Unfortunately, restaurant theft happens all too often. A shocking 75% of employees admit to stealing from their employer at least once during their career.
At OnePoint, we have the privilege of working with hundreds of restaurant owners every single day. From QSRs to full-service establishments, we know the ins and outs of the financial operations of restaurants across the country. And supporting loss prevention efforts is one of the many ways we help our clients protect their bottom line.
Our team of highly skilled accountants are constantly helping restaurant owners drive greater profitability and success by understanding their numbers. Without having up-to-date financial data, it can be difficult to identify theft before it escalates.
In a previous post, we offered tips for working with your general managers to implement policies and procedures that can prevent restaurant employee theft. Another especially sneaky way that restaurant theft can occur is through the use of discount coupons and non-digitized gift cards.
Nicole Scott, one of our seasoned restaurant accountants, shares that restaurant owners need to be cautious about printing and distributing coupons and gift cards that cannot be digitally tracked.
How Do Gift Cards and Coupons Facilitate Theft?
For owners of multi-unit restaurant groups, it can seem like a great marketing idea to print discount coupons for distribution to local customers. Perhaps you’re opening a new location and want to encourage customers in the area to visit, so you decide to hand out coupons offering a free drink or dessert. While these sorts of offers might provide a nice boost in sales, it’s important to pay attention to the kind of coupon or gift cards being used, as well as carefully managing access to them.
If these coupons and complimentary gift cards have cash value or are used for a specific menu item, an employee could potentially use a coupon or gift card to tender the sale of a cash-paying customer. This allows the employee to take that equivalent amount of cash from the register undetected because the point of sale erroneously shows a reduction in sales equal to the amount of the coupon or gift card.
How to Prevent Theft and Still Use Coupons
Thankfully, there are ways to help prevent restaurant theft and still use these helpful marketing tools.
First, make sure that the owner and General Manager are clear on what the average discount and comp percentage should be every week or month based on current specials and coupons, as well as the time of year. These numbers may change seasonally or based on specials that have recently been offered. Monitoring this weekly by analyzing void and comp reports should be part of a standard process. That will help to identify any significant deviations, which could be a sign of theft.
Additionally, it is important to monitor voids and comps, sorted by an individual employee to see if one employee’s voids or comps look suspicious. Even a quick weekly review of this can help easily spot when something seems out of whack.
Lastly, if you have video surveillance of your cash registers that is both a good deterrent as well as a way to investigate suspicious behavior.
Most theft occurs when people believe there is no one paying attention. Keeping processes standardized and simple helps to ensure they are routinely followed. The key, of course, is making sure those policies are followed on a consistent basis. That is the best way to prevent restaurant theft from happening or to catch it before it escalates.
May 2024
