Ullaging lost beer
A note on duty and manual adjustments
The duty for a sale doesn't become liable until the beer leaves the brewery (usually for delivery), so producing beer and manually increasing stock levels will never trigger any duty liability. This also in turn means that a reclaim is only needed if the beer was delivered before it was "lost" (for whatever reason).
If you reduce your stock levels using a manual stock adjustment (or stock take), and this reduces stock where duty has already been paid (e.g. it was previously returned from a customer), then Breww can reclaim that duty. Your duty settings decide whether it does for each type of loss and for stock take shortfalls, and a manual stock adjustment lets you choose for that record. For casks/kegs, this will be done if you pick a specific tracked container that's been returned. For other items where specific units are not tracked (by you - we track everything behind the scenes), Breww uses up items where duty has already been paid before it moves on to items where duty hasn't been paid yet, and reclaims the duty on those duty-paid items if the loss is set to reclaim. See Reclaiming duty on lost, spoiled and sample stock.
Ullaging lost beer
To make an ullage, when the beer is lost having previously left the brewery for a customer, you should use one of the ullage tools in Breww so that Breww can track this for you and save you time. When using an ullage tool, Breww will ensure the duty return is correctly updated automatically. Breww records an ullage as spoiled stock, so the Spoiled default in your duty settings decides whether it reclaims duty already paid on the beer. This can be done in a couple of ways:
- Go to Containers -> Actions & tools -> Ullage a container, find the customer, and mark the correct container as ullaged.
- If you're making a container collection, it's usually easiest to go to the customer, then Containers in trade & uplift orders tab and raise an Uplift order. This uplift order will be scheduled into a date and can be added to a delivery run. The driver can then confirm the collection of the containers and which (if any) are needing to be ullaged (along with the ullage volume in Litres).
Ullaging for a customer complaint
If the beer is being ullaged because a customer has complained, start from the complaint instead. Open the complaint and use Take action -> Ullage a container. This opens the same ullage tool with the containers narrowed to those matching the complaint's order, product and batch, and any ullage you create is linked back to the complaint automatically.
An ullage raised before the complaint existed can be linked afterwards by opening the ullage, using Edit, and choosing the complaint in the Complaint field. See Customer complaints.
If you sell a container of beer to a customer (and deliver it to them), then the duty will be added to your return for this. If they then return the beer for some reason, but it's not actually lost and can be re-sold, you should use the Return items button on the original delivery. This brings the container back into Breww, still full of beer, as duty-paid stock that you can resell. Breww doesn't reclaim the duty when the container comes back, because the duty you've already paid covers it when it's delivered to another customer, so Breww won't add it to your duty return a second time. If the container isn't resold and you ullage it or record it as lost or spoiled instead, it's still duty-paid stock, so Breww reclaims the duty if your default for that type is set to reclaim. An ullage uses your Spoiled default. All the defaults reclaim unless you change them in your duty settings. German duty is the exception for beer returned to a bonded location: it goes back under duty suspension and the duty is offset on your duty return, so there's nothing to reclaim if it's later lost or spoiled. See Reclaiming duty on lost, spoiled and sample stock.
Ullaging beer sold before switching to Breww
If you sold some beer before using Breww and this now needs to be ullaged, Breww's ullage tool won't be able to handle this (as it doesn't know about the original sale). In this case, your best option is to make a manual adjustment to your duty return. For more info on this please see the “Notes & manual adjustment” section of UK alcohol duty.