Cash and Theft Control

BES-t Practices Training

Theft Cash Control

Employee Theft Statistics:

· One in three employees steal.

· 75% of employees steal at least once.

· 50% of employees who steal at least once steal multiple times.

· 25% of employees who steal more than 3 times go on to serve jail time.

· Employee theft is the number one cause of inventory shrinkage.

· 20% of all businesses fail due to internal theft and fraud.

· The average theft to small businesses in 2002 was $127,500.

· 55% of perpetrators of employee theft are managers.

Who Steals?

The Foolish - Stealing can occur when people are in a situation that they think they cannot control, or in which they feel that they have no other option. People will often steal to make up for other foolish decisions in life that led them to their current situation.

§ Desperate people – Steals to make up for misfortune or foolishness in other areas of their life. “I have no choice, I am in a bind”.

§ The Gullible – This person is too trusting of others and may find themselves in a compromising position trusting the wrong people.

§ Socially Irresponsible or immature - Does this employee drink a lot or do they have a habit of spending more than what they earn? They may be feeding a habit.

“Your Circumstance = One decision + another decision + another decision + another decision…” It’s the Sum of all your decision

The Greedy - The second most common reason people steals is obsession. They can't help themselves and they steal just to get the rush. This type of thief will take anything they can get there hands on because they just do it to see if they can get away. They have limited or no conscience.

§ Addictive compulsive – Many Thieves steal stemming from a disorder that elevates their greed and diminishes their conscience.

§ The Arrogant – They are the author of their own moral standard. Pride guides their actions. They know their actions hurt others, they don’t care.

§ Opportunistic people – Self interested people looking for a chance to take from others simply because they wish to have.

“Greed is a bottomless pit that is never quenched, an urge that can never be satisfied. How can one get off the marry-go-round?”

The Self deceiver – While greedy thieves have no conscience, the Self deceiver has a conscience, but fool themselves into believing its justified. This allows them to steal and feel limited guilt. They actually convince themselves that they are doing nothing wrong. This is a moral issue that stems from a lack of a moral foundation established earlier in life.

§ The Victim– “Why do I always get the short end of the stick?”

§ The Rationalizer - Sense of entitlement. “I don’t get paid enough”

§ The Conformer – “Everyone else is doing it”

“People who steal think that everyone steals, therefore they don’t need a reason to steal, they have that, they need a reason not to.”

The Manipulator (self-deceiver turned people deceiver) – The Manipulator is a person who struggles with control issues. When they are able to control their environment, other people, and isolate and flex their authority they set themselves up with a hedge of protection that allows them to control their own stream of income. When any outside factor threatens to discover them and/or expose them they quickly unravel using any means necessary to cover up their scam. Extreme defensiveness, blame shifting and flattery can all be symptoms of a Manipulator.

§ Flattery – Telling people what they think they want to hear to gain approval.

§ Emotional manipulation – Using anger or self-pity to influence others to comply or have compassion on them.

§ Truth– Truth isn’t important to a Manipulator, only the appearance that they can create in others mind.

Who is a successful Thief?

There are none! It always catches up. Stealing is like a wolf that gets the taste of blood. Once they start its nearly impossible to stop. Temptation leads to carelessness. Carelessness leads to incarceration.

A thief may not get caught right away, however their own self-trust is compromised leading to a low image. The more a thief steals, the less likely they will ever be able to take responsibility for their own behavior and get to a state of living with integrity and character.

The best thing for a thief is to get caught early before they become so hardened and disillusioned by their foolishness. A swift dose of reality and consequences is the only thing that can turn a thief around.

What do our employees steal?

· Cash

· Product

· Time

· Performance

· Your hard work, Your raise, Your reputation.

· Team Unity and Trust!

How our employees typically steal:

· Voiding or couponing out a transaction and pocketing the money.

· Not ringing up a transaction and pocketing the money.

· Accounting for a bogus over-ring or paid-out.

· Doing books and pocketing any positive cash for the day.

