SKU

What a SKU actually means

A SKU is a unique ID for one specific product. Tito’s 750mL is one SKU. Tito’s 1L is a different SKU. Tito’s 1.75L is another. Same brand, three SKUs, because they cost different, pour different, and move different.

Every bottle, keg, can, and bag on your bar has its own SKU whether you track it formally or not. The question is whether your inventory system keeps them straight.

How it is used on the floor

Most bars have between 150 and 800 active liquor SKUs. A craft cocktail bar can hit 1,200. Each SKU needs its own cost, size, par level, and usage rate. That is why inventory gets out of hand fast on a spreadsheet.

On the floor, SKU management shows up in ordering. A rep comes in pushing the 1.75L of your best-selling rum because the margin is better. Your SKU data tells you whether you actually move enough to justify the bigger bottle or whether it will sit.

What makes a SKU unique

Three things change a SKU:

• Brand: Jameson vs Jameson Black Barrel
• Size: 750mL vs 1L vs 1.75L
• Packaging: single bottle vs 12-pack case

A beer example: a 1/2 barrel of Miller Lite is one SKU. A 1/6 barrel is another. A 24-pack of 12 oz bottles is a third. Same product, three different things to count and cost.

Common mistakes

Bars treat multiple sizes as one SKU and end up with garbage cost data. They also let SKUs go stale. A product gets discontinued, but it is still on the count sheet two years later. Clean SKU lists save hours on every count.

Another mistake: not mapping SKUs to POS items. If Jameson 750mL pours into three POS buttons (shot, rocks, Jameson ginger), your usage data has to link all three back to the one SKU or variance reports become useless.

How PourIQ handles it

PourIQ auto-matches SKUs from a 500,000+ product database so you do not manually enter UPCs. It keeps size variants separate, tracks each SKU’s usage and cost history, and links each one to the POS buttons that sell it. You count once, the math runs everywhere else.