BeerSoft worked with a dedicated team of six business analysts. Many projects were timed to go live before the summer patio season.

1 person

Lead business analyst

Focus

BeerSoft's point of contact for staffing and quality; runs discovery with larger operators and keeps the shared templates

2 people

Hospitality application business analysts

Focus

Point of sale, online ordering, loyalty, guest journeys and taproom workflows

2 people

ERP and production business analysts

Focus

Brewing production, inventory, costing, wholesale order-to-cash and excise reporting

1 person

Integration and AI business analyst

Focus

System-of-record decisions, data flows between systems, and AI use cases and guardrails

• The team worked in BeerSoft's tools and under BeerSoft's direction, as part of its project teams.
• Our lead BA agreed assignments with BeerSoft each week and moved analysts between projects as go-live dates approached.
• Work was checked by a second analyst before the lead BA passed it to BeerSoft.
• Each analyst kept short handover notes, so a teammate could step in during holidays or illness.

The engagements started with analysis. We elicited requirements from brewery leadership, taproom leads and the staff who would use the system, and documented four flows end to end. Each flow showed where a person, not a system, still carried the process.

Flow

How it moved before

Where a person carried it

An order

Taproom orders went through point of sale, online and pickup orders came through a separate store, and packaged stock was updated in the production tool by hand

The taproom lead reconciled sold-out items and online stock at the end of each day

A loyalty action

Members earned stamps or points on paper cards or in a standalone app, and renewals were chased manually

One manager knew which members were due to renew and which rewards had been used

A wholesale account

New bars and stores were set up by the sales rep, orders came by text, and kegs and deposits were tracked in a spreadsheet

The sales rep held the account history, pricing and keg balances, often on their phone

A guest question

Questions came by phone, social media messages, email and in person, and answers depended on who picked up

Whoever was on shift answered from memory, and private event requests waited for management

For example

Keg returns

• Given a wholesale account has kegs past the agreed return date
• When the account's next order is entered
• Then the order shows the outstanding kegs and deposit balance
• And the sales rep is prompted to arrange collection before delivery

Sold-out item

• Given a beer has sold out in the taproom
• When the tap is marked as empty at the point of sale
• Then the beer is removed from the online menu and pickup ordering
• And the tap list shown to guests updates without staff editing it separately

Shift handover

• Given a shift has ended
• When the closing lead finishes close-out
• Then the next lead can see sales, sold-out items, kicked kegs, issues and notes
• And nothing depends on a message in someone's personal phone

Preparation for application development defined the software's job in detail, so a development team could estimate it and so design started from agreed requirements.

User roles

Multi-site operator

• Executive or senior leader with consolidated reporting across locations
• Operations and finance at head office
• Location general managers and taproom leads
• Wholesale and sales team, shared across locations
• Production and inventory staff at the brewery
• Bartenders and servers, scoped to their location

Single taproom

• Person running the business, often covering management and bookkeeping
• General manager or taproom lead
• Bartenders and servers
• A part-time sales contact for wholesale, where there is one
• Head brewer, who also manages packaged stock

Journeys

Guest

Discover, check what is on tap, order online or in person, join or use loyalty, book an event, ask a question, and give feedback

Staff

Open, take orders, manage the tap list, record sold-out items, redeem loyalty rewards, handle a guest question, close out and hand over the shift

Wholesale

Set up an account, check its licence, place an order, schedule delivery, track kegs and deposits, and invoice

Data the application needed, and data it must not collect

Needed

• Guest name and contact details, with marketing consent recorded separately
• A flag confirming the guest is of legal drinking age for that location
• Loyalty membership, points and reward history
• Wholesale account details, licence number, pricing tier, keg balance and deposits
• Order history linked to the point of sale

Not collected

• Images or numbers from ID documents. Age checks record only that age was confirmed
• Full payment card details, which stay with the payment provider
• Precise location tracking
• Health information beyond the allergen preferences a guest chooses to share
• Staff personal details beyond what scheduling and access need

Integrations and systems of record

System already in place

What it remains the record for

What the application reads or writes

Point of sale

Transactions, tabs, payments and tips

Reads orders and item status, and writes loyalty earn and redeem events

Brewing production and inventory software

Batches, packaged stock and keg inventory

Reads stock and keg data for online ordering and wholesale

Online store and pickup ordering

Online orders

Reads and writes availability, linked to taproom sold-out status

Accounting

Invoices, payments received and tax

Receives wholesale invoices and keg deposit entries

Email and SMS marketing platform

Campaign sends

Receives consent status, so only consenting guests are contacted

Tap list and menu displays

What guests see on screens and online menus

Receives tap changes from the point of sale

Event and booking tools

Event and private booking calendar

Receives routed event enquiries

Non-functional requirements

Access

Role-based access by location, PIN sign-in for shared taproom tablets, and fast set-up and removal of staff accounts as people join and leave

Payments

Card data handled only by the payment provider's hosted fields or terminals, keeping the application out of PCI DSS card-data scope

Privacy

Consent and retention rules covering PIPEDA and provincial laws in Canada, applicable state privacy laws in the United States, and CASL consent for commercial email and text messages

Performance

Stable during Friday night service and limited-release drops, when online ordering traffic spikes

Accessibility

WCAG 2.1 AA as the target for guest-facing screens, supporting AODA in Ontario and accessibility expectations in the United States

Scoped backlog

Epics and user stories with acceptance criteria, prioritized with MoSCoW and split into releases the development team could estimate

As breweries grow, spreadsheets and separate tools stop being enough for production, inventory and excise reporting. Several projects prepared the ground for an ERP, specified with the same method as the applications so the two fitted together.

