Venue handbook

Inventory

Products, recipes, variance, and shot-based bottle control.

Updated Sun Jul 19 2026 02:00:00 GMT+0200 (South Africa Standard Time) Owners · managers · supervisors

Overview

Inventory in Tavio ties what you sell on the till to what you hold in the storeroom and behind the bar. Done well, you see pour variance, recipe cost, and stocktakes without spreadsheets.

Admin areas: Inventory → Products, Ingredients, Recipes, Bundles, Stock Variance.

Ingredients, recipes, bundles, and stock variance / stocktake are on Growth plans and above. Products and basic stock work on Starter.

Products first

  1. Create the sellable item (Castle Lite, Espresso Martini, Wings).
  2. Set price, category, tax behaviour as configured.
  3. Flag kitchen for food.
  4. Decide the product “mode”: regular, recipe-linked, shot/spirit, size variants, or sold by weight — do not mix incompatible modes on one product.

In admin: Inventory → Products — search, open a product, check stock panels and recipe links.

Ingredients and recipes

Tip: Build recipes for your top 10 cocktails before the long tail.

Shot pools (spirits)

Bars often pour many shots from shared bottles. A unified shot pool tracks spirit volume across products so bottle control stays honest.

Train bartenders: ring the correct shot product; do not “friends pour” off-system.

Warning: Off-till pours break variance. Culture matters as much as software.

Bundles

Combos (burger + drink, Jägerbomb-style bundles) group items. Ensure components and kitchen flags are correct so stock and KDS behave.

Stocktakes and variance

  1. Count what is on the shelf (Stock Variance / stocktake flows).
  2. Compare expected vs counted.
  3. Investigate large over/under (theft, recipe wrong, receiving error, free pours).
  4. Adjust with a reason your manager accepts.

Receiving stock

Log deliveries against suppliers/products so on-hand goes up when invoices arrive — not only when someone remembers.

Common mistakes

Tips

Good practice: Weekly spirit variance on top movers; full stocktake monthly or per your brand standard.

Good practice: One person owns recipe accuracy; chefs/bars request changes through them.

Troubleshooting

If this happens Check this
Stock not moving Recipe missing; order not closed; wrong product sold
Huge negative variance Free pours; wrong unit (ml vs shot); receiving not logged
Cost looks wrong Ingredient purchase price; recipe quantities
Bundle under-depletes Bundle component setup

Glossary

Term Meaning
Depletion Stock going down when you sell
Recipe Ingredient list per sellable item
Shot pool Shared spirit volume tracking
Variance Expected vs counted difference
GP Gross profit on an item or period