Bar Excise Register: A Simple Guide to Daily Brand-wise Stock Records

What a bar excise register is, the columns it usually needs, common mistakes that cause trouble, and how to keep it accurate every day without manual work.

If you run a bar, pub or restaurant with a liquor licence, the excise department expects you to keep a clear record of your liquor stock — brand by brand, day by day. Many bars still fill this register by hand at the end of the night, which is slow and easy to get wrong.

This guide explains what the register is, what it usually contains, and how to keep it accurate. Note: rules and formats differ by state and licence type, so always confirm the exact format with your excise consultant.

What is a bar excise register?

It is a daily account of liquor stock for each brand and bottle size. For every day, it shows how much stock you started with, how much you received, how much you sold, any breakage, and what remained at closing. It lets the excise department check that the liquor you bought matches the liquor you sold.

Columns a register usually has

Brand and size — for example, a 750 ml whisky, a 650 ml beer, a 30 L draught keg.
Opening stock — full bottles plus the open bottle, often written in bottles + ml.
Received — stock that arrived that day, with the transport pass (TP) or bill number.
Sold — calculated from pegs and bottles sold.
Breakage / waste — bottles broken or spoiled, with the reason.
Closing stock — what is left at the end of the day, which becomes tomorrow's opening stock.

Common mistakes that cause trouble

Writing the register at the end of the week. Numbers filled from memory rarely match the bills.
Missing TP numbers. Every receipt should be traceable to its pass or bill.
Ignoring open bottles. Counting only full bottles makes the closing stock wrong every day.
Bills that do not reduce stock. If a peg is billed but the stock is not reduced (or the reverse), the register and the shelf drift apart.
Breakage with no record. Unrecorded breakage looks exactly like missing stock.

How to keep the register accurate every day

Enter purchases when stock arrives, with the TP or bill number.
Bill every peg through the system, with a recipe that reduces the right brand by 30 ml or 60 ml.
Record breakage immediately, with a manager check.
Do a quick bottle count of fast-moving brands every night, so the closing stock is real, not assumed.
Print or export the register daily and keep it safe.

The register is also your best leakage report

When the register is built from real billing and real counts, it does more than keep you compliant. The difference between expected and counted stock shows you exactly where liquor is leaking — by brand, in bottles and in pegs.

Excise register with DUOZENT

In DUOZENT, purchases (with TP number), pegs sold through recipes, breakage and bottle counts all feed one daily Excise Register — brand-wise opening, received, sold, broken and closing stock, ready to print or download in Excel. Confirm the exact format your licence needs with your excise consultant, and let the software do the daily maths.

Book a free demo to see it with your own brands.