Sculpture Columbus, Ohio

09/19/2026

How do you track and manage your bar inventory?
How do you track and manage your cash?

Is it the same?

It should be.

Attend my seminar this coming Monday, October 19th at the Ohio Bar Owners Association Trade show at the Hollywood Casino in Columbus, Ohio! My seminar is at 2pm.

Then stay for the trade show from 3pm to 7pm. Stop by our booth and say Hi!

What appears on your financial statements and your tax return? Dollars / cash or inventory numbers? Cash and dollars do.

How do you balance your cash drawer and your bank statment? You compare what you brought in to what you should have brought in by comparing those two values with the actual cash counts, deposits, payments and withdrawals. This is what all owners do and should do. They initially learn this process from an accountant / CPA.

Here is where for a lot of owners go wrong in tracking their inventory. They look at percentages or trends in sales and costs used.

They do nothing at all, except to track their inventory usage to figure out how much to order. They might compare that usage to the total sales dollars for the week. But what are they comparing? Actual usage to actual sales. That's it. How is that like comparing how much cash actually did come in (From the counting of the cash drawer) to how much cash should have come in? (From the cash in drawer report or the Z tape)

They are not tracking their inventory use and sales like their cash and consequently, will end up "missing" more inventory and sales then they realize.

On average, when owners don't use the correct method of comparing how much inventory is used to how much inventory is sold on the product mix report, the average loss is about 15%. When you do compare your actual inventory use to the ideal amount of usage (as defined by the product mix report) you will end up knowing your true inventory loss. With this information you can bring your losses down from an average of 15% to less than 3%.

To do this type of analysis, you need an inventory management software program to do the analysis. An excel spreadsheet won't cut it!

You have to count the inventory accurately, track the purchases and use the product mix report from your POS system. You will have to have recipes set up in the system with the ideal quantities for each menu item. And you should do this analysis weekly.

09/18/2026

https://youtu.be/RVbZUkmCvLI?si=buNXlLnnjE1gMFZD

Listen to Chuck Ashton with Standard Hall, Forno, The Short North Pint House talk about their experience with Sculpture Hospitality, using our inventory system for their bar businesses.

Listen to Chuck Ashton, owner at Corso Ventures in Columbus, Ohio t...

07/18/2026

If you own or operate or manage a bar it is absolutely necessary for you to fully understand the following two areas.

How variance analysis really works - Variance analysis is the process of determing inventory and sales losses.

The correct calculations are determing the amount of inventory actually used by each brand for a particulare period of time and then determing the theoretical / Ideal amount of inventory that should have been used, by using the product mix report for that same time. This will show you the difference. It's really the same kind of comparison that is done with the cash drawer count.

And also you need to know and understand what other methods you or other owners might use that don't actually work in determing inventory and sales losses. These methods "fall short" of being accurate or correct.

This means not using an inventory management software program or App, just tracking inventory usage with an excel spreadsheet is not enought, you are only doing half the job here. It would be akin to counting the drawer without comparing that count of the money to the amount that is shown on the Cash In Drawer report.

Or simply tracking inventory usage, or looking at comparing current actual cost percentages to past actual cost percentages or an arbitrary goal percentage..

These methods that are used that fall short include the following:

Tracking inventory usage only

Comparing current actual liquor cost percentages to past actual percentages. (Instead of calculating the ideals and comparing those number to the actual percentages)

Watching video

Using spotters

Taking the purchases for the month and and dividing the total of the purchases by the sales for the percente of cost used

Tracking the top 10 users (correctly by using variance analysis)

Monitoring daily sales or weekly sales and costs used

Financial statement comparisons (from current to past period)

Trusting their staff (If you trusted your staff, why do you count the cash drawer?)

Being there or sitting at the bar watching the bartenders

07/15/2026

Here is a pretty comprehensive list of what bar operators do to control their inventory.

1. Using financial statements - Operators look for specific numbers and percentages to assess performance.
2. Monitoring cash flow - This includes checking deposits and daily bank balances.
3. Adding up monthly invoices and dividing by monthly sales.
4. Monitoring cash/sales flow on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
5. Tracking inventory usage and comparing it to sales, or calculating actual pour costs for the period and comparing that number to a previous one.
6. Watching video footage from cameras.
7. Observing staff behavior while sitting at the bar.
8. Utilizing spotters to monitor activity.
9. Being present at the bar to gauge operations.
10. Tracking variances but focusing only on certain individual brands or top sellers.
11. Engaging in conversations with guests for feedback.
12. Relying on staff trust.

Unfortunately, these methods do not effectively capture the full picture of lost sales and inventory issues. Understanding why they fall short is crucial for improvement.

Here is the definition of Cost Accounting, which is what we use for the basis of our analysis.

Here is the definition of Cost Accounting, which is the basis we use for tracking inventory with our system.

Cost accounting involves recording, classifying, analyzing, and allocating costs associated with a product, service, or project to help management control spending, set accurate prices, and enhance profitability

Unlike financial accounting, which focuses on external reporting (financial statements and tax returns), cost accounting is primarily for internal use, providing managers with detailed insights into where money is spent and how efficiently resources are used. Financial accounting only uses dollars for the analysis.

Cost accounting utilizes both dollars and inventory quantities (counts or weights or volume) to do the analysis for the calculation of waste and efficiency's.

