Questions, answered

A server permit issued on or after January 1, 2025 is valid for two years from its issue date. A permit issued before that keeps its original five-year term. Most venues will have a mix of both for the next few years, so read the issue date on each card rather than assuming.

No. Once a server permit expires, that person cannot legally serve alcohol until they complete an approved training course again and get a new permit. The 61-day grace period only applies to brand-new servers.

Someone who has never held a Tennessee server permit can work in a serving position for up to 61 days from their hire date (or from the date they're moved into a serving position) while they get one. Each person gets it once in their life. It does not restart when they change jobs, and it is not available to anyone who has held a permit before, even an expired one.

Anyone whose duties directly or indirectly affect selling, serving, or dispensing alcohol at an on-premise licensee: servers, bartenders, barbacks, managers, and assistant managers. Hosts, bussers, and kitchen staff generally do not, unless their duties include alcohol service.

At least 18. At a venue that permits smoking, the minimum age to serve there is 21.

Complete a TABC-approved alcohol server training course, then apply for the permit through the state's RLPS portal and pay the $20 state application fee. Your course completion certificate can be used to apply for one year from the date you finish.

The state application fee is $20, paid directly to the state through RLPS. The training course is a separate cost set by whichever approved provider you use.

Yes. On-premise licensees must keep a readily accessible copy, paper or electronic, of the server permit for every employee required to have one, available whenever TABC asks to see it.

No. The grace period is tied to the person, not the job. If someone used it at another venue, or already held a permit at any point, they need a valid permit before they serve at yours.

No. The certificate shows you finished an approved course. It is what you use to apply for the permit through RLPS, and it can only be used for that for one year. You need the permit itself to serve.

Server permits apply to on-premise licensees that sell liquor, wine, or high-gravity beer. Places that only sell regular beer are permitted by their local beer board, which sets its own requirements. Check with your county or city beer board.

Yes. Since July 1, 2026, every hemp THC sale in Tennessee needs a valid photo ID showing 21 or older. Unlike some alcohol sales, there's no exception for customers who look over 50.

When Tennessee alcohol or hemp rules change, we send a short email explaining what changed and what to do. Owners and managers get one edition, staff on your roster get another. It's included with every account, and anyone can unsubscribe from the link in the footer without affecting permit alerts.

A spreadsheet does what you type into it and nothing else. It won't email you in July about a card that lapses in September, it won't know that permits issued in 2025 run two years instead of five, and it isn't a binder you can hand an agent. If your spreadsheet is current and someone owns it, you're in better shape than most bars. The question is what happens the month that person is busy, or leaves.

You photograph it with your phone. The camera view has an outline to line the card up in, the permit number and the issue and expiration dates get read off it, and you confirm each field next to the cropped image before anything saves. When the photo won't cooperate you type it in and keep the image attached. Digital permits from the MyTN wallet scan the same way.

A cover page with your venue name, TABC license number, the date it was generated, and your compliance counts. Then the full roster with permit numbers, issue and expiration dates, hire dates, and status. Then an image of every card. Exceptions are written out on the cover in plain English, like 'hired 6/30, grace period through 8/30.' It prints letter-size.

It keeps you from getting cited for the paperwork you forgot about. It can't do anything about what happens on the floor. We're a tracking tool, not a shield, and we're not affiliated with TABC.

A quarterly on-site visit. Someone from our team comes to the venue, compares your physical binder against what the system says, resolves whatever doesn't match while standing there, and leaves a signed one-page summary. It's our own review, not a TABC audit, and it carries no regulatory weight.

Billable employees pool across the whole organization, so 10 at one bar and 30 at another puts you in one tier instead of paying two separate plans. Every location gets its own dashboard and its own packet, and staff who work at more than one location count once.

Anyone in a position that requires a server permit. Positions that don't require one never count. Your tier is based on the monthly average, so one heavy December doesn't lock you into a higher price in January.

Five or fewer staff who need a card and the software costs nothing. No trial timer, no card on file, no feature held back. We plan to earn our money when your crew renews their permits through our course, which is why a small bar staying small is fine with us.

They arrive at 90, 60, 30, 14, and 7 days before a card expires, on the morning someone crosses into cannot serve, and as a Monday digest for the week. Owners and managers each choose which ones they want. Nothing sends twice for the same event.

People you invite, at the locations you give them. A manager at one venue can't see another venue's staff, and no other business can see who works for you. If someone worked somewhere else before, we'll tell you whether they're still eligible for the grace period, but never where they worked.

Yes. With white-glove setup we photograph the binder, enter everyone including staff who don't need cards, verify each card that gets read, and hand back a working dashboard.

We're launching in Nashville first and opening to the rest of Tennessee after that. Join the early access list and we'll email you once, when we're ready for your area.

We plan to. The course is written but has not been submitted to TABC for program certification yet, so it is not an approved course today. Until it is, take any course on TABC's approved list. We'll say so on this site the day ours is approved.

The planned price is $29.99, and $14.99 for anyone on the roster of a venue that uses EasyABC TN. Those numbers could change before launch.

No. Anyone will be able to take the course. If your employer does use it, your certificate lands on their roster when you pass, and you get the lower price.

A portal under your own name and web address for member records, dues by card or check, membership levels, online courses, and live classes. Members on a level that includes it get EasyABC TN compliance tracking for their business, billed to the association at a wholesale rate.

No. Dues and course payments go to the association's own Stripe account, and we take no cut of dues.