· Shorting a register drawers beginning cash amount to transfer the blame to the next day. (thief’s day off)

· Stealing gift certificates, club cards, ” Have one on us” cards or scrip's.

· Eating on the job or baking pizza’s in the store.

· Taking pizza or bottles of pop home without purchasing.

· Taking unpaid pizza’s home rationalizing that “It was just going to get thrown away anyway”. (it’s amazing how many mistakes get made when they can take them home)

· IOU’s - They seldom get paid. It’s a way to steal with a safety-net.

· Taking packaged product home.

· Giving pizza’s or product away to friends or relatives or abusing the employee discount benefit.

· Ringing up excessive coupons for customers.

· Time card falsifying – entering incorrect information on timecard, “conveniently” forgetting to punch in or out.

· Time wasting –Working at 60% effort and making 100% of your wage.

· Quality theft – Getting paid full amount of salary to provide a quality product and purposefully producing less than expected.

How do we control theft in our company?

1. Hire the right people, un-hire the wrong people and press charges against the guilty people.

2. Follow correct Cash Control Procedures and expect others to follow them

3. Bounty program – Target thieves as they target us

· Any crew member that provides information leading to the termination of a thief will receive a $50 bounty reward.

· Information leading to a conviction will receive a $100 reward.

Cash Control Procedures:

§ Clerk numbers – each individual has their own clerk number. Always.

§ Order accuracy – Proper training and communication with management. Having the right people on register.

§ Register Corrections & Discounts - Voids, Over-rings, Club Cards & Employee Discount – Voids should be done by an authorized person. The original receipts (mistake) and the employee and supervisor will need to initial the journal tape for these transactions.

§ Register tape – Do not let it run out without being replaced.

§ Employee Discounts need to be done by someone other than the employee purchasing the pizza. The journal tape needs to be initialed by the register operator to confirm legitimate transaction.

§ Cash Accountability - One non-management person per drawer.

§ Paid-Out - Pink slips + Register receipt and Store receipt stapled.

Daily Books & Morning Procedures:

§ AM & PM - Beginning balance of drawers & change bag verified and recorded.

§ Bank deposit made by 11am and deposit slip initialed by person that counted & deposited.

§ Cash kept in safe, safe closed.

§ Journal tape reviewed daily to look for inaccuracies, deviations or suspicious activity.

§ Daily Envelope - Needs to include:

• Z-tape report for each register

• Journal tape for that days transactions

• Deposit slip from bank, initialed.

• Credit Card and Food Stamp reports and receipts organized and stapled.

• R/A receipts

§ Thorough investigation daily

• Look in safe drop drawers, behind register drawer, under change in register, etc.

• Ask every employee about 50’s, 100’s, voids, discounts or any trouble with the register.

• If drawers are +/- $10 a phone call to Joel or Kevin will be expected. We will help investigate the problem.

Accountability & Follow-up:

· On the Registers:

o Better communication with register operators

o Register assignment awareness during every shift.

o Receipt and Journal tape procedures. Signatures.

o Results of registers +/- posted daily for awareness.

· In the Store:

o Watch for merchandise in the trash.

o No mistakes given away. Sell same day mistakes at discount.

· From the Managers:

o Investigation and details to determine the source of shortage.

o Envelope procedures thorough, organized and complete.

o Journal tape and camera review

o Review discount rates & voids patterns

o Post cash +/- results and follow-up.

· From Owners:

o Weekly envelope & journal review

o Video review daily

o Cash planting – Have G.M. add or subtract an extra $20 to/from the drawer to see if it gets recorded correctly.

o Daily follow-up with managers on any cash differenced of +/- $10.

BES-t Practices - Phase 2, Theft & Cash Control

On The Job Training (OTJ) for this cycle to be completed by trainee and signed off by GM as completed.

Trainee Name______

GM______

Store______

• Display the ability to make corrections and adjustments such as voids, coupons, paid-outs, R/A’s and over-rings.