Bar theft: Is your register system part of your bar cost problem?
James Anas, owner of Quality Assurance Consultants, a restaurant security company, on how to make your POS system more secure.

Bar theft: Is your register system part of your bar cost problem?
By James Anas
Most restaurant owners reasonably believe that an upgraded register system will help alleviate cost problems at the bar. Before you buy, consider that many of the more recent cash register designs have the potential to exacerbate existing problems. Like everything else, register systems have 'gone digital' and incorporate many useful features: they can track inventory, control payroll, and break down sales by several different factors. However, with each new advancement in register technology, there are changes that have made it easier for bartender theft to occur and harder than ever to catch.

While most employees are honest, we must face the fact that bartender theft can result in substantial revenue losses. To address this all-too-common problem, it is helpful to recall that there are really only two ways that bartenders can steal:

1) They can take cash for drinks served, and either not enter the sale at all, or short-ring the sale (charge less than the quoted amount).
2) They can serve drinks at no charge in order to receive additional tips from guests.

The best way to stop a bartender from stealing is to make it VERY obvious when they do so. A "make a drink, enter a sale" mantra should be ingrained in all bartenders' work habits-- it means that a sale must be entered after each guest drink service. Free drinks now become obvious when there is no corresponding step to the register. Once this policy is in force, the items and amounts that bartenders enter to the register now become the primary issue. This is why your register system components and screen placements are so vitally important, and where many of the new systems fail to measure up.

To illustrate, take this test: Go to your bar and sit (or stand) in all the various places your guests do. From each location, ask yourself "Can I see the register? Can I verify the sales amounts entered?" If you can't, you can bet your bar staff knows these "blind spots" where sales can be pocketed or short rung with little or no chance of being caught. This is also how they can "update" a friend's check without ever entering what was really served. When very few guests can verify sales amounts, the system is ripe for cash handling abuse.

What can you do? Check your register placement to be sure the screen is visible to all guests at the bar. Some computer monitors are set at such a low angle that only the bartender (working directly above or in front of the screen) can see them. Some monitors are placed with blinders to both sides that further limit the guest's ability to see the display. The dedicated bar thief will often place menus or other papers to the sides of the screen display, blocking the view of the screen to guests seated to that side. In the worst case scenario, even the not-so dedicated bar thief can be tempted by a configuration where monitors are placed behind the bar with the back of the register facing the guest (and the screen visible only by the bartender). The take-home lesson: make sure the screen is visible to as many guests as possible at the bar.

Proper placement of the register screen may not be enough; you need to ensure that the display is readable to guests at the bar. For example, many new touch screen systems have only a small monitor that may be visible to some guests directly in front of it, but is indecipherable to guests sitting only a few barstools away. Too few of the new systems show the sale amounts in BIG (full to half screen) letters and numbers.

Pole displays are one of the best ways to solve the issue of visible sale amounts, but they are not the entire answer. One problem is that the displays only face only one direction, and they are often turned (frequently by the bartenders) towards the fewest number of guests rather than towards the most guests who could see them . Considering all the advancements in register technology, it is difficult to understand why none of the major register companies have devised a pole display that can face more than one direction at the same time. Another problem is that pole displays are all too often abused by the employees until they mysteriously stop working. This may not be necessary on the employees part, as many pole displays are poorly designed and some are actually unreadable when guests view them at an indirect angle.

Despite these drawbacks, a working pole display is still one of the best available deterrent to bar theft. So why don't more clients buy pole displays from register companies when a new system is purchased? One explanation is that the new digital systems are expensive (a wholesale changeover can easily cost upwards of $20,000 to $40,000). More than one register salesperson has confided that cash register system sales are very competitive, and salespeople are therefore reluctant to push clients to buy additional $400 displays, especially when that might make their system more costly than the competition and cause a lost sale. As a consequence, pole displays become an expensive add-on after the system is purchased, and the quality of the pole display is never considered by the buyer in combination with the main system. Frequently the register system software does not support an add-on pole display at all, or does not support it to work properly.

Fortunately there are some other things, besides pole displays, that you can do to remedy a register system which does not clearly show sales amounts. It may be possible to update your software system so it will complement, or even compensate for, your existing hardware. Some software systems show transaction amounts in much larger print across the screen, so consider changing software. Whether large print or small, make sure the software program leaves the last sale amount on the screen and on the pole display until the next sale is entered. Software that re-sets the screen amount to zero immediately at the end of the transaction, or when the drawer closes, only assists the dishonest bartender by limiting the amount of time transactions are displayed.

One of the better stop-gap methods to use for a system that is deficient is to require that change from all cash sales is accompanied by a transaction receipt from the register. Be sure to program the system so it prints a receipt for cash sales, as not all systems automatically do this.

In lieu of an honest employee, a register system with a large, visible screen and a working pole display, where all guests can clearly verify both cash and check sales, is the best deterrent to bartender cash handling abuse. A good system allows all your bar guests to know when your bartender is short-ringing or giving away drinks. Many of these guests are businessmen themselves, and someone will eventually tip you off that the cash handling is not proper. You should do whatever is practical to make their "job" easier.

Next time out I will give you a simple but extremely effective method to determine if your bartenders (even your best bartenders) will steal a cash sale, and it is a scenario that happens dozens of times every day.

James Anas is the owner of Quality Assurance Consultants, a mystery shopping company that specializes in restaurant and bar spotting. Quality Assurance Consultants is a member of the MRA. Mr. Anas can be contacted at 781-646-6215 or Janas@qacinc.com.