Understanding SmartBar Variances

Variance Numbers - What are they telling us?

Positive Variance:

A positive variance is seen as a ‘gain’ in the amount of beer sold vs. the amount that was poured. Situations which can impact this number are:

• A flow meter not reporting correctly or at all. This can be identified by showing zero poured data for a product that is being sold.
  • Best practice for this is to look at a 7-day time frame and to turn ‘show dates and times’ off in the yield tracker settings.
    • Identify version of BevBox - V4 or V5
    • This can be found by clicking on the 'i' icon in the top right hand corner of SmartBar) for proper troubleshooting technique.
  • A BevBox has gone offline. If at any time there is a gap of no pour data (yellow lines) followed by a large spike, this indicates that the internet connection to the BevBox is inconsistent
    • When looking at the yield tracker, we should generally see consistent poured/sold activity throughout a day (except for some POS systems that record the sales when a check is closed and not when the beer is rung in).
      • Identify version of the BevBox in SmartBar and send troubleshooting document to the store. If unable to resolve the issue, send a support ticket.
    • Underpouring products or Misaligned PLU’s. This can often be seen in the yield tracker on individual products that have a poured total < sold total.
      • Bartenders may be short pouring beers (14oz. instead of 14.5oz.) or the PLU is inaccurately accounting for the size for the beer poured. Ex: For every pint poured, a 22oz. beer is rung in.

Negative Variance:

A negative variance is seen as a ‘loss’ in the amount of beer sold vs. the amount that was poured. Situations which can impact this number are:

• Missing PLU’s. A PLU is a uniquely identified number associating a draft beer product with its correct brand & sold size in a store’s POS (point of sale) System.
  • Ex: Bud Light Pint = PLU # 2505, Bud Light Tall = PLU # 2506
  • If a product in SmartBar is missing a PLU, then there will not be any sold data to correlate with the specifically poured beer.
• Theft/Waste. If more beer is poured than sold then a staff member is either giving the beer away without ringing it in, or they are overpouring the beer prior to sale.
  • This can be identified in the yield tracker when the yellow line exceeds the blue line.
• POS Gateway Down. If we lose the sales feed for a store, we will not pick up on any sold beer.
  • Yield tracker (missing blue lines) and the ‘I’ icon in the top right-hand corner of SmartBar can help in identifying when the connection to the POS went offline.
    • Send a support ticket if POS/Gateway is offline.
  • Line Cleaning. The ‘line cleaning’ function was never turned on to restrict data on the report. This can generally be seen at the beginning of the day and better identified by changing the Yield Tracker settings > Day Part > Entire Day.
    • Always go and remove the missed line cleaning for the store to assist them in their inventory management and AVT’s