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Need Your Opinions/Advice

R

Roger

New member
Here’s the situation that occurred:

This happened towards the end of the night. I had myself, my brother and one other employee working for me. I was getting ready to go out on a delivery and decided to check the computer to see how much we had done for the night so far. I then headed out on the delivery. At the same time I sent my brother to my other store to get a few things for me. We both left at the same time. When I came back from the delivery I checked the computer again to see if we had any other sales while I was gone. That’s when I noticed it showed that the total sales was $51 less than what it was before I left. At first I thought that I was losing my mind. After looking over all the transactions, I noticed that a $51 order had been voided, stating that it was canceled by the customer. I questioned my employee who was the only one in the store (my brother had not gotten back yet). He said that he didn’t void out anything and that he didn’t know why it said that. He said that the customer definitely didn’t cancel their order and that he cashed them out and gave them their food. I had another delivery to go on, so I took it. I figured I would ask my brother when I got back from my delivery it he for some reason voided that order (not remembering that he wasn’t even in the shop when it was voided). When I got back I had a couple deliveries waiting for me, and because we were a little busy I kind of forgot about the whole incident. When I got back from one of the deliveries my employee asked me if I had dropped any money because he found a $10 bill on the ground by the front counter. He said that he put in back in the drawer in case a customer dropped it or if it somehow fell out of the drawer. He said he wanted to let me know so if the drawer was over $10 or I was short $10, that would be why.

So the end of the night roles around, my employee’s shift was done and he had already gone home. I was counting the money in the drawer and it kept coming up $41 short. That is when I remember that an order was voided out for $51. So if you add that $10 that my employee put in the drawer it equals $51 that my drawer was short, which is the same amount of that voided order.

I don’t know if it’s just circumstantial or what? I know for a fact that he was the only one in the shop when that order was voided. I checked the sales summary before I went on a deliver (which was the same time I sent my brother to my other store)and there was no void on there, and when I returned from my delivery and that’s when the void appeared. If he didn’t void it, who did? There’s no possible way to accidentally void an order. It takes a series of screens and steps to void something and it looks nothing like the cash out or any other screen.

Now the hard part is how do I go about confronting him about this? I never thought that he would steal from me. I even went as far last month to lend him $300 for a couple weeks. He’s a college kid and he came to me for help because he had a lot of bills do all at once and his car broke down, so he didn’t know how was going to pay them. I figured I would be nice and help him out. You would think a gesture like that would create some kind of loyalty along with appreciation and keep any thought of stealing out of his head. At the same time, I’m not an idiot. I’ve been in this business for over ten years and have come to realize that I shouldn’t be surprised by anything.

I would like to get your guy’s thoughts on what you think of the situation and how you would go about handling it? I would hate to accuse an innocent person. Once you do that the relationship is definitely over. There’s no taking that kind of accusation back. If you’re going to call someone a thief you better have proof. Most of this is circumstantial except having a voided order when he was the only one there. It’s just all really fishy!

Did he realized he might have gotten caught when I noticed the void, and then he decided to bring up the dropped $10 bill to create some kind of distraction/confusion? You would think that if he knew he was caught he would have put the whole $50 back in the drawer so it would look like it was some kind of accidental void or something. I just don’t know what to think. I don’t want to believe that he stole from me, but at the same time, like I said I’m not dumb. It could all be circumstantial but there really is no way you can accidentally void an order with knowing. He also said right to my face that he didn’t void any orders.

I appreciate any kind of advice/suggestions that you guys can give me. These kinds of situations suck! This is definitely not a fun part part of owning a business.
 
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How was the drawer short $41 if you had a void? If he voided the order for $51 and gave you $10 out of it to cover his ass, then you would be over $10?

pt
 
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The $10 he found is a red flag big time. I would say he stole the money but I can’t say 100% because your register was off.

pt
 
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The drawer was short because that wasn’t a real void. I forgot to mention that I reentered the order back in when he told me that the customer never canceled. He said they came and paid for it and got their food. He said he didn’t know whey the computer showed a void. My theory is that he thought he would void the $51 order and take the money for himself and that I would not notice the void but rather just look at the overall sales amount. He probably didn’t realize that the voids show up on the summary.

If he took $51 out of the drawer and put $10 back in, like he said he did, that would make the drawer $41 short which it was.

I have a lot of scenarios going through my head but in really not wanting to believe them. Why would he just put $10 back instead of the entire $50 if he took it? Doesn’t make sense.
 
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If the drawer came up $41 short when you counted it, then you are missing $92.

The drawer should have been $61 over! (the $51 void that was actually paid for plus the $10 “found)”.

How about this - at some point in the night, the employee took $100 from the drawer. He was planning to void $100 worth of orders to cover. He voided the $51 order - but then you caught him - and he didn’t void any more orders.

He creates a diversion by “finding” the $10 - just to confuse things. $92 + $10 = $102, so I’d say your drawer was going to be off $2.

What POS system are you using?
 
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Is there an audit report on your POS. My system has one that tells even when the staff use the wrong access code when trying to sign in to take an order. It should give you the time the void was entered and by whom.
 
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Fire the kid and cut your loses. I had a similar thing happen to me a couple of weeks ago. I had a kid working for me that I had loaned money, worked around his school schedule, and he stole $30. The most disappointing thing about it all was that I trusted the kid, and did not want to believe that he stole the $30. Then to top it off he was caught breaking into the store after he was fired. He was arrested and admitted to stealing the $30, which was probably only a drop in the bucket to what he was actually doing.
 
