Three Proven Controls That Make It Harder for Bartenders to Steal

Three Proven Controls That Make It Harder for Bartenders to Steal

In our article "Thirteen Ways to Prevent Theft Behind the Bar," bar
expert Robert Plotkin reveals three controls that are particularly
effective at reducing theft of your most desirable asset, CASH.

1. Prohibit Bartenders From Checking-Out Their Cash at the End
of a Shift

In many operations, bartenders are required to reconcile their
cash drawers. This entails using the cash in the drawer to
compile the bar's opening bank for the following shift, and to
itemize the remaining cash proceeds onto a deposit slip.

If the bartenders are stealing, the checkout process provides
them with an ideal opportunity to safely remove stolen funds
secretly deposited into the register's cash drawer during the
course of their shift. Taking this responsibility away from the
employees, bartenders will be forced to either pull the money
out of the cash drawer during the shift or opt not to use the
register as a place for their stolen funds.

2. Strictly Enforce a 'No Sale' Policy

One of the more uncomplicated methods of theft involves a
bartender selling a drink and depositing the proceeds into the
register using the "no sale" feature. Unless someone is watching
the LCD (liquid crystal display), the act usually goes
unnoticed. Since the sale wasn't rung into the register, the
bartender need only remove the stolen proceeds from the cash
drawer when safe to do so.

The best preventive measure against this type of theft is to
restrict the use of the "no sale" key. One technique to
deterring theft through use of the "no sale" key is to provide
the bartenders with an alternative source for making change. A
small, inexpensive container or even a cabinet drawer will
suffice.

By providing a separate source for making change behind the bar,
the bartenders will no longer have a legitimate reason for
accessing the cash drawer with the "no sale" key every time
someone needs change. This will make it slightly more
challenging to steal unrecorded sales and depositing the funds
in the cash drawer without entering any sales data.

3. Require Bartenders to Verify Cash Drawer Count

Bartenders should be required to verify the amount of money used
to comprise the bar register's opening bank. This practice will
prevent the bartenders from claiming that their opening bank was
either over or under the prescribed dollar amount to explain a
cash shortage or overage in the register.

Periodically place an extra $10 bill in the bartender's bank and
see if the person informs you of the cash overage. It is a good
way to verify if the bartender is counting his bank prior to the
shift, and measure the person's degree of integrity.

If you make it easy for people to steal, guess what will happen?
THEY WILL STEAL. Use these controls to make it harder for people
to steal and chance are good you'll have a lot less theft.