is now streamlined to where I don’t have to get anything ready for inventory, one manager does all the inventory by himself in about one quarter of the time and once the inventory is uploaded, I have my final numbers within 5 minutes. Receiving inventories allows me to check prices and numbers on a daily basis and perpetual inventory allows us to spot check what should be on the shelves at any given time and greatly facilitate our ordering process. Several months after starting AccuBar in our first store, we purchased a second system for our second store. The great advantage here is that all the managers at the first store were so enthusiastic that selling the concept to the other managers was never an issue. The bar manager at the first store said “the system is so easy to use and versatile that it will even scratch your back if you want it to.” Secondly since I can’t be physically present at the second store as much as I would like to be, having the ability to upload the inventory numbers on a daily basis gives me much greater access and control. There are very few products that I have utilized in this industry that have saved me as many headaches, money and frustrations as AccuBar has. All future stores which I will open are going to have AccuBar as their only bar inventory system. Great product, great service, great price . . . a definite must have in the bar and restaurant industry.”

You guys are probably our favorite company we deal with in our entire system. The support from AccuBar has been unbelievable.

Most importantly for our diners, when they find [a wine] on our website or on the wine list in our dining room, it is actually what we do have, with no 86 on [any] wine. We’re very happy and it’s been very helpful for us.

AccuBar is a very easy, handy tool to help you achieve anything and everything you can think of with your beverage program.”

We’re excited about growing with AccuBar and very excited that AccuBar is innovating in new ways, AccuBar is a valuable and trusted partner in our business.

The tools it’s given us when used properly have allowed us sustainable growth with a very close eye on the bottom line. Though we now have a much larger operation, we are in touch with each store’s beverage program at just a click away. AccuBar will always be a necessary expenditure with all of our new store build outs.

The support team has been helpful and encouraging to new managers learning the system over the years. Turnover in management is expected and it is nice to have AccuBar support available to guide them through the system and the processes

I, as the instructor, use the iWineList daily during our pre-service meetings, Each day I sample 1-2 of our beverages (cocktails, cordials and beers included) to the current class of servers. The student servers use the iWineList both as a prompt of information during class, and even on their mobile device outside of the classroom and restaurant for furthering their knowledge.

I knew I was having problems with inventory at my bar, but I didn’t know it was this bad. I am a small sports bar with one cash register (no POS system) and was taking a monthly inventory. I often would look at my Inventory and have no idea what I was looking at, and what to do with what I was looking at. I started using AccuBar on September 16th and my pour cost was at 34%, I knew this was way too high. The next week my pour cost went down to 24% and it has not gone above 25.8% since.

We are still evaluating the full impact of the AccuBar system, but have already noticed some benefits and anticipate additional savings as we become more adjusted to the new process. We have already been able to halve the labor cost of taking the end of month beverage inventory. Unit total and cost errors have for the most part been eliminated. Inventory summaries are available to management two days earlier than in pre AccuBar days. Print outs are available in a far more professional format. Prior concerns which later proved to be unfounded centered on whether promised labor savings, timeliness and accuracy would be immediately achievable. We however were able to see significant improvement at once in these areas.”

We have just opened another Blue Fish location in Houston, Texas. Once I placed an opening liquor order and the order arrived I felt that there is something that I forgot to order!! The AccuBar system! How could I forget. I immediately picked up the phone and placed an order. For almost 6 years we have used this system and utilized it to its fullest. It is the only system on the market now, which integrates with the back of the house and Aloha restaurant software. Something I must have! The system works well without any major problems or issues. Every time I have called with a question or a problem, it has been handled to my fullest expectations. After using AccuBar i am not sure how you are able to run a full size bar with over 200 items without full inventory. Just be careful, once you try it and use it for few weeks you cannot go back! 6 locations and that is the only way I can manage all of them. Also you can use it to inventory anything with the bar code. Thanks AccuBar.”

This system is by far the best that I have seen and I’ve been looking a long time. If you are in Tucson, AZ or close enough to take a look for yourself don’t hesitate to contact me and I will show you how it works; its ease of data entry, its ease of entering bottle volume, its ease of entering counts for everything else beyond liquor and beer, it’s ease of counting empties and receivables, its ease of eliminating errors and its ease of obtaining profit reports. Not only that but, another benefit is reordering which is time saving and has reduced my costs as well. If you are serious about your inventory, this is a great answer to your concerns. I’ll be available to anyone who wants to see how this system works before making the purchase.

