Margin leaks rarely look like problems

No pub decides to lose money on drinks. It happens through small routines that each look normal: a line that pours two out of every three pints into the drain, a case of something bought "for the weekend" two months ago, a delivery signed without counting because the driver was in a hurry. None of it is dramatic. All of it compounds.

Here are the four leaks we see most often, and the routine that stops each one.

1. The overpour you never see

A 1% overpour on a lager line is invisible at the tap and very visible at the end of the month. The causes are mundane: the wrong glass size on the bar, a spout left open, a line pouring too fast because nobody has checked flow since it was fitted.

The routine: pour one measured test per line per week — a jug, a jigger, two minutes. If the line needs a fix, that is a five-minute job; if it needs one and nobody knows, that is a margin you donate all year.

2. Quiet lines holding your money

Every line on the bar is capital sitting in a keg. A beer that sells one keg a fortnight is fine; three of them that each sell one keg a month is a freezer of borrowed money plus three lots of line cleaning for the same turnover.

The routine: rank your lines by how long a keg actually lasts, not by how much you like them. Rotate the bottom of the list rather than topping it up. When you replace a quiet line, use the swap to try something your regulars ask for — the fastest way to learn what sells is to have less of what does not.

3. Dead stock in the dry store

Spirits and packages do not spoil quickly, which is exactly why they die quietly: nobody notices a case that never moves, because nothing about it changes.

The routine: once a month, walk the store and pull anything you cannot remember selling. If it has not moved in two months, it goes on the back bar, into a feature, or into a bundle — in that order. Dead stock never fixes itself by being stored better.

4. Shortages that get signed for anyway

The single most expensive habit in trade deliveries: signing for ten cases because the paperwork says ten, when nine came off the van. Once the signature is down, the shortage is yours to chase.

The routine: count against the delivery note while the driver is still at the door. What is signed for is what is invoiced — a discrepancy noted at delivery is settled on the spot, and anything found later gets reported from the order in your account so it carries the order reference with it.

The stock that backs all four

None of these routines work if replenishing is painful, because painful restocking pushes venues into over-ordering — the fifth leak. Ordering before 4pm for the next delivery day, with no minimum order value, means you can buy to the week you are actually about to have rather than the worst week you fear. Small, frequent, planned orders beat a fortnight of guesswork — and they keep the cellar empty enough to turn its empties on time.