Microbrewery Inventory Management: From Spreadsheets to Software
If you're running a craft brewery in Canada, you've probably tried managing your inventory with spreadsheets. Maybe you're still using them. A brewery inventory spreadsheet seems like the obvious solution when you're starting out—it's free, familiar, and you can customize it however you want.
But as your brewery grows, those spreadsheets start to crack. Batch tracking becomes a nightmare. Ingredient costs are always out of date. And when it's time for your excise tax filing, you're scrambling to piece together numbers from a dozen different tabs.
This guide covers everything you need to know about microbrewery inventory management—from the limitations of spreadsheets to what proper brewery management software can do for Canadian craft breweries.
The Brewery Inventory Spreadsheet: Where Most Breweries Start
Let's be honest: spreadsheets work. At least in the beginning. When you're brewing a few batches a month with a handful of ingredients, a well-organized Excel or Google Sheets file can track what you need.
A typical brewery inventory spreadsheet includes:
- Raw materials - Grain, hops, yeast, adjuncts with quantities on hand
- Batch logs - What you brewed, when, and what went into it
- Packaging inventory - Cans, bottles, kegs, labels
- Finished goods - What's in the cold room ready to sell
- Sales tracking - What went out the door and to whom
If you're determined to use spreadsheets, here are some tips to make them work better:
- Use separate tabs for raw materials, batches, and finished goods
- Create dropdown lists for product names to avoid typos
- Build formulas that automatically deduct ingredients when you log a batch
- Back up your files religiously (cloud storage helps)
- Lock cells that contain formulas so they don't get accidentally deleted
When Spreadsheets Stop Working
The breaking point usually comes somewhere between 10 and 50 batches per month. Here's what typically goes wrong:
Lot Tracking Becomes Impossible
Canadian food safety regulations require traceability. If there's a recall on a hop variety, you need to know exactly which batches used it and where those beers ended up. In a spreadsheet, this means manually cross-referencing multiple tabs and hoping nothing was entered wrong.
Multiple Users Create Chaos
When your head brewer updates the grain inventory at the same time your taproom manager logs a keg sale, someone's changes get overwritten. Google Sheets helps with real-time collaboration, but it doesn't prevent conflicting entries or maintain an audit trail.
Excise Reporting Is a Monthly Headache
The CRA requires detailed production and sales records for excise duty calculations. Every litre of beer brewed, packaged, sold, or lost needs to be accounted for. Pulling these numbers from a spreadsheet means hours of manual work every month—and the constant fear of making an error that triggers an audit.
Cost Tracking Lags Behind Reality
Ingredient prices change constantly. That spreadsheet showing your IPA costs $1.20 per litre to produce? It's probably based on prices from six months ago. Without automatic cost updates, you're making pricing decisions on bad data.
Nothing Connects to Anything
Your inventory spreadsheet doesn't talk to your accounting software. Your batch logs don't update your finished goods count. Your sales don't automatically deduct inventory. Every piece of data lives in isolation, which means double-entry, triple-checking, and inevitable errors.
What Microbrewery Inventory Management Software Actually Does
Proper microbrewery inventory management software replaces your disconnected spreadsheets with an integrated system. Here's what that means in practice:
Connected Batch Tracking
When you brew a batch, the system knows exactly which lot of each ingredient went into it. Grain inventory decreases automatically. Hop lots are recorded for traceability. If you need to trace a finished product back to its raw materials, it takes seconds, not hours.
Real-Time Inventory Levels
Your current stock levels update as things happen—not when someone remembers to update a spreadsheet. Receive a grain delivery? Inventory goes up. Package a batch into cans? Raw materials go down, finished goods go up. Sell a case? It's deducted immediately.
Automatic Cost Calculations
Every time you receive ingredients at a new price, your recipe costs update automatically. You always know what each beer actually costs to produce based on current ingredient prices, not historical averages or guesses.
Built-In Reporting for Canadian Regulations
The best brewery management software for Canadian breweries includes reports designed for CRA excise requirements. Production volumes, packaged quantities, sales by destination, losses and adjustments—all the data you need, formatted the way the government wants it.
