By Elizabeth GodsmarkAtlantic Publishing
Theft reduction policies and procedures are no good unless they are strictly enforced. Employees must be made clearly aware of the dire consequences of flouting house rules. There can be no gray areas. New members of staff should be asked to sign a confirmation that they have read the rules and fully understand the implications.
- Prohibit bartenders from totaling the cash at the end of their shifts. This policy also protects honest bar staff.
- Prohibit bartenders from both on- and off-duty drinking. Off-duty drinking leads to fellow bar staff overpouring, giving away free drinks or undercharging.
- Prohibit bartenders from taking part in physical inventory counts. Ideally this should be a management-only function.
- Bartenders should not be involved in ordering, receiving or issuing inventory. Again, this should be a management-only function.
- Security. Enforce security procedures for all liquor, wine, beer, spirits and any other high-value inventory. Also, only key personnel should have access to the storeroom.
- Require bartenders to record post-shift bar par readings. This refers to the number of bottles behind the bar at any given time. Bartenders should take a bar par reading at the end of the night shift.
- Prohibit bartenders from recording more than one transaction per drink ticket. If bartenders are allowed to use a "running" ticket, they can easily neglect to record all the drinks they have actually sold.
- Enforce voiding procedures. Bartenders should request managerial approval before continuing with a void.
This article is an excerpt from the Food Service Professional Guide to Controlling Liquor Wine & Beverage Costs, authored by Elizabeth Godsmark, published by Atlantic Publishing Company. This excerpt has been reprinted with permission of the publisher. To purchase this book go to:
Atlantic Publishing Company
Amazon.com
Topics:
liquor inventory,
Bar inventory,
bar inventory levels,
liquor theft,
bar theft,
Bar Management,
bar control,
inventory counting,
inventory control
By Chris ParryAtlantic Publishing
Part 3: Theft-Reduction Procedures
More often than not, scams and thievery can be detected and/or prevented relatively easily. Strict enforcement of all employee rules is a must and vigorous prosecution of any offenders is essential. Employees must be made clearly aware of the dire consequences of flouting the house rules - every detail must be addressed.
- Have a manager total the cash at the end of a bar shift. While the bartenders may feel distrusted, you can always point out that the rule is in place to protect honest staff.
- House rules. All new members of staff should be required to sign a confirmation that they have read the house rules, fully understand the implications involved and agree to follow the rules to the letter.
- No drinking on duty. Prohibit all bartenders from drinking while on duty. Also, strictly regulate off-duty drinking. Off-duty drinking can see fellow bar staff overpouring, giving away free drinks or undercharging their colleagues, and while staff should be encouraged to socialize with patrons after hours, this should be closely watched.
- Bartenders should not be involved in the
stock-taking and inventory-counting process. Nor should they be involved in receiving, ordering or issuing inventory. It might be a painful process, but this really should be a management-only function.
- High-value inventory. Strictly enforce all security procedures for liquor, wine, beer, spirits and any other high-value inventory. Only key personnel should have access to storage areas, and everything that comes out should be duly noted.
- Require bartenders to record post-shift bar-
par readings. This refers to the number of bottles left in fridges and behind the bar after a shift has ended. Engage in spot-checking of this count to ensure that no thieving is taking place.
- Prohibit the practice of recording more than one transaction per drink ticket. If your bartenders are allowed to use a "running" ticket, they can easily neglect to record all the drinks they have actually sold and pocket the difference.
- Strictly enforce voiding procedures. If an amount is rung up on the register, the bartender should not be allowed to void it without management approval.
This article is an excerpt from the Food Service Professional Guide to Bar & Beverage Operation, authored by Chris Parry, published by Atlantic Publishing Company. This excerpt has been reprinted with permission of the publisher. To purchase this book go to:
Atlantic Publishing Company
Amazon.com
Topics:
liquor inventory,
Bar inventory,
bar inventory levels,
Bar staff,
liquor theft,
Bar Management,
bar control,
inventory counting,
inventory control
By Chris ParryAtlantic Publishing
Part 2: Common Excuses for Theft
Why do they do it? Your bar is a good place to work; you're a decent boss - you pay above-average wages - why does your staff feel the need to break the law? Put simply, human nature is to take something for nothing when the chance arises. An informed bar manager is in a far better position to fight losses from theft.
