How Good Point Of Sale Software Cuts Employee Theft

Theft, employee and customer, is anticipated to cost a retail business between 3 percent and six percent of total sales in value.

Employee theft is estimated to range between fifty percent and eighty percent of the value of total theft in a retail business.

Employee theft is often left undetected because of:

- Poor business practices. Attention is often not paid to simple processes which can cut theft.

- Trust. Employers are often too trusting. Good Point of Sale software can help you address this.

- Respect. Or a lack of it - an employee who does not respect the employer is more open to theft. More professional management can help you turn this around.

- Poor hiring. Simple steps could be taken to stock any retail business hiring people who are more likely to steal. Lack of respect for cash. Cash needs to be watched carefully. When it is not, theft tends to rise.

To address employee theft, the business from the top down needs to commit to a goal and processes necessary to achieving the goal. Unless there is buy in from all involved and who can influence the result, the commitment is likely to fail and the business to lose money.

Employees can steal from retail businesses in a variety of ways. Often, such theft goes undetected because of poor or unmonitored business processes.

The best way to cut employee theft or fraud is to commit to a consistent approach to theft management:

1. Ask prospective employees if they object to a police check. Those with something to hide will let you know they have found a job elsewhere.

2. Implement zero tolerance for abuse of systems. For example, ensure that every item sold is scanned.

3. Implement zero tolerance for an end of shift discrepancy of, say, $5.00 or more. Once employees know you will be fierce about this sales will be more accurate.

4. Reduce manual eftpos transactions - connect your eftpos terminal to your point of sale.

5. Change responsibilities - sometimes changing who handles money can uncover fraudulent behaviour.

6. Change your timing. Habits are what allow people to think they can get away with theft.

7. Modify your counter policies: No refunds. No credits without management approval. No employee bags at the counter. No jackets or cardigans with pockets (for hiding notes and money). No calculators with memories - I have seen these used to record how much cash in the register is theirs.

8. Track every sale by employees - using a card with an employee barcode and making it harder for an employee to use the system as someone else.

9. Track all cash movements from the sale through to your bank account. Many retailers do not do this and open themselves to blatant and regular theft. Employees do it because they know they can get away with it.

Cutting employee theft can be achieved with vigilance. A small time investment in developing and following processes will find you with more money in your bank account.

Start with good Point of Sale software, use it fully and properly and put in place controls which respect your business and its income.

by: Mark Fletcher

POST COMMENT

Dwhwizrd.exe error – What causes Dwhwizrd.exe error and how to fix it? Ntvdm.exe error – What causes Ntvdm.exe error and how to fix it? Wlcomm.exe error – What causes Wlcomm.exe error and how to fix it? Services.exe error – What causes Services.exe error and how to fix it? setup.exe error – What causes setup.exe error and how to fix it? lsass.exe error – What causes lsass.exe error and how to fix it? Best SEO Software Ntoskrnl.exe error – What causes Ntoskrnl.exe error and how to fix it? Iexplorer.exe error – What causes Iexplorer.exe error and how to fix it? CSRSS.exe error – What causes CSRSS.exe error and how to fix it? Wkufind.exe error – What causes Wkufind.exe error and how to fix it? rstrui.exe error – What causes rstrui.exe error and how to fix it? Explorer.exe error – What causes Explorer.exe error and how to fix it?