• Develop a written cash control policy and train your employees.
• Conduct surprise cash audits of the register.
• Determine what your average sales are by shift and day. Regularly watch for variances that could indicate theft. Compare merchandise sales to gasoline sales.
• Determine the average number of customer transactions by shift and day. Regularly watch for variances that could indicate theft.
• Track significant cashier transactions by shift. Look for anything unusual.

Note: You may want to investigate the benefits of computerizing this type of information.

• Develop a strict policy for recording damaged or spoiled goods.
• Establish a control policy for cigarettes.
• Develop an employee policy for consumption of store merchandise that discourages theft.

And as for your internal bookkeeper -

• The Cardinal Rule is that the person(s) counting the money are never the same persons who works on the daily books or checking accounts.
• Work out of 1 or 2 checking accounts. More than that makes it difficult to to track monies in and out and reference deposits accurately when fraud is in progress.
• Provide your accountant with whatever they ask for. Don't let them ask 5 or 6 times. It's not for their health but yours - as they may need this information or report to balance and they may be on to something.

Consider what other Food Mart owners are doing in this area:

- Allow employees to purchase merchandise at cost during their shift.

- Give employees free drinks.

- Require employees to obtain a receipt for any merchandise they consume.

- Give on-duty employees free fountain/coffee/popcorn. This keeps the smell of fresh foods in the store, encouraging customers to buy.

- Allow employees to charge merchandise (excluding tobacco and alcohol) during the month. Employees must fill out the charge slip before taking/consuming the merchandise. At the end of the month, employees pay off their charges, receiving a 1 0% discount.

• Prevent unauthorized access to the store. If an employee who has access to keys quits, change locks immediately. This prevents the ex-employee from entering the store to steal merchandise or other employees from stealing and blaming the ex-employee.
• Use friends or a mystery shopper service to shop the store.
• Install a video monitoring system; review the tapes.

Note: One dealer keeps a tape for every day of the month, This creates a monthly "snapshot" of employee activities. If the monthly inventory indicates shrinkage, the dealer can go back through the video record and try to pinpoint the source of the problem.

• Code safe drop envelopes so you can identify which employee made which drop and in which order. This will help you pinpoint responsibility for any missing cash.
• Challenge all cash/sales variations. Discuss the problem with employees and rotate shifts. (Does the problem move to another shift?)
• Reward employees when they are honest. Share your successes with them.
• Make careful hiring decisions. Take the time to check references.

S.O.S. Of Cashier Fraud

Cashiers could be stealing from you if you observe the following S.O.S. during a shift.

1. Consistent variances.

2. Works from an "open drawer".

3. Blocked windows.

4. Keeps a "tally sheet".

5. Uses markers i.e.. coins, paper clips, M&M's, matches loose, matches bent, dimes in penny drawer, coins in the "5th" coin drawer, odd coins in till slots.

6. Gas variances.

7. Cross ringing.

8. Excessive no sales.

9. Excessive voids.

10. Drive offs.

11. Manual entries.

12. The shift always balances.

13. One cent sales.

14. Canceled sales.

15. No sales & voids.

16. Miscellaneous sales.

17. Cuts shift a few minutes early.