Case Studies

Customer call · Anonymous case story

How to Check Unexplained Bar Inventory Variance

Separate owner conversation · Captions are burned into the supplied clip.

Scope limitThe owner's examples are suspicions, not findings of theft. Purchases and sales alone do not establish inventory variance, and the clip reports no verified recovery. The graphic is a simplified check. Adjustments for transfers, waste and counting errors can also explain a residual.

Direct answer

What to check

Compare stock used with recorded sales, then check recipes, pours, waste and counting errors.

Method

How to check it in your operation

For the same period and units, reconcile opening stock, purchases, transfers and closing stock with recorded usage. Check recipes, pours, waste and counting errors before assigning a cause.

Call observation

What the conversation covers

An owner raises possible bar giveaways and proposes comparing liquor purchases with sales. The discussion suggests a check to run; it does not document a completed inventory review.

Related guide

Restaurant food-cost variance

Full transcript

Source transcript · Episode 14

Transcript from the supplied clip. Repeated openings retained; redactions and unclear speech marked.

That's where the most money gets, excuse my pun, but poured down the drain. But they're, you know, giving away beers to their buddies, or they're giving away, [unclear] their buddies, or something like that. If we gave you the liquor that we purchase every month by month, [unclear] against the sales over two or three-month period, you'd get an idea. It should be a zero sum. If it's not, then you do have leakage in that particular product.

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