1954 Practical Bar Management by Eddie Clarke

BAR ACCOUNTANCY AND CONTROL

1 Not cleanly torn from the book—cellarman adds any quantities which have been divorced from the form. 2 Haphazard listing of items—absence of any order. 3 Guard against abbreviations. At the same time avoid nicknames—"Liffey Liqueur" may mean Guinness to you but not necessarily to your neighbour. 4 Make it clear whether it is singles or dozens. 5 Alterations could be made here without dispute. 6 Ensure that the order can subsequently be correctly inter preted by a third party. The office clerk, for example, vdll be charging the bar for stock on the evidence of this order. 7 Stock that has been already received (in the example, the equivocal word "had" is marked against the"4 dozen Brown Ales")should be the subject of a separate order. 8 Enquiries regarding availability of stock (i.e., in our example the"Tomato Juice")are not made on a Bar Requisition. 9 Cigarettesshould bethesubject ofaseparate Bar Requisition. Of course, you may say few people write orders like this—if that is how you feel then you had best hold on to your betting money! If you own or manage your hotel, or if you are the barman,glance now at the originals and copies of the Bar Requisi tions of recent weeks. The odds are that they will correspond at best in some degree with the foregoing example. There are certain simple rules in making out a Bar Requisition, and these ensure the protection ofboth the barman's and the cellar- man's interests. If through carelessness or lack of attention these principles are not applied, a third party can hardly be held responsible for any misinterpretation of the order. A correctly drawn-up order is shown(Fig. 4), and this embodies the following points: 1 Write in pre-determined order to assist the cellarman, i.e., wines in numerical sequence, brandies, whiskies, etc. 2 Make out an order for all stock as received. The practice of receiving I.O.U.'s in the cellar for additional items that may be required during the service is to be frowned upon. Despite protests to the contrary it remains practical to complete a requisition form for most urgent issues. Fre quently the time spent at the cellar door gesticulating freely

133