How to Put a Stop on Employee Cash Theft

How to Put a Stop on Employee Cash Theft

In last month’s article we discussed the ways in which employees of businesses are giving themselves a pay raise by stealing cash from their employers.  This is a situation no business, no matter how large or small can afford to deal with day after day.  Some of the most common ways that employees steal cash were discussed, and below are some of the ways that owners and managers can catch employees who are stealing when they work.

1. One of the oldest methods of theft is conducting an item correct or line item void and taking the cash after the total has been told to the customer.  To catch this type of theft the management team should review transactions and pay close attention to cash sales that have line item voids at the end of the transaction. If the register system allows, get a breakdown of how many line item voids each employee is doing, and then focus on the top violators.

1. Employees that commit credit card fraud are usually some of the boldest and

least likely to ever think they will get caught.  When employees add small amounts to credit sales throughout the day and then, take the cash at the end of their shift which makes the register balance (over in credit cards and short in cash).  Managers can prevent this type of theft by not just ignoring these discrepancies and thinking they are mistakes.  All credit slips should be linked to a transaction and any discrepancy should be question.

1. In the event that an associate asks to have a sale post voided after the fact, the

manager or supervisor should ask where the product is that is to be post voided.  If employees are allowed to conduct their own post voids, two signatures should be on every post voided transaction.

1. To catch employees who memorize totals from common sales items takes a some

extra work.  If a manager believes this is happening, they should start paying attention to small overages and shortages and see which associate is causing these errors.  The only people who should be allowed to have access to a register key that opens the drawer are members of management.  All no sales from the register should have two signatures on the transaction slip that prints out when a no sale is performed.  

1. To prevent employees from overcharging or under-ringing customer sales to take the cash by not providing the customer with a receipt, stores should offer an incentive for customers to make sure that they get a receipt for each sale.  If we fail to give you a receipt, you will get a free video rental on your next visit.  Management should also pay attention to fluctuations in gross margin on products and question any out of tolerance.

1. When managers or supervisors are taking cash overages when closing out tills, this should stand out to senior managers.  It should be very rare that a store balances to the penny every day and only has shortages.  To catch this management could seed the register with extra funds and this would cause the register to show an overage that senior management would expect to be there, or a refund could be done by the senior manager and the money left in the drawer to see if the overage is there at the end of the day.

1. Stores that have areas that can be accessed by passes or credits (video booths),

should pay close attention to the timers on these areas.  This is an easy way for employees to take cash and not ring it through the register system.  Timers on the booths should be reconciled weekly to match revenue/credits taken in versus time given out or input into the system.

1. If an employee shuts down the power on the POS System to steal cash, this will

be the easiest to catch.  Anytime a register system shuts down or looses sales, there should always be an overage not a shortage when reconciling the cash drawers.

1. To catch the employee that is trying to make themselves extra money by selling

your product and never ringing up the transaction, management should just pay close attention to the average sale for every day of the week.  If on certain days, the store sees a major drop, this could be where your problem is.