Stop Internal Losses this Year
Happy New Year! Will 2016 be the year you put an end to internal losses? Make a resolution to investigate how your POS can help now.
Whether your staff cheat the clock by a few minutes at the start or the end of their shift, help themselves to the odd log of pepperoni, manipulate coupons, or take cash straight from the till, it all has an impact on your profit and loss.
When it comes to employee theft, nearly every operator has a story to tell. So how can your POS reduce and prevent it?
Restrict Access
Controlling access to the most vital areas of your business is the first line of protection. A point of sale system’s security settings can give each staff member their own unique credentials and access. Flexible security, locked down tight through fingerprint scanning, is a critical part of your POS.
Using the security settings in the POS, you can make sure that your staff have access only to the information they need to do their job: Let order takers access the menu, but prevent them from voiding tickets or giving a discount over a set limit without a manager override.
Know Who’s Doing What
Unique logins track every employee’s actions in the POS, giving you the detailed documentation you need to hold employees and managers accountable. That’s essential in protecting your business assets.
Some businesses take employee tracking one step further, monitoring physical access and actions with video security. You can tie in cameras with the POS by syncing up the clocks on the cameras and POS stations, so you can match up footage with questionable transactions recorded by the POS, such as excessive voids or lower drawer counts, and determine whether theft is occurring.
SpeedLine POS systems integrate directly with video surveillance software, creating a searchable database of videos and transaction data to speed up the detective work. This allows you to view the actual transaction on-screen for any part of the video that seems suspicious, giving you solid visual evidence in a case of employee theft.
Review Alerts and Audit Reports
If your POS displays a manager alert, pay attention. Many of these messages will alert you to suspicious activity occurring in the POS, and identify the employee involved.
Watch reports that list “notable activities,” “system events,” and your tender summaries daily for signs of employee theft or inefficiency. See a problem? Review the associated ticket’s activity for full audit detail.
If you use inventory software, review your Inventory Usage Variance reports to detect “missing” food that may indicate theft or problems with portion control.
