How to Fill Out and Submit a Bar Requisition Form

To fill out a bar requisition form, count the stock currently at the bar against its par level, write one line for each product with its full brand name, container size, and quantity, then get both the requester’s signature and a manager’s authorizing signature before any bottle leaves the storeroom. The completed form travels in three copies — storeroom, receiving bar, and accounting — and must stay accessible at your place of business for at least three years, with a possible extension of up to three additional years if the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) requires it.¹

What Goes on the Form

Every requisition, whether it lives on a paper pad, a spreadsheet, or a point-of-sale module, needs the same core fields. Skip any of them and the form loses its ability to reconcile against physical stock.

Date and shift, so the transfer ties to a specific service period.
The requesting bar or station. Multi-bar venues track each service point independently.
The requester’s name and an employee number or POS login, which anchors accountability to one person.
Full product name and brand. “Tito’s Handmade Vodka,” not “house vodka.” Vague entries cannot be reconciled.
Container size — 750ml, 1L, or 1.75L. Two bottles of the same brand in different sizes represent very different costs and depletion rates.
Quantity requested, driven by your par level.
Quantity issued, filled in by the storeroom. If supply runs short, this number will differ from the request, and both must appear.
Requester signature, confirming the person accepting the stock takes responsibility once it leaves storage.
Authorizing signature from a manager or supervisor.

Some operations add unit cost, SKU or lot numbers, and category codes for spirits, wine, beer, and non-alcoholic. Lot and batch tracking pays off during product recalls, because you can pull affected stock by batch number rather than dumping an entire brand from every bar.

Figuring Out How Much to Request

The quantity field is the one people guess at, and guessing is what leaves one bar overstocked while another runs dry. Par levels fix this by setting a target count for each product at each station. The formula:

(Weekly usage + safety stock) ÷ deliveries per week = par level

If the main bar goes through 6 bottles of well bourbon per week, you want 2 bottles of safety stock, and you restock from the storeroom daily (7 times per week), your par level works out to roughly 1.1 bottles — meaning about one bottle should always be on hand. Each requisition then requests whatever brings the bar back up to par. Most operations round up and adjust by day of week: Friday’s requisition pulls more than Tuesday’s.

Set par levels by reviewing at least two to four weeks of sales data for each product at each station. New items without history can start conservative and adjust after the first full week. For a coming holiday or private event, bump par levels temporarily and note the reason on the requisition so the variance doesn’t get flagged as shrinkage.

Filling It Out, Line by Line

Start before the bar opens or during a slow transition between shifts. Never mid-rush. Walk the bar and count what’s on hand for every product against its par level. The difference is your requisition quantity.

Write one line per product. Mixing brands on a single line or lumping “assorted wines” into one entry creates reconciliation problems later. If you’re pulling 3 bottles of Jameson and 2 bottles of Bulleit, those are two separate lines, each with its own size, quantity, and cost field. Cross-reference the physical bottles in front of you against what you’re writing. The form should describe reality, not memory.

Once every product is listed, total the units and, if the template includes a cost column, calculate the dollar value. Sign the requester line. Then bring the form to whoever is authorized to approve it. Do not pull stock before the authorizing signature is on the form — the dual-signature system exists precisely to prevent inventory from leaving on one person’s say-so.

Getting It Authorized

The two-signature system creates a verifiable chain of custody for every bottle. The requesting bartender or bar-back confirms what they need; the authorizing manager confirms it makes sense. When those signatures are missing or forged, you have no way to prove who had possession of the stock if a discrepancy surfaces.

Managers reviewing a requisition should check two things: does the quantity match the par level for that station and shift, and are there unusual items that don’t fit the bar’s typical sales mix? A sudden requisition for three bottles of top-shelf scotch at a beer-heavy sports bar warrants a conversation before signing.

In digital systems, authorization may take the form of a manager login or PIN code entered within the inventory portal. The system logs the timestamp, the authorizer’s credentials, and the exact items approved. The underlying principle is the same either way: no stock moves without two people agreeing it should.

Submitting and Filing the Form

After both signatures are on the form, the storeroom attendant physically pulls each item and checks it against the sheet line by line. The issued-quantity column gets filled in at this stage. If the storeroom is short on a product, the attendant writes the actual amount issued. The form must reflect what actually left the room, not what was originally requested.

The completed form goes to three places: one copy stays with the storeroom for its running tally, one goes to the receiving bar station, and one goes to accounting or management for filing. Paper forms are typically scanned or placed into a binder organized by date. Digital systems handle routing automatically once the storeroom attendant confirms fulfillment.

Federal regulations require that these records, and any supporting documents, stay accessible at your place of business during business hours for inspection by TTB officers.¹ Retail dealers must also maintain records of every receipt showing the quantities of distilled spirits, wine, and beer received, the supplier’s identity, and the dates, using purchase invoices, bills, or a book record that captures all required details.² Requisitions are internal, but they feed those records by documenting the movement that bridges a delivery receipt to a point-of-sale transaction.

When a Sale Triggers Extra Federal Records

Standard bar requisitions cover internal transfers. If your establishment sells 20 wine gallons (about 75.7 liters) or more of any alcoholic beverage in a single transaction, federal regulations impose additional recordkeeping. You must document the date of sale, the purchaser’s name and address, the type and quantity of each product sold, and the serial numbers on all full cases of distilled spirits included in the sale. Each entry also requires a delivery receipt signed by the purchaser or their representative.²

The TTB presumes that any retail dealer selling at those volumes is actually operating as a wholesale dealer unless the retailer can prove otherwise. Most bar operations never reach that threshold in a single transaction, but catering events, private parties, and keg sales can push you into that territory. When they do, the requisition should cross-reference the event or sales order that triggered the large-quantity pull.

Mistakes That Break the Paper Trail

The biggest recurring problem isn’t a dramatic error. It’s sloppy product names. Writing “vodka” instead of the full brand and size means the form can’t be reconciled against storeroom inventory or POS sales data. Abbreviated entries are essentially uncountable.

Pulling stock before getting the manager’s signature is the next most common issue. It feels faster in the moment, but it breaks the chain of custody. If a discrepancy surfaces later, there’s no authorized record of what was supposed to leave the storeroom, and no way to hold the right person accountable.

Leaving the “quantity issued” field blank when the storeroom couldn’t fully fill a request is another frequent gap. The form then shows a request for 5 bottles but no record of whether 5 actually moved or only 3. That two-bottle discrepancy will inflate the next variance count for no real reason.

Failing to note returns or breakage creates phantom losses. If a bottle breaks during transfer or a product gets sent back to the storeroom, the return needs its own documented entry, either on the original requisition or on a separate credit form that references it. Unrecorded returns look identical to theft on a variance report.

1
eCFR. 27 CFR 31.191 – Period of Retention
2
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Beverage Alcohol Retailers