🧭 Stock, from delivery to sale
How a crate of bottles becomes a number on a shelf, comes off as it sells, and gets checked against reality.
1Decide what is worth counting
On the price list, tick Keep track of stock only for things that come in countable units — bottles, cans, crisps, shop goods. Leave it off for anything poured, made to order, or charged as a fee. Counting a pint of bitter serves no purpose and only creates work.
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2Book the delivery in
Go to Stock → Book in a delivery. Every tracked item is listed with its current figure; enter what actually arrived. Fill in the cost while you are there and it updates that item’s cost price too, which is what makes the margin figures worth reading.
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3Sell
Nothing more to do. Every sale of a tracked item takes it off the shelf automatically and writes a line to the stock history saying which receipt it went out on.
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4Something gets broken or goes out of date
Record it under Wastage & adjustments rather than ignoring it. It keeps the count right, and it means losses show up in your reports instead of quietly turning into an unexplained shortfall at the next stocktake.
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5Watch what is running low
Set a reorder level against anything you do not want to run out of. Items at or below it appear on the Till dashboard, so the shopping list writes itself.
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?Count the shelves
Periodically, go to Stock → Stocktake and choose what you are counting — one category at a time is far more reliable than the lot in one go.
Counting on paper Click Open the count sheet to print. You get an A4 sheet grouped by category with a box against every line, spare lines for anything not listed, and room to sign it off. Write the figures on the shelf, then key them in — the lines on screen are numbered to match the paper. | Counting on screen Work straight down the list on a tablet or laptop, typing each figure as you count it. Leave anything you have not counted blank. |
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7Enter the real figures
Type what you actually counted against each line. A blank means “not counted” and is left completely alone — only write 0 when there genuinely is none.
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?Does the count match?
Pavilion compares each figure with its own.
It matches Nothing happens — no correction is recorded, because none is needed. | It is different The on-hand figure is corrected and the difference is logged as a stocktake correction, so the history still adds up. | You did not count it Leave the box blank and that item is left completely alone. |
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9Read the result
Persistent shortfalls on one line usually mean giveaways, breakages nobody recorded, or a price rung up under the wrong button — rather than anything sinister. The stock history shows every movement and who made it.
💡 Tip: Track fewer things well rather than everything badly. A dozen lines that are always right will tell you more than sixty that nobody keeps up with.
Common questions
- Why can I not just type a new stock figure on the price list?
- Because then the number and its history would disagree, and neither could be trusted. Stock only moves through the ledger — a delivery, a sale, wastage or a stocktake — so every figure can always be explained.
- Can the till sell something we have run out of?
- By default yes, and it goes negative to tell you the count was wrong. That is usually the right behaviour for a busy bar. If you would rather it refused, switch on “Refuse a sale when stock has run out” in Settings.
- We sell bottles from a crate of 24 — what do I enter?
- Whichever unit you sell in, so bottles. Book the delivery in as 24 per crate rather than 1, and the figures will match what is actually on the shelf.
- What happens to stock if I delete an item?
- Its stock history goes with it, but past receipts are untouched — every sale keeps its own record of what was sold and for how much. To stop selling something but keep everything, untick “Still sold” instead of deleting it.
- Does a refund put the goods back?
- Only if you tick “Put the goods back into stock”, and only on a full refund. A partial refund is usually a price adjustment rather than a returned item, so it never restocks.