Losses due to excessive employee mistakes and outright theft has always been an unspoken topic, mostly due to the difficulty in spotting them.  The last few years have seen a number of voids-with-video-clip tools that attempt to end cash shrink.  These methods have met with disappointing results for a number of reasons.  The main reason for the mediocre results is that all the voids, cash tendered, and cash-drawer-open-too-long reports that have associated videos require so much manager and owner time. After a few weeks with even the latest expensive POS exception-based management reports and corresponding video-clip verification, the biggest problem with these rather elaborate systems is that someone needs to watch the video.  According to Brian McMillan, Chief Technologist for the Commander, “The vast majority of the transactions, when verified through video, prove to be legitimate.  After taking fifteen minutes to verify, for example, that all the morning shift employee meal discounts are correct, the owner quickly realizes he needs to view another fifteen minutes for the afternoon shift, and again for the evening shift. He will realize that looking for maybe a few questionable transactions in a haystack of dozens of legitimate ones is not time well spent.” McMillan adds, “Then, in addition to the meals, the owner realizes that to view each void and each excessively long open drawer will take another hour or so, daily.” It quickly adds up to another eight-hour day to systematically go thru the numbers and video.  Not realistic.”

The servers are too smart to be caught by simplistic exception reports which are now such a popular trend.

What Is Needed

“Our experience has shown,” the Chief Technologist for the Commander continues, “that effective theft deterrence requires a multi-dimensional approach.” 

Information from various sources such as cash drawers, point-of-sale transactions, and video surveillance must be analyzed and compared to information from similar shifts, similar employees, and similar conditions.  This analysis must include behavior patterns, ordering profiles, and other analytics.  As an example, McMillan describes a typical scenario, “A cashier’s ratio of beverages to food items must be compared to his own ratio for the same shifts last week, to his moving historical average, and to the ratios of similar employees for the same shifts and days.”

All employees develop patterns and habits - for better or worse.  Some employees follow procedures, while others don't.  According to McMillan, “The Commander makes Exception and Event Reports obsolete. It’s computer-based tools are designed to separate the good employee profiles from the poor or dishonest ones.”

To Do It Right

In order to get a complete picture of behavior profiles, and thus eliminate the enormous task of watching yesterday’s video, large amounts of data must be collected and analyzed multiple ways.  “This is where the new Commander eliminates the necessity to watch videos.” McMillan continues, “Data necessary to be collected and analyzed include all discounts, coupons, gift certificates, and open or miscellaneous food.  Voids, cancels, and no-sales, both before and after being finalized, are compared.  Individual employee ratios of “extras”, small drinks to large drinks, dessert items to food items must also be compared to other employees per-forming similar tasks on similar shifts during similar seasons or holidays.”    The information now needs to be sorted a number of ways to detect any patterns of interest. “And,” according to McMillan, “the key is that one-size-fits-all exception reporters, for example, don’t do

any of this conditional analysis.  If, for example, the point-of-sale system used is an Aloha POS, all drawer openings need to be immediately followed by a receipt printing or a no-sale transaction.  Any other time the drawer is open, it must be assumed that the drawer was opened by using a key.  These are all lumped together in the obsolete event re-porters. Finally, there are dozens of important considerations an exception-based system can’t even consider.  As an example, if a cashier’s drink sales compared to food sales are consistently low compared to the other servers, it might mean that not all drink sales are being rung up correctly.  The servers usually prepare drinks themselves and an astute employee will be able to take advantage of this.

To summarize, according to McMillan, “The Commander has allowed operators to get multiple locations under control with less management over-head, less cash shrink and less time dealing with employee problems. With the Analyzer, the statistical results of long term behavior and the resultant servers with the funny stats (as com-pared to average) are simply made aware that they are outside tolerances.”  Now that’s realistic. 

The In Sight Commander offers a suite of computer-based loss management software and Digital Video Recorders. More information can be found at 714 940-9800 or www.insightcommander.com.