A few weeks ago we had a customer asking about theft . . .
It's a familiar story when you work with coffee and pizza shops. Anytime you throw together employees along with cash and easily handled product,
you have a situation (notice that I resisted the use of 'recipe' here) where theft can happen.
Cash, tips, product or time are all things that can be abused or stolen. It's going to happen to you.
Here are a couple of things to look for when you suspect theft:
• Time theft - Look for exact clock-in times. When people fudge their clock-in or out times, they often stick with times that are easily remembered. Employee swipe cards and running a time keeping audit can help track this down.
• Tips - Tipping theft occurs when an employee adds a little extra to the tip when it is entered into the point of sale. Most customers won't notice a dollar or so added to their receipt after the fact. An EMV Chip Reader will eliminate most of this as the customer enters their own tip.
• Tickets - Voids are the most common way that employees steal. Sometimes you have to void a ticket. The key here is to monitor voids by employee and by total number of tickets by employee. If one employee has twice as many voids as another - maybe that is the problem. Locking down the ability to void a ticket and running void audits is a great way to stop them.
• Product - Keep track of cups in coffee and boxes in pizza. Those are the easiest way for most employees to just hand product out without actually ringing the drink. It's the most common way employees give friends food etc. for free.
Have something you have been noticing? Let us know.
-Mike
