Free checklist
Bartender Training Checklist
The checklist (12 items)
Written as observable actions, so two trainers scoring the same shift land in the same place. In CrewSharp this is the Taproom Bar checklist in the Brewery / Taproom starter set, filed under Bar, and every item here is editable.
- 1Checked ID for every guest who looked under 30Critical
- 2Refused service to guests showing signs of intoxicationCritical
- 3Poured each beer into the correct glass for the style
- 4Kept the faucet out of the beer while pouring
- 5Poured to the house standard for head and fill lineMust pass
- 6Rinsed each glass before pouring
- 7Described styles and ABV accurately when asked
- 8Offered a taste when a guest was undecided
- 9Rang every pour into the POS
- 10Tracked how many drinks each guest had been served
- 11Kept the bar top dry and wiped
- 12Kept pace when the bar was three deep
Print it, score it on a clipboard, or open it in Sheets. No email required.
What usually goes wrong
Two critical items here are both about refusing someone. Checking ID and cutting off service are the parts of the job that require a bartender to be unpopular for a moment, and they are the two that carry the licence.
The items a good total should not outweigh
- Checked ID for every guest who looked under 30
- Refused service to guests showing signs of intoxication
When to sign someone off
A workable bar for this checklist: no critical items missed, a score above a line you set for Taproom Bar specifically rather than one number for the whole building, and observed on more than one shift with at least one of them busy. Then date it, so it can expire.
That last part is the one people skip. A sign-off with no date cannot be re-checked, which means a year later you have a record that says somebody was ready once.
Checklists that pair with this one
Someone trained on this one most often covers these alongside it, which makes them the sensible second checklist to train.
Common questions
How do you train someone to cut off a guest?
By rehearsing the words before they are needed and making clear that the decision is backed. Most people who fail this item are not unaware of the standard, they are unwilling to be the one enforcing it without support.
What should be on a bartender checklist?
The 12 items above cover it: checked id for every guest who looked under 30, refused service to guests showing signs of intoxication, poured each beer into the correct glass for the style, and the rest of the list. Keep it in that range. Fewer and a pass proves very little; many more and trainers stop finishing it during a real shift.
Which items should count as critical?
On this checklist, 2 items are marked critical: checked id for every guest who looked under 30; refused service to guests showing signs of intoxication. Missing one means not ready, regardless of the total score, because these are the failures that cannot be corrected after the fact.
Scoring it is the part that lasts
Run this Taproom Bar checklist on a tablet between rushes and CrewSharp keeps the rest: who is signed off, when it was last checked, and which item your crew misses most.
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