A pub throws away about 12% of what it buys, one industry estimate puts the average loss at over £14,000 a year, and most of it never gets written down anywhere. Not because anyone's hiding it. Because writing it down is one more job at the end of a busy shift, and a blown keg or a dropped tray doesn't feel like it's worth the walk to find a pen. It is. Here's what actually belongs in the log, and why the log is what saves your stocktake, not just your conscience.
Why an unlogged loss is worse than a logged one
Every drop of stock that leaves the building without a receipt has to be accounted for somewhere. If it's in the wastage log, it's a known cost, same as rent or gas. If it isn't, it shows up as unexplained variance at the count, and unexplained variance gets one of three reactions: you shrug and move on, which means you never fix the real leak; you blame the till, which usually isn't the problem; or you start suspecting staff, which is corrosive and, most of the time, wrong. A blown keg logged the day it happened is a fact. The same keg unlogged is a mystery that grows a life of its own by the time the count catches up with it.
What goes in the log, line by line
Keep it simple enough that someone will actually fill it in mid-shift, on their phone or on a clipboard behind the bar. Every entry needs four things: what, how much, why, and who logged it. Skip any of those and the log stops being evidence.
Cellar and dispense waste
Line cleaning waste, roughly 1.25 pints per 10 metres of python per line per weekly clean, plus 2 to 3 pints pulled through to clear the cleaning fluid. A keg or cask that blew, fobbed, or went off before it emptied. Ullage you're claiming supplier credit on separately, which still gets a line here so the two records match. The full detail on cellar losses and what's routine is in the line cleaning guide and what normal draught wastage looks like.
Bar waste
Spillages, a dropped bottle, a mis-poured cocktail that got tipped rather than served, ice melted out of a broken machine, a garnish tray gone off. Comps and staff drinks belong here too if they're actually given away, logged with who authorised it, not folded silently into "shrinkage."
Delivery and stock-room losses
A short delivery you signed for anyway, damaged stock refused at the door, out-of-date stock pulled off the shelf on rotation. If a crate turns up broken, log it before it goes in the bin, not after, because you'll want the photo for the supplier claim.
Kitchen and soft drinks, if you run food
Post-mix syrup changed, a keg of soft drink that lost pressure, prep waste if you're logging food cost separately. Keep it on the same sheet even if the numbers are smaller, because a small daily leak compounds the same as a big one-off.
The number that makes people take it seriously
One UK training provider puts typical hospitality wastage at around 12% of product bought, and estimates a pub can lose more than £14,000 a year to it. A busy site with ten taps can be pouring away more than 90 pints a week before a single glass reaches a customer. Those are industry figures, not a prediction for your pub specifically, but they're the reason the log matters more than it feels like it does on a Tuesday afternoon. A tenner of spillage doesn't register. Fifty-two Tuesdays of it does.
Where the log actually lives
Paper on a clipboard works, as long as it's somewhere obvious and somebody checks it weekly, not just before the stocktaker arrives. A phone note works better because nobody loses a phone behind the bar the way they lose a clipboard. Either way, the log needs a home that survives a shift change, because the point is catching the pattern, not just the single event. StockTap's stock-movement ledger logs deliveries, transfers between locations and wastage in the same place your counts live, so a keg logged at 11pm on a Friday is already sitting in the numbers when you count on Monday, rather than waiting to be remembered.
Turning the log into money back
Not every entry in the log is dead money. A full, unopened container that's gone off before you could sell it can often be claimed back from your supplier as duty credit, not the retail value, but the duty element, which on a keg is still real money. That route needs the container intact and your supplier's sign-off, which is exactly what a same-day log entry gives you. The ullage and wastage claims guide covers what you can and can't claim, and the paperwork trail that gets it approved.
What the log looks like weekly
| Area | Typical entry | Claimable? |
|---|---|---|
| Cellar/dispense | Line clean pull-through, blown keg, ullage | Ullage sometimes, cleaning no |
| Bar | Spillage, breakage, comp, mis-pour | No |
| Delivery | Short delivery, damaged stock refused | Supplier credit, not duty |
| Stock room | Out-of-date rotation write-off | No |
Where it belongs in your GP report
A wastage log doesn't fix your GP%, it explains it. Once loss is logged and totalled for the period, it should be a visible line in your stocktake report, sat separately from theoretical usage, so the gap between what the stock says you used and what the till says you sold is the number you actually need to chase down. How to read your GP report covers where that figure sits and why three calculators can give you three different answers for the same pint if wastage isn't handled the same way each time.
Twelve months of a properly kept log won't stop stock loss happening. It'll stop you guessing at the cause, and guessing is the expensive part.
Sources
- High Speed Training, Bar Wastage Sheet — hospitality wastage estimated at around 12% of product bought; a 10-tap pub can waste over 90 pints a week; Cask Marque-sourced estimate of over £14,000 lost per pub per year.
- Vianet Beer Insight data, published with Cask Marque — 27% of beer served through lines outside the 7-day cleaning window; 2% of drinks poured never reach the till.
- HMRC, Alcoholic products technical guide, section 15 — duty credit conditions for spoilt alcoholic product; full unbroached containers, brewer sign-off required.
- Line-cleaning pull-through volumes (1.25 pints per 10m python, 2–3 pints per clean) are reused from the author's beer line cleaning arithmetic.