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Cash registers coming up short

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tonyspizza

New member
We have been having problems with the cash registers coming up short
so I want to limit the number of employess in the register, what i came up with
was to give the waitresses a bank and let them settle with the customer and at the end of the night
we would balance them out. Here is the problem one waitress my oldest employee does
not want to do that and was telling customers to pay at the register, our register is in our bar
area and gets very busy on a friday night so the customer has to wait to pay the bill.
I am at wits end here dont know what to do to 1. tell her these are the rules do it or else
or 2.just let her tell the customer they can pay at the bar. Thanks for any input… Tony
 
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What are her objections? Are your other servers doing this the way you want with no problem? At the end of the day you are the one who makes the policy, but if you can tweak it a little and get all the employees to buy in it would be easier in the long run than to say “Do it my way because I write the checks”. If she jut plain refuses, then you have a problem.
 
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All my servers carry banks and are responsible for the funds at the end of the night when they cash out. I’ve been doing that all my life at resorts when I was a server. As for the register, whoever has opened the drawer shares responsibility with everyone else who has. We were short once really big and they all had to pony up, now they all assign just one person themselves, ended that problem immediately. We also use a POS system from which I can look at every keystroke that was made during the night and cameras on it as well.
 
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Unless you have a POS that requires individual logins, you need to restrict the register to one person… and that person knows they are responsible for the count. Just because someone is a long time employee does not mean they get to dictate policy. For all you know, she is the one stealing.
 
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HannahBananasOnline:
As for the register, whoever has opened the drawer shares responsibility with everyone else who has.
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Check this with your local laws where I am if more than one person has access to the till nobody can be held accountable individually or as a group.
 
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tonyspizza:
I am at wits end here dont know what to do to 1. tell her these are the rules do it or else
or 2.just let her tell the customer they can pay at the bar. Thanks for any input… Tony
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I don’t understand this question. Are you the owner?
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HannahBananasOnline:
All my servers carry banks and are responsible for the funds at the end of the night when they cash out. I’ve been doing that all my life at resorts when I was a server. As for the register, whoever has opened the drawer shares responsibility with everyone else who has. We were short once really big and they all had to pony up, now they all assign just one person themselves, ended that problem immediately.
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Unless its just a California thing, You can’t legally make your employees come up with shortages – especially if its shared.
 
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Overall, cash security is my manager’s responsibility. Shortages come straight out of the bonus pool.

When you have consistent shortages, you have a theft problem 9 out 10 times. You must limit access to the cash drawer. Either go with the idea that waitperson handles the checks as you suggested, or go with a single cashier that handles all the checks and no one else goes in the drawer.
 
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bodegahwy:
When you have consistent shortages, you have a theft problem 9 out 10 times.
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Same thing with consistent overages. Thieves worry about showing up short so that will take a little less that what they did not ring up.
 
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Charles is right. Overages are just as important a signal as shortages.

Another strategy they employ is creating confusion. If you are getting a lot of messed up tickets and hard unscramble transactions, there is a good chance someone is creating smoke to hide something.
 
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  1. Somebody is not following your cash handling procedures.
  2. Your authority has been undermined in front of your staff.
The response here is obvious…

The bartender not being responsible for their drawer is bewildering to me.
 
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Who cares what your waitress wants? It’s your business, and she either follows your procedures or she goes. She’s not entitled to create an inconvenience for your customers, and is probably doing so to prove a point to you (you need me, so let me do things my way or your business will suffer). The fact that she is resisting change and your desire to control loss tells me that she is all or part of the problem. She sounds like the type of employee who would quit if you installed security cameras because it “violates her privacy”. If one has nothing to hide, one wouldn’t care about cameras or changes in policy. Forget that she is a long time employee and focus instead on her resistance to change. It’s a big red flag that should not be ignored.
 
With due respect to the concept of controlling access to cash, etc. Do you really want a thief working for you? They will ALWAYS find a new way to steal from you. You should do what you have to do to find out who is stealing, and make them go away. But a word of advise: don’t accuse them of stealing. You can virtually never prove who is stealing, you can only guess: and you can easily get sued for the accusation.
 
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HannahBananasOnline is 100% correct.

Here is what I would do…
  1. Have a staff meeting to let them know about the shortage issue (issues). Tell them the EXACT dollar amount short. Let them know what the shortage amount is acceptable to you to avoid termination. They will get the point. And make it low. I used to have a $10.00 shortage limit, and would be missing $5 - $6 a day. I cut it to $2 and my shortages are under a dollar per day.
  2. Empower your staff to fix the problem by making them collectively responsible. Have them assign a register operator as HannahBananasOnline suggested.
Bottom Line is that your the boss. Any Waitress, no matter what their tenure, would never tell me or inconvenience customers by not going along with my direction. Sorry, she has to go…

BTW, Noob here, looks like a great board!!

Apollo Creep
 
Hate to get my “hippy” on, but a head-on power struggle with your long-term employee has high chance of lose-lose. Here is a chance to extend your personal power within staff relationships by inviting the long-term person to give feedback and input into your intial idea. Set it up as getting her insight into a policy that has to be implemented and you want it tobe efficient and effective both for the management to manage cash and money responsibility as well as the staff who must handle the cash. This isn’t a chance toshoot the idea down or refuse to participate, but to offer insights from her perception so that you can overcme whatever her resistance is.

If she does not buy in, and does not accept your authority to set policy, especially about MONEY, then you will have some more authoritarian issues to address and let her know that this is not an option. Could end up with a slug-fest and her being gone. Could end up with her feeling included and her opinions valued . . . which broadens your influnce in staff relations. Win-win.
 
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