Back of house - Bartenders event calculator workbook.

I have been private bartending since 2011.  I have come to have a passion for it and truly love all the people we meet and experiences we share with them.   I have come to make some friends that I still keep in touch with as well and business colleagues that I send referrals to.

Pen ultimate lets you place images on lined paper pages and use your own writing.

When I first started I struggles to develop a system of capturing client contact information, their event details, and their desired outcome for their party.   I used my Iphone and iPad for most of this.  I used an app called PenUltimate.  I program by the people who make Evernote.   I like it because I could actually write on my iPad in my own handwriting.  I could pull it up when I met with clients face to face or on the phone.   I could impend pictures and screen shots of emails.   It was handy because I could then also refer back to it to recall what we agreed on and clarify any mis understandings.



I still use this app today, but not as religiously.  Since my full time job is working in the automotive science industry, I use excel a lot for crunching numbers and analyzing data.  I came to realize that the business side of private bartending was similar in that I needed to capture client data, then in order to create shopping lists for them, analyze and calculate their information.

So I started a quest to create a spreadsheet to help me with what I wanted to do.   Capture client contact information, capture their event details, capture what drinks we agreed on for the menu, then calculate how much of each ingredient they were needing to purchase.   I also decided I wanted this to automatically create the shopping list in a printable format, and create an invoice.

While it sounded great, actually creating this on my own proved to be a bigger order than what I was able to create myself.  I was able to create something that I could capture the client information, record their event details, calculate how many drinks they needed for the night and calculate how many servings of beer and wine were needed.   Even to convert the wine servings to bottles needed, and kegs of beer needed.    The ability to have the spreadsheet look up each cocktail selected, then calculate how much of each ingredient needed was more than what I could create.  It required the use of Lookup, if/then statements, round up functions, match functions, etc.    All above my abilities at the time.

So in order to get the functionality I wanted, I decided to contract this out to a vendor I found on Fiverr.com.   Since I was very clear on what I wanted, and had a partial built spreadsheet already created.   It wasn't to difficult to communicate to the vendor what I wanted.

After contacting him and sending my poor version of what I wanted along with notes and comments in the file.  He built the spreadsheet in Apple Numbers format for me.  This was my request since I was using my iPad to handle my bartending business activities.  He delivered exactly what I wanted and even what a little above and beyond by making a few little revisions I requested.

After a couple of months I contacted him again to make a couple of changes that wanted added in.  The coast was cheap for the quality of his work and the fast turn around time.

If you need spreadsheet work done this guys rocks.  Nate Voelker is a genius.  https://www.fiverr.com/natevoelker

I have just recently converted my Apple Numbers version to a Microsoft Excel version.  I had to fix a lot of formulas that didn't work after the conversion, but not it is working as I expect.  However I have to say I am no programmer or excel master so if there are some errors, well I gave it my best.   

You can download this workbook for your private bartending business here. 

Excel version

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xtjbt9wh2yuzpub/Free%20Event_Calculator.xlsx?dl=0

Numbers version

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2bf213dltox5xau/Free%20Event_Calculator_2.numbers?dl=0

It is the basic workbook and not the full version I purchased from Nate.  It has the core of what I use, and you are free to add what you need for your business and client needs.   

I have recorded a youtube video to help explain how to use it and how it works.  It isn't high quality but I used what I have to work with.   

New the video here - https://youtu.be/5PB5LBk-26U

Hopefully it helps you with your business.  Remember, it is just a basic version so use it as a starting point.  Add to it, build it and use it as you like.   If you need some advance functions built into it, I suggest higher someone like Nate above to help out.  Again, I'm not all that good at formulas.  

Was this post helpful?   Let us know at Vince@bartendervince.com.   

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