I’ve been a fan of AccuBar for years, and I love what it does for Margaritaville. For our restaurants, the advantage of having a product like AccuBar is that it truly takes the guesswork out of our inventory process. If we have a bar manager take inventory one week and an AGM the next week, we get the same results. Another thing I like about AccuBar is that every one of our restaurants uses it in a different fashion. Some use the full system, others just take beverage inventory, and one restaurants counts every single inventory item with AccuBar, including food and other items. As for the time we’ve saved on taking inventory, if it’s not cut in half, it’s more than half. One location shaves six hours off of inventory every week. Now that AccuBar interfaces with our back-of-house systems, it takes two minutes to input and get a nice clean report. The interface team was excellent and really enabled us to hit our goals. The handheld is incredibly easy to use, and updates are always available and easy to install. We’ve had one handheld running consistently since we bought it almost a year ago and it has held up great under heavy use. Your support team has been incredible. They have been able to quickly answer any question or concern that we might have. Overall, I’m very impressed with how your company has been able to offer such a solid combination of functionality, ease of use and support.”

I felt compelled to write you and thank you for getting us AccuBar. I know that we’ve only had it for a couple of months, but I have to tell you we love it already! We had been working with “The Beast” for almost a year and it was awful. The website and the handheld unit took forever to load, adding barcode-less products was a 4-step process, and many of our high end scotches, cognacs and wines were not recognized by their system as well as being in the wrong categories. I could not even correct any of this myself. I had to attempt to get in touch with a real person in California because even my local sales rep could not help me with those changes. Even if I got in touch with somebody to make changes no one could change the reports. They were static. So even if I changed my inventory numbers (which was a time consuming chore) the reports didn’t change. Inventory always took us between 7 and 9 hours to do, and we always had to have barcodes printed for the barcode-less items and either post them or carry them around with us. Now with AccuBar I can change anything I want to; categories of items, inventory points and even the names of my items. Barcode-less items I can just type in on the website once and we don’t have to carry around barcode sheets anymore, we can just look up our items on the handheld unit. It is so much easier it’s almost silly (but much safer since some of our products are on high shelves). Inventory now takes us about half the time it used to. The feature that I particularly love is being able to link items on the website. So now it does not matter if one manager calls an item “Cintron” and another calls it “Absolut Cintron.” Our website considers it the same item so our inventory numbers are more accurate because we do not have duplicate items. Again, I know we have only had your product for a couple of months, but the ease and simplicity of it is amazing. I’m so annoyed that we wasted over 100 hours of our time trying to make “The Beast” work for us when AccuBar was available.”

It seems rare that a product is all that it is advertised to be these days. AccuBar was introduced to me as a flexible inventory control system that would increase the accuracy of inventory while reducing staff time computing inventory, decrease staff time in computing banquet bar reconciliation, and potentially decrease cost of goods through added levels of control and oversight. In a 685-room test hotel, we not only found the above to be true, we expanded the functionality to include Starbucks inventory and control. The net results? Beverage cost dropped 2 points, cost of goods for Starbucks dropped 6 points and stabilized after a year of rollercoaster cost reporting. After substantially testing the AccuBar system, we have expanded the distribution of AccuBar to many of our larger, high volume, full service hotels throughout the country.”

Working with AccuBar is like having an accountant 24 hr-7 days a week on call. It gives full trust in a very expensive wine inventory and is on call as we wish."

We use AccuBar for receiving and inventories with the Profit Watch Report, With our new brewery, we need to track what moves from the brewery to the bars. We have been able to tune our POS to AccuBar, so we reduced our pour cost tremendously.

With the old system it would take up to six hours to count then enter the inventory. With AccuBar it takes less than an hour and a half from the start of counting until reports are in hand.

When the prices we pay change, Profit Watch helps tell us how much of a margin we are or aren’t making. It also really helps us make sure there’s nothing miscounted or missing on a weekly basis.

Originally we did inventory on pen and paper. It took forever to extend out inventory, because we inventory 13 locations. Now we get the inventory done and the report back in the same day, when before it took all week. Our next step is that we’re now working now on getting our food inventory in there as well. I will say that doing inventory is more accurate. We’re not always questioning the numbers and wondering if the numbers from one person are the same as another person. Support is wonderful, because I have so many questions. They email me back so quickly and always help me out, and give me suggestions and tips. In general, we love the system."