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Well the first thing you do is find a way to block an employees’ ability to void tickets without mgmt approval.

I would suggest sitting him down and letting him know what you know and think about the whole incident. Then tell him that if the cash drawer somehow comes up over by the same amt it was short, then you will consider allowing him to continue employment under a probationary period.

Whatever you do, do not terminate him on the grounds of theft. You cannot prove it. So, you need to find another reason. Something like not following proper procedures for a void.

Consider having a policy similar to ours:
All voids are to be signed by the employee and manager with a reason, on the voided ticket. You need to have the original ticket stapled to the void and if applicable the new ticket.

Always try to have the employees understand that they need to fix the ticket not void it out and start over. This muddys the paper trail.

Just a few thoughts.
 
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And consider why it was you and not your employee taking a delivery. If we don’t give them the open drawer for the opportunity…just thinking. And, do you not have a camera on your drawer? A decent system costs very very little especially compared to what just might be a routine theft.
 
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First make sure that the customer did indeed pick up the order. I have called the customer and said I’m from the pizza place and I understood you ordered from us last night and I wanted to check to see how everything was. They will either say we never picked up our pizza or if they say they came in I just ask friendly questions ie: How was the customer service? Could you tell me who helped you? I then thanked them and offered them a free pizza on the house for participating in my “customer satisfaction survey” You never know who can steal from you-I had a kid who just made Eagle Scout stealing from me once. Just make sure you have the facts before you fire.
 
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If you don’t want to fire him without real proof, do this: Don’t say anything, don’t act different, nothing - be fat, dumb and happy. But watch very closely for this, or anything else happening - if he did it once, he’ll do it again.
 
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  1. Make the needed changes to the POS so that the void/cancel feature is password controlled. You will always have a record of the password used and a time stamp.
  2. Fire the kid. Don’t give a reason. Just say “your services are no longer needed”.
The reason I say fire him is that having this hanging over everyone’s head is poisonous. Give him severance of $100 bucks if you feel bad about it.
 
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This is a good reason to have cameras in the store. If you had cameras you could have pulled up the video from the time you & your brother were gone to see if he voided the transaction & pocketed the cash.
 
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Desperate people do desperate things. The $10 was a diversion.

Everyone is different. I’m straight up about things, so I’d talk to him and get some clear answers and tell him what I think happened. I don’t have time to treat things like a fictional TV detective mystery.

That said, I also think that everyone deserves a second chance. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t done something wrong or screwed up something during their life. I don’t believe in third chances, though. I can’t be everyone’s daddy.

Good luck.
 
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Roger…

Send a friend (that your employee doesn’t know) into the store with a marked ten dollar bill when THAT employee is there alone… have them order a pizza that costs between $10 and say $15 bucks… have your friend pay the exact amount so no change is given back…

Walk into the store the minute your friend drives out of the parking lot… open the till… look for the marked bill…

I too was funding a nice lifestyle for an employee until I had an incident very similar to yours… turns out I’d been taken for more than ten grand… the employee ended up selling his car to pay me back and stay out of jail…

Kamron
 
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Stop delivering and manage your store and let him take a delivery. Be especially watchful when people borrow money, ask for check early, etc. Get a camera. Only let managers void tickets.

The money you are losing by delivering yourself will more than pay for the min. wage employee who delivers. When I used to take deliveries to fill in I would always split the tips with the crew because it seemed fair and the ONLY reason I was leaving the store was because absolutely no one else could take the delivery. I WOULD NEVER LEAVE ONE EMPLOYEE IN THE STORE ALONE during business hours…for more reasons than I have time to list.
 
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Kris, I have managers that manage my 2 stores and they do a wonderful job. The reason I am delivering has nothing to do with not wanting to pay another employee. I have had my shops for over 10 years now. I had grown my shops to the point where I no longer had to be an employee and I was able step away from the 50+ hour work weeks. I was able to start working on my businesses instead of in. Almost 2 years ago I opened a 3rd location. Unfortunately it did not work out. I lost over $85,000 and was on the verge of going bankrupt. I had a family to support, so I needed to get back in the shops and find a way to make as much money as I could, as quick as I could. That’s why I chose to deliver. I can deliver and make $20/hr or work in the shop replacing an employee that makes $7.20/hr. I have been delivering for a little over a year and half now and it has paid off. I don’t regret my decision at all. I can proudly say that I will be debt free (both business and personal) in 6 months. When that time comes I will stop delivering and step away from the shops again. Then I will be back to having a life again where I can spend my evenings with my family. I prefer to work on my businesses instead of in. I’ve been through the 7 day, 70+ hour work weeks. It’s stressful and I will never go back to it. I prefer to have my shops as investments rather than a job.

Theft has never been a major problem in my shops. This is not my first rodeo. I’ve been in the business long enough to know that people do steal. If they want to steal, they will find a way to do it. It’s our jobs to make it at hard as possible. I have fixed the void password situation.

Thanks for all of the responses. I do appreciate it.
 
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Roger,

So were you able to determine anything?

What POS system are you using? Depending on what it is - I might be able to help you get more detailed information that you are normally able to.

Have you looked back over the past month or so to see if there were any other voids, especially ones where a refund resulted (i.e. already been paid for) ?
 
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