Are You Tracking Your Cashier's Activity? 3 Reasons Why You Should

Imagine this: You’re in the middle of reconciling your business’s bank account after closing last month’s sales and you panic. It’s the third time you’ve ran through the numbers and something just isn’t adding up. You’re missing money.

As a business owner, it’s likely you’ve encountered this scenario before. You may have wondered, “Did one of my employees steal money?” Yes, it’s a dark thought, but it may be the truth.

Giving employees major responsibilities such as handling money and closing the register lets them know you trust them, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put processes in place to give yourself peace of mind and protect your revenue.

Here are three reasons why you should be tracking your cashier’s activity:

1. Prevent Employee Fraud: As we’ve already mentioned, employees dabling in your hard-earned money happens. Taking money from the register during end-of-day close or pocketing a cash payment and failing to record the sale are a few employee fraud practices. Unfortunately, taking tangible cash is just one way this could occur.
   If you accept credit cards, employees can go as far as running fake credit card refunds on friends’ cards or their own. Using a Virtual Terminal, as opposed to a traditional credit card reader, allows you to track employee activity and even restrict issuing refunds to certain team members.
2. Monitor Efforts to Prevent Fraudulent Transactions: When it comes to accepting credit cards, cashiers must take certain steps to prevent fraudulent transactions. Putting security best practices in place and tracking your cashiers’ adherence can reduce your downgrades, risk of fraud and ultimately save you money.
   With the right technology, tracking whether security measures like AVS and CVV were used can help determine if an employee took every precaution on a keyed-in transaction for an over-the-phone payment or a new customer. If you’re hit with a chargeback, you can investigate what was captured during the transaction to hold your staff accountable and correct negligent behavior.
3. Track Team Performance: On a happier note, tracking your cash register activity allows you to see performance across all team members. This will reveal who sells the most or who is the most productive, and will allow you to make data-driven decisions when it comes to promotions and bonuses.

If you’re not tracking your cashier’s activity, it’s time to start. Doing so could save your business money from employee fraud, customer fraud, downgrades and chargebacks. Implement adequate tracking on your employees’ activity to become less hands-on while gaining better oversight.

Implement a Virtual Terminal to track cashier activity.

Do you currently track your cashier’s activity? What issues has this prevented? Tell us your story in the comments section below.