For pub operators

Around 100 managed Stonegate pubs are becoming tenancies, on top of 200 last year, while the PCA investigates the company over unrealistic rent projections. What to check before you believe the information pack.

A 70cl bottle is £100 of revenue and most bars count the open ones by squinting. What an eyeballed tenth costs, the grams-to-measures sum, and which bottles deserve the scales.

No public price list, just quotes off your rateable value. The real bills that made it into print, £754 to £2,433 a month, and the extra-pints-per-week sum to run before you renew.

A big enough rise opens a 21-day MRO window, and almost nobody runs the formula that decides it. The thresholds, both deadlines, the Stonegate investigation, and the invoice habit that does the arguing for you.

The till counts money, the count counts liquid. Prepaid pints nobody logged, buttons mapped wrong, line cleaning, and five more ordinary causes, in the order to check them before anyone says a word about staff.

Takings can hold steady while the surplus leaks underneath. The five-number monthly page, a counting routine that protects the steward, the VAT slip that flatters GP, and where a professional audit still fits.

A 6.35kg CO2 refill is £39.38 and pushes about 1,200 pints, call it 3p each. The 2026 gas prices, the pints-per-cylinder arithmetic, and how a gas fault eats an acceptable variance band at £4.89 a pint.

The app off Bar Rescue counts an open bottle by you tapping the level on a picture. It publishes no price at all, and the Android app was last updated in April 2024. What we could verify today, and the alternatives that publish prices in pounds.

UK pubs bin 40 million pints a year cleaning lines, about 20 a week each, £5,500 a year at 2026 prices. Where the beer goes, the per-tap arithmetic, and how to log it so it stops wrecking your variance.

The only serious free plan in bar inventory, and it's real. It's also priced in dollars and counts open bottles by eye. What free covers, what $99 adds, and the alternatives in pounds.

The only big rival that weighs bottles properly, and it shows. It's also $249 a month plus a $750 onboarding fee, priced in dollars, with no trial. What that adds up to for a UK venue, and the alternatives from £0 to £129.

You can't claim beer duty back from HMRC, your brewery can. What gets credited, what never will, the process that keeps a claim alive, and the £43.76 of duty sat in every 50-litre keg.

Kitchen stock and bar stock are two different jobs wearing one name, and most software only does one well. Published prices from £79 to $449, who covers which side, and the one-month test before you pay anyone.

The cheapest published till-integrated option and the longest trial in the market. Where £79 earns its keep, the open-bottle question a barcode can't answer, and the alternatives from £0 to £129 flat.

£12.71 is the contract. The hour costs nearer £16.08 with NI, pension and holiday, which is 7.2 pints of GP. The new rates, the build-up line by line, and why April cost a typical wet-led pub about two points of GP.

The counting is the same sum as a pub. The leak is movement: outlet transfers, kitchen bottles, function bars, minibars. The four doors stock walks through, the room-posted sales catch, and who handles what at what price.

Invoice scanning, live GP and four till links for £129 flat: a fair offer for food-led sites. The question their pages don't answer, the pints arithmetic, and where a wet-led pub gets the job done for a lot less.

The HMRC rates side by side with 2025, then the sums nobody publishes: 49.7p on a 4.5% pint, £43.76 on a 50-litre keg, £9.52 on a 70cl spirit. Why the 3.4% cliff matters, and why every pint you waste carried duty you already paid.

Integration moves one number: what the till says sold. It counts nothing and launders bad button mapping. Who links to which UK tills and at what price, the tied-tenant export check, and a one-hour test before you pay for a link.

Monthly full count, weekly spot check on the top 20 lines, fortnightly past about £10k a week wet. A table of what a 1% variance costs between counts, a cadence by pub type, and the five days you count whether it's due or not.

A stocktake tells you how much is missing, not why. The three causes leave different fingerprints across two counts: smeared and steady, lumpy and remembered, or flip-flopping. A diagnosis table, and why theft is the last thing to consider.

Forty to eighty lines needs two numbers a week, cask yield and true open-spirit levels, not a £79-a-venue suite. Costs as a share of a £3,000-a-week bar, and when the spreadsheet is still right.

Four kinds of “free”, a table of who takes a card and who doesn't, and a two-count method so the trial actually tells you something before the money starts.

You buy the stock at a price set by a count you didn't do. How SAV is priced, the six places the number goes wrong (breached casks, eyeballed tenths, dead lines, free glassware), and how to make it an opening stock you can trust.

Nearly every vendor prices per venue, so three pubs can mean £2,800 to £6,000 a year. The real multiplication table, what breaks when you stop counting yourself, and what to demand before you sign for a group.

