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ROI calculator

Does DrinkLync pay for itself at your bar?

Move the sliders to match your busiest nights. See how many extra drinks cover your monthly plan, compare three possible outcomes, and understand what your venue could keep after pour cost and card processing. Estimates use our published prices and clearly labelled assumptions. Projection, not a guarantee.

Onboard your bar Run your numbers

Your bar, our whole price

Your bar

Start with a venue type, then move a slider or type your own numbers. Values marked Default follow your venue type until you change them. Clear a number to use its default again. These are planning assumptions, not results from a real bar.

Choose a more specific venue type

It sets the defaults for anything you leave empty.

Every bar, across every location. Core includes 1 station; each extra station is $199 a month.

Only the nights the bar is slammed. Empty: the default for your venue type.

How long the rush lasts. Empty: the default for your venue type.

Everyone pouring at the peak. Empty: the default for your venue type.

Through the door on the night you are picturing. Sets how many drinks a bartender pours. Empty: the default for your venue type.

What a customer pays for one drink, before any tip. Empty: the default for your venue type.

See your results ↓

Worked example. These figures come from the starting values on the left, not from any bar. With JavaScript on, they follow your inputs.

Your monthly break-even

9 more drinks a busy night

The extra drinks needed to cover your ongoing plan after pour cost and card fees.

DrinkLync pays for itself at 9 more drinks a busy night. On these inputs the low scenario does not cover the monthly bill, so we show break-even only. Projection, not a guarantee.

Monthly plan coverage is not payback on your full investment. One-time setup and the full first-year bill appear below; staffing changes, taxes and other operating costs are not included.

Interactive projection

See the range, not just one number.

Change the inputs to compare monthly added value with your ongoing plan cost.

Added value is after pour cost and card processing, before the plan fee. One-time setup is shown below. All bars use the same dollar scale and start at zero.

Drinks on a busy night

From our price list

What DrinkLync costs you

Your planCore Venue
Setup, once per location$500
To go live: setup plus month one (Insights free that month)$1,199
Year one, everything$8,888

After month one: $699/mo without Insights, or $898/mo with Insights. That is $8,388 or $10,776 a year.

No share of your sales, ever. Card processing is separate: customers pay into your own Stripe account, and Stripe bills you its standard card fees on those payments.

Projection, from the inputs

Does it pay for itself?

9 more drinks a busy nightcovers the whole monthly bill

DrinkLync pays for itself at 9 more drinks a busy night. On these inputs the low scenario does not cover the monthly bill, so we show break-even only. Projection, not a guarantee.

Break-even counts what your venue keeps after pour cost and card processing: $7.02 on a $9 drink at a 78% margin, less $0.46 of Stripe fees paid by your venue, is $6.56 a drink, over 13 busy nights a month (3 a week x 52 / 12), against $699 a month for your plan without Insights.

Projection, from the inputs

Added revenue, and what you keep

Drinks on a busy night, today and with DrinkLync80 to 88
Revenue lift on a busy night+10%
Added revenue, each busy night$72
Added revenue, each month$936
Added revenue, each year$11,232
Kept after pour cost, each month$730
Kept after pour cost, each year$8,760
Kept after pour cost and card processing, each year$8,184

Card processing: −$576 (Stripe's standard fees, paid by your venue directly to Stripe on its own account. DrinkLync takes 0%.)

Card processing on the added revenue at Stripe's standard US online rate, 2.9% + $0.30 per charge (stripe.com/pricing), one charge per in-app order of about 1.5 drinks. Your venue's own Stripe rate is what applies. Stripe's standard fees, paid by your venue directly to Stripe on its own account. DrinkLync takes 0%.

88 = 80 today + 4 from faster service at the rail + 3 from bigger rounds and phone reorders + 1 from customers who no longer walk away

3 busy nights a week is 156 a year and 13 a month. A year is 52 weeks and a month is a twelfth of a year, so every monthly figure times 12 is the yearly figure.

Their income, and time, not money

Your staff and your customers

Tips on a busy night$108 to $127 per bartender
Extra tips a year, per bartender$2,964
Extra tips a year, your whole team$2,964
Bartender time back to pouring, each year31 hours
Time to get a drink at peakAbout 8 min today, 3.2 min with DrinkLync

Tips are your staff's income, never counted as yours. Bartender time is shown as hours and never turned into dollars above, so nothing is counted twice.

The numbers we used

Assumptions, and where each came from

Venue type (you chose)Neighborhood bar or tavern
Busy nights a week (default: typical for a neighborhood bar)3
Peak hours a busy night (default: typical for a neighborhood bar)4
Bartenders at peak (default: typical for a neighborhood bar)1
Drinks per bartender-hour today (default: typical for a neighborhood bar)20
Average drink price (default: typical for a neighborhood bar)$9
Gross margin on a drink (default: industry bar margin)78%
Bartender hourly rate (default: BLS Nashville bartender wage)
4
Peak demand that walks away today (default: DrinkLync estimate)12%
Card processing on the added revenue (default: Stripe's published US rate (stripe.com/pricing); paid by your venue directly to Stripe at its own rate; DrinkLync takes 0%)2.9% + $0.30 a charge
Tip rate today, and on app orders (default: planning assumption, not a measured result)15% to 18%

Projection, not a guarantee.

How every number is worked out

  1. One model. This page runs the same function as the quote we email a bar after intake, the onboarding wizard and the proposal we send with a contract. Same inputs, same numbers.
  2. Drinks today. bartenders × drinks per bartender-hour × peak hours. Give us your customers on a busy night and the pour rate is worked out from them.
  3. Drinks with DrinkLync. Three drivers, each rounded to whole drinks and added: faster service at the rail, bigger rounds and phone reorders, and customers who no longer walk away from the line. Their percentages are in the scenario table on the venues page, every one labelled.
  4. Each month and each year. A year is 52 weeks; a month is a twelfth of a year, so busy nights a month are busy nights a week × 52 ÷ 12, and every monthly figure × 12 is the yearly figure.
  5. What you keep. Added revenue × a 78% bar margin, after pour cost, less card processing: Stripe’s standard fees, paid by your venue directly to Stripe on its own account (2.9% + 30¢ a charge as a stand-in for your own rate). DrinkLync takes 0%.
  6. Break-even. Whole drinks a busy night whose margin, after card processing, covers the monthly bill, rounded up. The page says the bill is covered only when even the low scenario covers it.
  7. Your bill. Per location: Core $699 with 1 station, $199 for each extra station ($199 setup each), Insights $199 only if you turn it on, and $500 setup. The prices DrinkLync bills from, checked against the billing code on every deploy of this site.

What this leaves out, on purpose

  • Tips. They are your staff's income, not your revenue, so they never count toward the return.
  • Bartender time. Shown as hours, never as money.
  • Insights. What you do with the reports is up to you, so it is a cost here and never a gain.
  • Your room. DrinkLync has not measured your bar. Once you are live, your manager dashboard shows your real orders and sales, and they replace every projection on this page.

The low, base and high scenarios are on the venues page. The full price list is on pricing.

Onboard your bar What you get for $699 Get started