Our beverage costs have dropped approximately 10% since using the AccuBar system. Over the course of the year this should be a $15,000 savings in costs. It takes half the time to count inventory, with increased accuracy. Prices are easily updated through the PDA when receiving merchandise. Once inventory is counted it is seamless and quick to get accurate inventories from the website. It does not use a lot of man hours to maintain monthly.”

I just wanted to drop you guys a note, and tell you what a great job your support team has done for us in our inventory management needs. We originally purchased your product some years ago, and had a slightly rough start (due to my time constraints more than anything else), but have since been more active in the use of your product. As our activity increased, so did our support needs, and your staff has been right on it each and every time.In today’s bust times, that means a lot to me, as I’m normally stretched pretty thin. We’re not a huge bar, but our configuration (7 bar stations in 3 rooms on 2 levels) requires housing quite a bit of inventory. As a result, inventories are not our favorite activity. It used to take me roughly 12 hours to inventory the whole club. That included guestimating how full the bottles were, writing it all down on paper (keeping track of the paper and keeping it all dry from beginning to end.) Then came the math. It was a nightmare.With AccuBar, I can inventory all 7 stations and the back stock areas in under 3 hours. Once I’ve done it, I hotsync my handheld and normally have the reports by the time I open my email. Calculating pour cost (which I never even did before AccuBar — don’t tell the boss) is now simply a matter of cutting and pasting or just pointing from one spreadsheet to another.In addition, I don’t even think twice about inventorying a bar station before and after a particular shift if there is doubt about the bartender’s honesty. In conjunction with my POS software, I can see exactly how accurately my staff is pouring and ringing their sales with next to no effort. Before I would have doubts about my estimates, or I just wouldn’t have the time to take the inventory and do the math. I’d basically have to catch somebody in the act in order to correct the problem.I can’t speak highly enough about how much time your product and service has saved me in my day-to-day duties. I plan to forge ahead, as time permits, and implement some of the other features that I don’t even use yet – Like re-order tasks. The only thing I regret is not having purchased your product sooner and not having used it to its full potential — yet. I look forward to working with you, your company and your products well into the future. Thanks again for your help in making my job easier, and helping me to make ours a more profitable business.

I recently acquired a little pub in Ft. Collins, Colorado . Part of the reason I bought this pub was that cost of goods ran 40% to 45%, which left the previous owner financially strapped, and left me a very good opportunity. Prior to the closing date on the pub, I knew doing a regular inventory would be key to our success. I have been in the liquor business before, and used to do inventory by hand. This time around I figured with the boom in technology somewhere I would find a tool that could help me out.So I start searching on the internet, and ran into the AccuBar site. I purchased my AccuBar tool in the first week I took over, and the cost of goods went from 40% to 45% down to a 26% average. One big factor in my purchase decision was a testimonial from Gillian’s Pub down in Tucson, AZ. He is a little 50 seat place like we are, and he raved about it. I have to say he was right on the money. No more paper and pencil. No more worrying that the missing inventory could be a calculation error on my part. It also tells me what I need to order, and how much I need.I love this tool. If you are reading this, and not using the AccuBar system, you really are missing out. The bartenders that came with the bar are very popular with the patrons, and to start over with new ones would have killed the business altogether. So my approach was to buy AccuBar, let them in on what the tool can do, and how accurate the monitoring is. Then I started to run my inventories. I can now do one in about 45 minutes. This includes receiving, empties, and full inventories on all of my locations, such as the bar, cooler, and stock room.The final report comes to my email in about a minute. Now the current employees are stuck with one of two choices: either get with the program and do the job correctly, or quit. In either case I am happy, and I don’t end up looking like the bad guy in the eyes of my customers. In Ft. Collins, bartending jobs are hard to come by, and needless to say they are all still with me, but magically the cost of goods is 14% to 19% better. Is it magic, or is it AccuBar?I also implemented a very good POS cash register. So now I can see every ounce of liquor, and bottle of beer sold. Then I can match that to my AccuBar profit watch report. My register lets me pull reports from home on my laptop, and AccuBar lets my pull reports as well from their server. So I can sit at home and compare data.If I had to decide between a POS register and my AccuBar tool, without a doubt I would choose AccuBar. I believe a POS machine can only be as good as the inventories that back it up. Meaning that I have not seen a POS that can’t be beaten. However, a good inventory does not lie. You either have the product or you don’t. It is that simple. Having both has really helped though, and I definitely recommend using both.Another good point for AccuBar it that bartenders are notorious for building a bank of liquor. They do this by short-pouring drinks, then using the bank to sell drinks, and pocketing the money. This can irritate customers who are getting watered-down drinks and owners who are losing customers because of it, let alone being ripped off. With AccuBar I can now come in and spot check the bottles, especially the well bottles where most of the sales come from, and where bartenders have the biggest opportunity to steal. In the first week I would see liquor overages of anywhere from 6 to 12 ounces of liquor in about 6 well bottles. Now it is always within an ounce or so. That is very good considering we are a free pour bar.I have implemented pouring contests as well for my bartenders, to see who can accurately pour 1, 1 1/4, and 2 ounces into one of three kinds of glasses, then pour the contents of the glass into a jigger to see how accurate they are. This makes it fun for them, and helps me with pour accuracy.The AccuBar customer service is fantastic. In the beginning I called several times with setup questions, and the staff was very friendly, and helpful. They even had me send them some of the reports I had run to look them over, and get me back on track. Now only a few weeks later I hardly have to call them at all. This is very important to bar managers, and owners, who just don’t have to time to spend on the phone. Joanne and Roger, who help me with the purchase, were just great.The biggest benefit to AccuBar is that it allows me to spend a lot more time with my customers and a lot less time trying to figure out costs and looking for theft. I will make the same offer that Gillian’s pub did. If you are ever in the Ft. Collins Area and would like to see my AccuBar tool and how it works, please feel free to stop by. We still have some work to do in order to get cost down to the 22% or 23% range, but with AccuBar helping me I will get there.