Brew-to-package process

Recipes, brew logs, fermentation and conditioning, packaging runs and finished goods, with yields and losses recorded at each step

Inventory and traceability

Raw materials, packaging, finished goods and kegs, with lot tracking from ingredient to wholesale account so a recall can be traced

Batch costing

How ingredient, packaging and labour costs roll up into the cost of each batch and each packaged product

Wholesale order-to-cash

Account set-up and licence checks, pricing tiers, orders, delivery, keg deposits, invoicing and payment

Excise and regulatory reporting

The production and removal data needed for TTB reporting in the United States and excise duty returns in Canada, confirmed with each client's accountant

Procurement

Purchase orders for malt, hops, yeast and packaging, goods receipt and supplier invoices

Integrations

Sales from the point of sale and online store flowing into ERP inventory and accounting, with a system of record agreed for each data element

Data migration readiness

Recipes, item master, inventory balances, open orders and customer accounts, with quality checks before migration

Selection support

A requirements catalogue, demo scripts that follow a batch from brew day to wholesale invoice and excise report, and a scoring model comparing brewing-specific systems with general ERPs

Independent breweries often did not need a full ERP. For them, we specified brewing production software and accounting that connected cleanly to the point of sale.

Cross-border operators needed rules held as configuration, not hard-coded, because the same feature behaves differently by location.

Legal drinking age

The age gate and confirmation rules follow each location's legal age: 18 or 19 depending on the province in Canada, and 21 in the United States.

Alcohol delivery and pickup

Ordering options are switched on only where the location's licence and local rules allow them.

Promotions and loyalty

Some jurisdictions limit alcohol discounts and rewards. Reward types were configurable by location, and each operator confirmed its local rules.

Tax and currency

Prices, taxes and currency are set per location, including GST, HST or PST in Canada and state and local sales taxes in the United States.

Serving sizes and units

Serving sizes and units, millilitres or US fluid ounces, are configured per location.

AI work stayed inside the same baseline. Each use case was defined by what it reads, what it produces, who checks it, and what it must never do. The goal was an assistant that helps staff under clear rules, not an open-ended chatbot talking to guests unsupervised.

Use case

What the AI reads

What it produces

Human checkpoint

Hard limits

Answering routine guest questions

The live tap list, hours, events and approved menu and allergen content

Answers to common questions on the website or in messages

Managers approve the content the AI draws on, and staff review flagged conversations

No age confirmation, no serving decisions, no health claims, no promises on limited releases unless stock data confirms them

Drafting a first response

The incoming message and approved content

A draft reply to an event, wholesale or general enquiry

Staff edit and send every reply. Nothing is sent automatically

No prices, discounts or bookings confirmed without staff approval

Routing an enquiry

Enquiry type, location and urgency

A suggested team: events, wholesale, management or the taproom

Staff can reassign any enquiry

Complaints, safety issues and legal or licensing questions always go to a manager

Summarizing a shift

Point of sale totals, sold-out items, tap changes and staff notes

A shift summary for the next lead and management

The closing lead reviews and corrects it before it is shared

No guest personal data in summaries, and incident notes are visible only to managers

Before any assistant or agent was put in front of staff or guests, we documented:

Data readiness

We checked whether tap lists, menus, allergen information and hours were current and came from one source, and whether point of sale item names matched the production tool.

What the model can see

Approved content, live tap and stock data, and the message in front of it. It cannot see payment data, ID checks, loyalty member details or staff records.

Allergens

The AI can share approved allergen information, but questions about severe allergies are always referred to staff.

Responsible service

The AI must never encourage overconsumption, comment on whether a guest has had too much, or make any decision about serving alcohol.

Escalation

Messages about safety, intoxication, injuries, complaints, allergic reactions or licensing go straight to a manager.

Transparency

Guests are told when they are messaging an AI assistant.

Testing and monitoring

Each use case was tested with realistic guest and staff questions, including ones it must decline. After launch, logs of AI outputs and staff edits are reviewed so content gaps get fixed.

Development support

We supported the build of the applications each project needed, such as online ordering linked to taproom stock, loyalty and membership management, wholesale ordering with keg tracking, shift handover and AI-assisted guest messaging.

Traceability

Each requirement was linked to user stories, test cases and releases, so operators could see that every agreed outcome had been delivered and tested.

Testing in the room

Acceptance testing took place on the devices and point of sale set-up each location used, including a simulated busy service.

Implementation

We supported the move from paper cards and spreadsheets into the new system, keg balance reconciliation with wholesale accounts, cutover planning and short training for each role.

Change control

When scope moved during implementation, each change was assessed against the baseline and decided by the operator through BeerSoft.

Larger operators needed a shared model with local variation. Independent breweries and taprooms needed a smaller scope that still fit how their room worked. Each got a separate specification. A small taproom was never handed a cut-down version of a regional operator's model.

Area

Regional operator

Independent brewery or taproom

Product catalogue

One shared catalogue from the production brewery, with tap lists managed per location

One catalogue that the head brewer keeps in step with what is on tap

Pricing and promotions

Head office price lists, with approved local variations

Prices set directly by the business, with simple promotion rules

Loyalty

One program across locations, with local reward options where rules require them

A mug club or simple points program for one room

Wholesale

A shared sales team, distributor relationships, and keg tracking across locations

Direct accounts handled by management or one sales contact

Reporting

Comparable sales, wholesale and loyalty measures across locations

A short daily and weekly view the business actually uses

Integrations

Point of sale, production software, accounting, marketing platform and distributor data

Point of sale, accounting and online ordering

ERP

One ERP covering production, inventory, wholesale and excise reporting across sites

Brewing production software plus accounting, connected to the point of sale

AI scope

Shared guardrails, with approved content for each location

Routine guest questions and shift summaries only