When you are wondering if you have an internal theft situation, you can turn to exception based reporting to help guide you.

The exception based reporting is just that- exceptions to typical conduct, generally found on the POS system.

For example, if a cashier conducts a “NO Sale” They are generally opening the cash register drawer without conducting a sale. A legitimate reason for doing this would be because they incorrectly gave back a customer change, and need to fix it.

In exception based reporting, a second criteria is added- no sale following a voided transaction. That could mean that the employee rang up a customer who was going to pay in cash. Instead of hitting total at the end of the transaction, they voided the transaction out completely.

To make sure the customer still thinks they are buying your product, the cashier hits NO SALE and takes the customer’s money and gives them back their proper change.

Since the transaction was never completely processed, there is now additional cash in the drawer. At some point, the cashier will take this extra cash and pocket it, creating an employee theft situation. You would not see a cash shortage, but an inventory shortage.

In order to investigate this employee theft situation, you would either need to take a physical inventory of every single item in your store on a daily basis (not very realistic) or you could implement exception based reporting.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.

 

As an investigator, I take on employee theft investigation only when large or repetitive cash shortages or merchandise discrepancies appear. It is not very common to look at small dollar employee theft cases.

There is a growing trend among many small businesses and low volume stores that is a concerning. It is the theft of small cash wrap items caused by internal theft. Most of these employees are cashiers, so they are close to these items throughout the course of their normal shift.

We are seeing many employees taking small items at the register such as a pack of gum or a candy bar. Sometimes it might be a drink from the store’s coolers. Often, the employee simply forgets to have someone ring up those purchases because they were distracted after taking the item.

They take the items while they are on the clock, which is why they get distracted easily when a customer comes up to pay, or the manager is busy elsewhere in the store.

It might only happen once, or it might be a few times before this employee realizes that no one caught his or her mistake. No one noticed that the pack of gum or the soda was never paid for. It is in that moment that the employee will continue to take those items because they know that no one is watching.

For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.