I have been in the high volume bar business for over 9 years. In that time I have spent countless hours conducting endless inventories. AccuBar is by far the greatest tool I have come across in my career. I manage a sport’s bar, restaurant bar, and countless banquet bars for a golf resort and conference center. As the Beverage Director, I’m responsible for over 1,000 bottles of liquor and wine, a couple hundred cases of beer, and many tobacco products every day. Before AccuBar, it was very time consuming and almost impossible to maintain accurate inventory. Now, it takes a fraction of the amount of time it used to take to conduct inventory. All I do is scan the bar codes and AccuBar does everything else. It keeps track of pars, breakage, transfers, ordering, and even calculates our pour cost. It even generates our balance on a spreadsheet. I can’t say enough about the power of AccuBar. It has revolutionized the process of taking and maintaining inventory. AccuBar is a must for all bars.

Recently, New England Culinary Institute upgraded its AccuBar installations at the Main Street Grill in Montpelier, VT and the Butler?s and Tavern establishments at the Inn at Essex in Essex, VT. Being involved with the IT side of the Food and Beverage Industry for several years, I?ve worked with numerous restaurant software applications and the teams that support them. It?s not uncommon to lose the attention of a vendor after the sale is complete. This is certainly not the case with the folks at AccuBar. During the upgrade process the entire team at AccuBar was a pleasure to deal with. The Sales Department understood New England Culinary Institute?s needs and moved us into the proper product. The technical team provided top level support and training with a personal touch. The restaurant managers look forward to working with AccuBar to learn more about the latest features and how they can put them to use. I?m confident that AccuBar will be there to answer our questions and provide the necessary support if needed.”

Thanks again for all your support, I couldn’t do what I’m able to do with 4 bars without AccuBar. Your product makes me look like a rockstar.”

I began using AccuBar in 2002 in my previous position as Corporate Beverage Director for BR Guest Restaurants in New York, NY. As soon as my colleague Greg Harrington and I saw a demonstration of AccuBar, we decided we had to have this device. We were thrilled with its performance from day one — the overall time it took our beverage managers to count inventory and enter data was reduced by 80%. In June 2006, I started my new position as Beverage Director for Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group. One of the first systems we have implemented since I started is the AccuBar system with the new Pocket PC MC-50 [handheld], which is an even better system than I had been using previously. The omni-directional barcode reader makes scanning bottles even easier, the color screen is brighter and easier to read, and the extended search look-up function makes finding items in the database much faster. The team at AccuBar has made a great system even better. And, in addition to developing an excellent product, AccuBar has always provided superlative tech support.”