# Bar Inventory App: Count Every Bottle, Shelf by Shelf

> Hoardo works as a free bar inventory app: each shelf, fridge and cellar rack is a box, each bottle an item with a count, and search shows where the spare mezcal is.

Published 2026-10-04 by Hoardo. Original: https://www.hoardo.com/articles/bar-inventory-app

A bar inventory app lets you count bottles where they stand and see the total without a clipboard. Hoardo does it for free: the back bar, the speed rail, the beer fridge and each cellar shelf become numbered boxes, every bottle goes in as an item with a count, and one search tells you whether the spare mezcal is upstairs or in the cellar.

## Count by where bottles stand

A count goes fastest when you walk the bar in the same order every time. So set Hoardo up the way the bar is laid out:

1. **Back bar, shelf by shelf.** One box per shelf keeps each count short.
2. **Speed rail.** The bottles you pour from all night.
3. **Fridges.** Beer, wine and anything chilled.
4. **Cellar or storeroom.** A box per shelf or per stack of cases.
5. **Garnish and syrups.** If you want them on the same count.

Add a place note to each, like "Left of the till" or "Cellar, second rack", so new staff find it on their first shift.

*One back bar shelf as a box: each bottle and how many there are.*

## A weekly count in three steps

1. Open the shelf's box in Hoardo.
2. Change the numbers that moved. Everything else stays as it was.
3. Do the next shelf.

New stock goes in by typing, by saying it out loud ("three gin, two tequila, one Campari") or by taking a photo of the shelf and letting Hoardo list what it sees.

## Find the backup bottle before you run out

Mid-service, nobody wants to search the cellar by torchlight. Search covers every box, so typing "mezcal" shows the open bottle on the back bar and the two spares downstairs, each with the shelf it's on.

## Label the cellar

Print a QR label for each cellar shelf and fridge. Point a phone camera at it and the box opens in Hoardo, showing what should be there. It turns "who moved the vermouth?" into a ten-second check.

## What Hoardo isn't

Hoardo counts whole bottles in the places you set up. It doesn't connect to your till, work out pour costs or place orders. If you need a clear, shared count of what's behind the bar and in the cellar, it does that well.

## Same setup, other venues

Running a kitchen as well? The [restaurant inventory app](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/restaurant-inventory-app) guide covers the walk-in and dry store, and the [salon inventory app](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/salon-inventory-app) guide shows the same idea for backbar products.

## Free for every shelf

[Hoardo](https://www.hoardo.com/) is free for all your boxes and items. There's no billing and no paid tier, so a second bar or a bigger cellar never costs more. Our [roundup of free inventory apps](https://www.hoardo.com/articles/5-best-free-inventory-management-apps) compares it with the paid options.