Describe your bar and opening standards. Makeform creates a shift-ready bartender opening checklist with setup tasks, exception notes, photos, and a completion record.
Send completed opening checks to Slack, Google Sheets, and Zapier.
Sample prompts for your opening routine
Choose a prompt, tailor it to your venue, or send it to the Makeform builder.
Audience
Opening bartenders preparing a full cocktail station
Format
Sectioned checklist with stock counts and photos
Prompt size
298 chars
Example checklist structure
Sectioned checklist with stock counts and photos
Bartender, shift, and station
Sanitation and equipment checks
Prep and bottle pars
Issue notes or photos
Station ready for service
Suggested routing tags
Ready for service
Manager review
Stock issue
Ask for an exception note beside each failed task so managers know what needs attention.
Step 1
Assign
identify the opener, shift, and bar station
Step 2
Set up
complete sanitation, stock, prep, and equipment tasks
Step 3
Flag
record shortages, failures, and work still open
Step 4
Confirm
submit readiness and route exceptions to a manager
A more reliable open
A submitted checklist ties each opening task and exception to a bartender, station, and time.
Required sections cover sanitation, prep, stock, tools, guest areas, POS, and cash. Conditional branches handle different stations.
Bartenders can name missing stock, enter quantities, describe failures, and attach photos for manager action.
Each submission records the opener, station, completion time, readiness, and flagged exceptions.
Fit the venue
Start with the closest operating pattern, then change tasks, par levels, stations, and escalation fields in the builder.
Track fresh garnish, juice, syrup, batch, glassware, ice, and tool preparation by station, including preparation times where freshness matters.
Combine bar readiness with service-well supplies, reservation notes, the current 86 list, printer tests, and dining-room coordination.
Route main bar, service bar, patio, and VIP tasks to their assigned openers, then collect one exception trail for the supervisor.
Focus the opening on cooler readiness, keg levels, tap condition, open-bottle handling, glassware, menus, and a tested point of sale.
Build the checklist
Organize your sequence, then define precise completion and exception fields.
Name stations, service periods, pars, equipment, sanitation, cash procedure, and the exception reviewer.
Use observable outcomes: ice filled, speed rail at par, garnish labeled, washer tested, and printer working.
A no or below-par answer can reveal item, quantity, explanation, and photo fields.
Share a mobile link or QR code, notify managers, and log recurring shortages in a sheet.
Digital vs paper opening lists
The useful difference is not the screen. It is the structured record of who completed each opening, which tasks failed, and what the manager must resolve.
Field guide
Use six sections in service order, pairing completion checks with shortage and failure fields.
Shift ownership
Capture bartender, date, service period, and station. A station dropdown can reveal relevant tasks and expose missing submissions.
Sanitation & safety
Place sanitation before prep. Use yes-or-no outcomes and require notes for problems not corrected during opening.
Prep & par levels
List your prep and stock pars. Quantity fields show the shortage and what the opener needs.
Equipment & systems
Ask the opener to test the washer, refrigeration, draft system, blender, POS, printer, and station devices.
Cash & guest areas
Include your cash-bank process, then confirm menus, lighting, seating, service pickup, and public areas.
Exceptions & sign-off
Summarize exceptions, identify their owners, note whether they block service, and collect completion confirmation.
Related tools
Use live Makeform tools for shift handoffs, food-safety checks, stock changes, equipment inspections, supply requests, and restaurant orders.
Carry unresolved stock, equipment, and maintenance notes between bar teams.
Open toolBuild food-handling and sanitation checks for beverage prep areas.
Open toolRecord stock corrections with item, quantity, reason, and review details when counts do not match.
Open toolCreate deeper condition checks for washers, coolers, draft components, and other bar equipment.
Open toolAdapt a structured order workflow for non-beverage supplies that the bar or front of house needs.
Open toolCollect structured food and beverage orders for restaurant workflows that extend beyond opening tasks.
Open toolFAQ
Answers for managers building a consistent opening routine.
It is a pre-service task list confirming a station is clean, stocked, tested, and ready. It records the opener, shift, station, exceptions, completion time, and readiness.
Include sanitation, ice, glassware, prep, beverage pars, draft and refrigeration, tools, POS, cash, menus, guest areas, event notes, exceptions, and sign-off. Show only tasks relevant to the selected station.
Use a station dropdown and conditional logic for main, service, patio, event, or VIP tasks. Keep shared sanitation and sign-off sections consistent.
Yes. A failed or below-par answer can reveal item, quantity, description, urgency, and photo fields. Route the submission to the responsible manager.
Not necessarily. Collect bartender completion every time, then request manager acknowledgment only for exceptions or a not-ready status.
Yes. Makeform provides unlimited free forms and responses, so you can generate, edit, publish, and reuse the checklist each shift. The paid tier removes the Makeform badge.
Yes. Share a link or QR code. Short labels, service-order sections, and photos requested only for exceptions keep the mobile flow practical.
Submissions arrive in Makeform with opener, station, time, readiness, and exceptions. Notifications and integrations can send results to Slack, Google Sheets, or Zapier.
Open the bar with fewer unknowns.