Multi-User Access with Accountability
Your whole team can use the system with appropriate permissions. Brewers log batches. Packaging staff record fills. Sales team enters orders. Everyone works in the same system, and every action is tracked with timestamps and user IDs.
Key Features for Canadian Craft Breweries
When evaluating brewery management software in Canada, look for these specific capabilities:
Excise Duty Integration
Canadian breweries deal with federal excise duties based on production volume and alcohol content. Your software should calculate duties automatically and generate reports that align with CRA requirements. Bonus points if it handles the reduced rates for small breweries.
Provincial Compliance
Each province has its own reporting requirements for liquor boards. Whether you're dealing with the LCBO, BCLDB, AGLC, or others, look for software that understands Canadian distribution channels.
Metric Units
This sounds obvious, but some American brewing software treats metric as an afterthought. Canadian breweries work in litres, kilograms, and hectolitres. Your software should too—natively, not through awkward conversions.
Multi-Location Support
If you have a production facility and a separate taproom, or if you're expanding to multiple locations, you need software that handles inventory across sites while maintaining consolidated reporting.
Integration with Canadian Accounting
QuickBooks Online is popular with Canadian small businesses. Your brewery software should sync with it, pushing purchase orders, invoices, and expenses without manual re-entry.
Making the Switch from Spreadsheets
Moving from spreadsheets to proper brewery management software doesn't have to be painful. Here's a practical approach:
Start with Current Inventory
Do a physical count and enter your current stock levels. Don't try to import years of historical data—start fresh with accurate numbers today.
Set Up Your Products and Recipes
Enter your core beers and their recipes. The system will use these to calculate costs and deduct ingredients when you brew.
Begin Logging New Batches
Start using the software for new batches going forward. Don't worry about entering historical batches unless you need them for specific reporting.
Phase Out the Spreadsheet
Run both systems in parallel for a month if it makes you comfortable. Once you trust the software, stop updating the spreadsheet. Keep it archived for historical reference.
Train Your Team
Everyone who touches inventory needs to know how to use the system. A couple of hours of training upfront saves weeks of frustration later.
How BarSight Handles Brewery Inventory
BarSight is brewery management software built in Canada, designed for the way Canadian craft breweries actually operate. Here's what makes it different:
Complete Grain-to-Glass Tracking
From the moment ingredients arrive to the moment packaged beer goes out the door, everything is connected. Receive a grain shipment, and your inventory updates with lot numbers and costs. Brew a batch, and ingredients are deducted automatically. Package into cans or kegs, and finished goods are created with full traceability.
Flexible Batch Management
Handle split batches, blended batches, and transfers between fermenters. Record gravity readings, dry hop additions, and packaging losses. Everything is tracked without the complexity of enterprise brewing systems.
Smart Purchase Orders
Create purchase orders that know your preferred vendors, your usual order quantities, and your current stock levels. When deliveries arrive, receive them directly into inventory with automatic cost updates.
Canadian-Ready Reporting
Generate reports formatted for CRA excise filings. Track production volumes, duty-paid removals, and losses in the format regulators expect. Spend minutes on monthly reporting instead of hours.
Works on Any Device
Check inventory from your phone in the cold room. Log batch data from a tablet in the brewhouse. Access reports from your office computer. Everything syncs in real-time.
The Real Cost of "Free" Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets don't cost money, but they cost time. Consider:
- Hours per week updating and reconciling inventory manually
- Errors that lead to over-ordering or running out of ingredients mid-brew
- Stress of monthly excise reporting and hoping the numbers are right
- Lost traceability if there's ever a recall or quality issue
- Bad decisions based on outdated cost information
For most microbreweries, the cost of proper inventory management software is paid back in time savings within the first few months—not to mention the peace of mind.
Getting Started
Whether you're still on spreadsheets or evaluating your options, the best time to upgrade your microbrewery inventory management is before it becomes a crisis. Don't wait until you're facing an audit or a recall to realize your tracking systems aren't up to the task.
Try BarSight free and see how proper brewery management software can transform your operations. Built in Canada, for Canadian breweries.
