Custody: The shelf
What the custody shelf holds now, item by item and outlet by outlet. On the shelf, Movements and On keeps, why the three should agree, the warning when they do not, and Show items the shelf has finished with.
On this page
The shelf is the second tab of Custody. Where Kept items lists the keeps one customer at a time, The shelf adds them up by item: how many bottles of each thing you are holding for customers right now. It is the list to check against what is really standing behind the bar.
Before you start
- You need Custody (kept items) in your back office access group, as for the Custody page.
Open The shelf
- In the back office's menu, under MASTERS, click Stock, then Custody.
- Click the The shelf tab.
- With more than one outlet, the Outlet box above the tabs says whose shelf: All outlets lists each item once per outlet.
The tab, part by part
Custody
Bottles your customers have paid for and left with you. They are held at no value, so keeping one changes nothing in your stock value or cost of sales.
| Item6 | Outlet7 | Unit | On the shelf8 | Movements9 | On keeps10 | Last moved11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W12 Chivas Regal 12 700ml | HQ | BTL | 3 | 3 | 3 | 23 Oct 2026, 21:14 |
| W20 Hennessy VSOP 700ml | BR2 | BTL | 2 | 2 | 2 | 20 Oct 2026, 23:02 |
| W12 Chivas Regal 12 700ml · The shelf says 1, the open keeps say 2.12 | BR2 | BTL | 1 | 1 | 2 | 18 Oct 2026, 22:40 |
- Custody: under MASTERS, in the Stock category.
- The shelf: this tab. Kept items beside it lists the keeps themselves.
- Find an item…: narrows the list by the item's name or code.
- Show items the shelf has finished with: also lists the items with nothing on the custody shelf any more, at 0. Unticked, only what is being held.
- The count: how many bottles are held, across how many items, such as 6 held across 3 items. Reading… while the list loads.
- Item: the item's code and name.
- Outlet: whose shelf, by the outlet's code, when you have more than one outlet. The same item kept at two outlets has a row for each.
- On the shelf: how many the custody shelf holds now.
- Movements: the same number worked out again from every custody movement: kept, collected, written off.
- On keeps: what the open keeps themselves say is still held, added up. An expired keep still holding a bottle counts, until it is released.
- Last moved: the date and time the shelf last moved for this item.
- An amber warning: when the three numbers differ, the row says how, such as The shelf says 1, the open keeps say 2.
- The notes under the list: the three numbers should agree, and there is no value column, because custody is held at zero cost.
Check the shelf behind the bar
- Open The shelf, on one outlet.
- For each item, count the customers' bottles standing on the shelf.
- Compare with On the shelf.
- If a bottle is missing, find whose it is on the Kept items tab (search the item's name), and open the keep.
A bottle that is there but whose keep has run out is still on this shelf, and its keep reads Expired. Release it, back to the store room or as broken. See Release a keep that ran out.
Why three numbers
They come from three places on purpose. On the shelf is the balance the system keeps. Movements is that balance rebuilt from every movement. On keeps is what the customers' keeps say. On a healthy shelf all three are the same number. A row where they part company is shown with its warning at once, rather than waiting to be found during a count.
When you see a warning, open that item's keeps at that outlet on the Kept items tab, and compare them with the bottles standing on the shelf.
On the POS
Each POS has a Shelf of its own outlet too. See The shelf.