How to Prevent Theft With Your Point-of-Sale System

Theft is one the biggest reasons a restaurant or bar can go under, but a lot of merchants miss out on the best methods to prevent profit loss from internal theft and voided out transactions.

While it’s not always easy, if you have the right tools in place, you can save hundreds of dollars per month.

The key is your point-of-sale system.

Setting up the proper clearance.

When you run a small bar or restaurant, it can be easy just to allow everyone and anyone to void out sales, or delete menu items. But you run the risk of giving too much access to everyone which can lead to greater losses.

If you only allow managers to void out sales or delete items, you’re helping close the gap. When only your leaders have the ability to void sales, you’ll be able to understand better where your profits are lost and track it to those individuals.

Implement detailed cash tracking.

Cash is the easiest way for your staff to steal, and it can be incredibly difficult to track. The best way to hunt for missing money is to set your point-of-sale system always to require a button and dollar amount for whenever the cash drawer is opened.

Even if someone enters a “void,”“no sale,” “cash paid out,” you have it documented and dig in to find why that sale was canceled.

Set up security clearance.

Every user in your point-of-sale system should have some clearance level of security.

Your servers and bartenders might have a different security level from one another, especially when compared to your general manager.
Individual settings like voiding an item and price changes should only be given to a manager.

If a staff member doesn’t have permission to use a function, an administrator can override the security setting to allow use in that instance.

Use employee cards or pins.

You want every staff member to be signing into your point-of-sale system using a pin or a secured ID card. Whenever they are ringing up an order, or closing out a tab, they need to be logged in.

You want to do this for two reasons.

1). It locks your POS system from non-authorized individuals and helps protect your business.
2). It helps you track transactions and gives you the ability to see if a specific employee was working when something was voided.

Having staff sign in keeps everyone accountable.

Keep audit trails.

A good point-of-sale system is designed to help you keep an audit trail of everything that happens in your business.

The essential items you should keep an eye one is the following:

• PIN code attempt failures
• Price changes
• Order voids
• Removing items from orders
• Security overrides
• Time clock changes

Reviewing all the following will keep you in the loop and let you know how many items are being voided, and by who.

Looking for a point-of-sale solution that does all that and more?

Have a question? Need more information? Contact us today!