I ran my count on a spreadsheet I built myself, for years. The four jobs it couldn't do, the setup afternoon nobody prices in, and the honest cases where the sheet should stay.

Weighing or tenths, froth or phantom losses, ex-VAT or flattery, monthly or a 36-month regret. The 12 questions to take into every demo, with the walk-away answers on one screen.

£8k a week over the bar at a 1% variance is £289 a month walking out the door. The full payback table by takings, your own time costed in, and when the honest answer is don't bother.

Take the VAT off first or your GP is seven points kinder than reality. The formula done right, with worked sums for keg, cask, spirits and bottles.

Two to four hours on paper, half that with an app, triple for your first ever count. Real timings from my own bar, and how to get a full count under the hour.

Spreadsheets, $0 tiers, trials wearing a free badge and the "free demo" that's a sales call. What each gets you, and when free is genuinely the right call.

Six apps compared, only three publish a price. What's really in the stores, the cellar test that matters, and the honest case for a PWA.

161 closures in Q1, nearly two a day, up 26% on last year. The running ledger, gross vs net explained, and the cost stack driving it. Updated quarterly.

£5.34 average, £6.55 in London, £4.90 in the North East. Prices by style and region, then a licensee breaks the pint apart penny by penny.

About 44,500, and no two sources agree. Every count, why they differ, how fast pubs are closing, and what the headline number hides. All figures sourced.

Weekly counts, weighing spirits instead of guessing tenths, free pour drift, and real software prices in pounds. Plus where the tools stop helping.

No single winner, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something. Ranked by who each tool actually fits, single site to group, with where each one falls down.

Plain guide from a working licensee: what the tools actually count, why cheap ones lie about draught froth, the real price tiers, and six things to check before you buy.

I run a pub in Washington. Here are the two grounds that got a chargeback reversed, and what my area manager actually accepted.

Draught Lager up £3,697 while Ale is negative every single time. That's not theft, it's the wrong till button. How to check yours.

Five Venners audits at my pub show why the net result on a stocktake report hides more than it tells you, and what to read instead.

Published UK stocktaking rates for 2026, what drives the price, and how pubco packages compare. Written by a licensee who had to go and find out.

The ‘1-2% of sales’ rule is American and doesn’t hold in a UK cellar. Five real audit results, plus the 5% of every pint that’s legally froth.

Damm UK admits Old Speckled Hen deliveries are running late nationwide. Here is what a delayed delivery does to your next stocktake report.

A stock valuation mixing VAT-inclusive and VAT-exclusive prices misstates your GP% by up to 20 points. How to check which basis your figures use.

A UK licensee compares pub stocktaking software: StockTap, BevSpot, BarBrain, StockLens AI, Growyze.

Real sourced prices for StockTap, BevSpot, BarBrain, StockLens AI, Growyze and MarketMan — what a UK pub actually pays for stock control software.

BevSpot alternative for UK pubs: what BevSpot really costs in 2026, where it fits, and why a UK-built tool tracks stock differently.

What bad pours actually cost a pub, why nobody tells new staff, and the maths every induction should cover on day one.

BarBrain alternative for UK pubs: BarBrain’s real euro pricing in 2026, what’s missing for a UK licensee, and where StockTap fits instead.

Nory alternative for UK pubs: why Nory hides its pricing, what a single pub should expect to pay for stock software instead, and where StockTap fits.

MarginEdge alternative for UK pubs: MarginEdge’s real dollar pricing in 2026, the FX and Toast surcharge risk, and where StockTap fits instead.

Access Procure Wizard alternative for UK pubs: the 36-month minimum contract, what that costs over the full term, and how StockTap compares with no lock-in.

The last real category benchmark data, sourced and dated — plus why draught trails spirits structurally, and what’s actually known vs made up for 2026.

The real average pint price by brand, falling volumes, and what it means for how you price and manage your cellar — including why cask variance eats price rises before you see them.

Growing market, fewer pubs, more rates relief on the way — what Lumina Intelligence’s 2026 figures actually mean if you’re the one behind the bar.

The 35% relief figure explained, who qualifies, what’s still unconfirmed, and how to actually use the money rather than let it disappear into general cash flow.

161 pubs closed in Q1 2026, up 26% on last year — and the BBPA says it’s not because trade is down. Here’s the margin lesson for pubs still trading.

Step-by-step: the count method, the legal measures, the yield maths, and the discipline that separates a proper DIY stocktake from one that’s kidding itself.

Most keg and cask calibration in UK pub cellars isn’t real calibration — it’s a guess. The common mistakes behind bad variance figures, and how to fix them.