Skip to main content
Backbar Overview
Angel Horowitz avatar
Written by Angel Horowitz
Updated over a week ago

The Backbar represents the amount of the business' supplies that are used to perform services. There are three major ways you may interact with backbar in your software: backbar on services, backbar products, and backbar in payroll.

Backbar Amounts on Services
For each service performed by an employee, that employee may earn a commission based on a formula of (price minus backbar) times commission percentage, or (Price$ - Backbar$) x Commission%. For example, a store charges its clients $50 for Haircut and pays its employees 50% commission for performing the service. The store owner estimates that during a typical Haircut, $10 worth of Gel is used. The store owner may create a service in software called Haircut with a price of $50 and a backbar of $10. Based on the above formula, the employee would earn ($50-$10) x 50%, or $20 in commission.

To add a backbar amount to a service:

  1. Go to the Services screen and double-click on the service you wish to modify.

    • User-added image
  2. Choose the Bonus & Backbar tab and then enter the dollar amount you wish to allocate for backbar. Additionally, if you charge different backbar amounts for some of you employees, click the Exceptions button to add those here as well. Then select Save.

    • User-added image

Tracking Backbar Product Inventory
You may have backbar products that aren't sold to clients but need to be tracked in your software as inventory and ordered on purchase orders.

DaySmart Recommends:

  • Creating a schedule for removing items from your inventory in a way that works best with your ordering schedule.

  • Saving empty bottles, packages, or tags from the products that get used when it's time to adjust inventory.


To remove backbar products from your inventory:

  1. Go to the Tickets screen.

    • User-added image
  2. Add a new ticket. Instead of selecting a client, click the Back Bar Client button (at the bottom).

    • User-added image
  3. Enter all backbar products that you wish to remove from inventory in the ID field. Since Back Bar was selected for the client and no one is actually buying these products from you, the price will be automatically set to $0. Checkout/Close the ticket and the items will be removed from inventory.

    • User-added image

Verify Back Bar Inventory with P&L Report

  1. Backbar is accounted for as general ledger payments made to suppliers on your Profit and Loss Report.

  2. If you wish to run a report to see how much your business has used in backbar products:

    1. Go to the Reports > More Reports > Products > Backbar Product Usage - Grouped by Category (Report #94).

      • User-added image
    2. Select the range of dates you would like to view.

    3. From here you can Print, Customize View, or Export to Excel. When you are finished click OK.

      • User-added image

Backbar & Payroll Commission Details
When you run a payroll, each employee who is paid based on service commission will have a Commission Details Report generated. This is a useful tool that contains all the relevant information about backbar amounts that were deducted from an employee's commission during any payroll saved in your software. It's especially useful if you have discovered that your employee's service sales totals do not match their commission amounts.

To view an employee's Commission Details Report:

  1. In the Accounting drop-down menu, select View Commission Details.

    • User-added image
  2. Double-click on the report to view next to the employee's name.

  3. Each item in the Services tab will show the equation that calculates commission including the backbar amounts.

Did this answer your question?