It helps businesses make informed decisions about pricing, budgeting, cost reduction, and profitability analysis

Charlie Deibel
Regional Director of KY/OH/IN, Sculpture Hospitality
P 614.488.8218
M 614.306.5654
E [email protected]

06/24/2026

Exploring the common methods that over 75% of restaurant operators use to identify lost sales and missing inventory reveals some shortcomings with those methods. Here are 12 methods often employed that fall short:

1. Using financial statements - Operators look for specific numbers to assess performance.

2. Monitoring cash flow - This includes checking deposits and daily bank balances.

3. Adding up monthly invoices and dividing by monthly sales.

4. Monitoring cash/sales flow on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

5. Tracking inventory usage and comparing it to sales, or calculating actual pour costs for the period and comparing that number to a previous one.

6. Watching video footage from cameras.

7. Observing staff behavior while sitting at the bar.

8. Utilizing spotters to monitor activity.

9. Being present at the bar to gauge operations.

10. Tracking variances but focusing only on certain individual brands or top sellers.

11. Engaging in conversations with guests for feedback.

12. Relying on staff trust.

Unfortunately, many of these methods may not effectively capture the full picture of lost sales and inventory issues. Understanding why they fall short is crucial for improvement.

If you are interested in exploring why one or any of these methods fall short, contact me and I will be happy to go through them with you!

06/18/2026

BAR OWNERS:

If you count your cash drawer every night…
why don’t you count your liquor the same way?

Think about it.

You pull the Z-tape.
You count the cash the register says should be there.
If it’s short, you lose sleep over it.

Now look at your shelf.
You sold 17 Tito’s last night (according to the POS).
Did 17 pours actually leave those bottles?
You don’t know… because you’re not weighing cash, but you’re guessing liquor.

That’s like locking the door but leaving the safe open. Or like leaving the front door open and the back door locked.

Every ounce you don’t track is money you’re literally pouring down the drain—or into someone’s pocket.

The truth most owners don’t want to hear:

If you say “I trust my bartenders,”
then why do you still count the cash drawer?
If you truly trusted them with every drink, you’d trust them with every dollar too.

You don’t.
So why treat your inventory any differently?

There’s a better way.

We give you the same airtight control over your liquor, b**r, and draft that you already demand from your cash.

→ Weigh bottles and kegs in minutes
→ Match every pour and draft pull against your POS product mix
→ See exactly where your money is going—down the tap or out the door

No more “mystery shrinkage.”
No more hoping your staff “mostly” rings things in.
Just cold, hard numbers that balance the same way your till does.

Because your inventory IS cash.
You bought it with cash.
You sell it for cash.
Start protecting it like cash.

Stop guessing. Start knowing.

Get a free, no-BS inventory audit and see exactly how much you’re losing right now.

Text or call: 614-306-5654

Your cash drawer doesn’t lie.
Your liquor shouldn’t either.

Charlie Deibel
[email protected]
The Inventory Management Service That Treats Every Ounce Like Cash

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Sculpture Hospitality delivers mobile bar technology & inventory services to bars and restaurants. Discover the "Missing Link" in managing your inventory losses is comparing the inventory used to the inventory sold.

05/20/2026

Beverage management on a cruise ship comes with a constraint that land-based bars never face: at sea, what you've got is what you've got.

No supplier runs on Tuesday. If a sailing runs heavy on one category, you manage the shortage until the next port, and you eat the cost of whatever you over-ordered.

Then there are beverage packages. When a large share of guests are on unlimited, pours no longer match sales the way they do in a normal bar. The drinks are real. The revenue was collected up front. The link between the two is gone.

Add a dozen outlets across the decks and a crew that rotates on contracts, and tracing a variance after a sailing becomes its own project.

The operations that hold their numbers steady aren't counting more often. They built a process that doesn't rely on the usage-to-sales shortcut to begin with.

05/18/2026

A casino floor is one of the toughest beverage environments.🎰

It's not one bar. It's a main bar, satellite stations, a high-limit lounge, and cocktail service crossing the floor; all running at once, all pulling from the same inventory, with no real close to count against.

Add comps to that. A good portion of what leaves the bar was never going to be a sale, so the usual comparison between what was used and what was sold doesn't line up cleanly. When something looks off, it's hard to tell where it actually went.

The operations that keep their beverage numbers trustworthy on a 24/7 floor aren't counting more often. They built a process that handles the moving parts before service, so the weekly numbers make sense no matter who was on shift.

05/15/2026

Event-night inventory at a stadium or arena is a challenge in itself.

You're moving more product in four hours than a regular bar does in a week. The team changes for every event. The reconciliation happens at the end of a long shift when everyone wants to go home.

The operators who got on top of it didn't solve it by hiring more careful people. They built a process that creates the same accountability whether it's a sold-out Saturday or a quiet corporate event on a Tuesday, so the numbers after the event match what actually happened during it.

05/13/2026

At a bowling alley or entertainment venue, the bar is usually an afterthought in the planning, until you look at the margins.

The problem is that when inventory sits between the entertainment floor, the kitchen, and the front desk, no one fully owns it. It gets done by whoever has time, so it looks different every week.

The operators who fixed it didn't restructure the whole business. They just gave the bar its own consistent process, one report, one routine, one number they could trust every Monday morning, regardless of what else was happening that week.