- Greed. Theft isn't always about needing a little
something extra to pay the bills; some employees
just plain old enjoy beating the system. The
thrill of getting a sneaky ten bucks is far more
important to these people than the actual dollar
value.
- Rationalizing criminal behavior. "I didn't think
it was hurting anybody," is a terrible excuse, but
you'll hear it again and again. A little fiddle here
and there is seen, in some employees' minds, as not doing anyone any harm.
- Tip boosting. Some employees feel that if a customer isn't doing his or her part by leaving a reasonable tip, then turnabouts is fair play. Tips make up a significant part of any bartender's pay, and when the tips are low, they try to make up the difference in other ways.
- Resentment. People don't always take orders, or discipline, well and sometimes members of staff who feel "picked on" will strike out by "getting even" with the manager or the venue that they feel has wronged them.
- "It was there." Human beings can be impulsive creatures, and sometimes leaving the opportunity for a staff member to defraud the system is all the person in question needs to kick into action: "I don't know what came over me!"
This article is an excerpt from the Food Service Professional Guide to Bar & Beverage Operation, authored by Chris Parry, published by Atlantic Publishing Company. This excerpt has been reprinted with permission of the publisher. To purchase this book go to:
Atlantic Publishing Company
Amazon.com
Topics:
inventory managers,
liquor theft,
managing liquor inventory cost,
bar business,
Bar Management,
bar control
By Chris ParryAtlantic Publishing
Part 1: Scams to Watch For
Employees can very easily fall into a habit their employers, and if you're not careful, you can be caught out for thousands of dollars, not to mention disgruntled customers. Keep an eye out for these 14 favorites:
- The substitute. An employee buys his own bottle of a fast-moving spirit, brings it in at the start of the shift, and over the course of the night substitutes his own for the bar's bottle. Every time he sells a shot of this product, he then simply pockets the money, thus earning a large profit on his own alcohol while your stock stands still. While these people are not thieving your stock per se, they're thieving your business, so ensure you stamp or mark all of your spirit and liqueur bottles; check the empties regularly, and keep employee bags away from the bar and stockroom areas.
- The short-pour. Your bartender short-pours every shot of a particular fast-selling spirit by between 25 and 50 percent, keeps note of how many shots she's sold from the bottle and when she's sold the number of shots that usually come from the bottle, she pockets the money from the remaining shots. Make sure that you check register receipts against the bottles used, and if possible, you use a computer-controlled pouring system, to take the opportunity to scam out of the employee's hands.
- The "00." Some registers can be opened with the press of just one button or from entering in a total of $0.00. Unbeknownst to some bar operators, this is the number-one means of rip-offs by staff. A customer buys a beer and gives the bartender a fiver. "Keep the change," says the customer as he walks off, so the employee hits the "register open" button, puts in the five-dollar bill and takes out five dollars in coins and singles for his or her pocket or tip jar. How do you avoid this scam? Remove that button. Your cash register provider can do this with no problem at all, and if a customer needs change in the future, your bartender simply asks him to wait for another sale to take place. Or even better, provide change machines.
- Bogus breakage. Oops! A full vodka bottle hits the floor and the bar loses, big time. But did it really hit the floor? You might have a breakage bucket in which your staff are to put any broken bottles to show that they actually broke, but how do you know that the contents weren't poured into a hip flask beforehand? Or worse, that the contents were sold and the proceeds pocketed? The answer is simple: start a "you break it, you pay for it" rule. Of course, you don't need to enforce this rule if you don't think people are taking advantage, but it will stop the thieves.
- Wasted waste. 'The beer lines were a little gassy today." Well, that might explain the two gallons of beer waste in the drip trays - but does it really? Pocketing the money for a draft beer and pouring a glass of water into the drip tray is an age-old scam and very hard to detect. Make sure your staff keep measurements of any beer waste and keep track of who wastes what. In time, any trends should become apparent, and even if certain staff members aren't crooked, you'll be able to tell very easily if they need lessons at pouring beer.
- The backhander. Your security staff might not feel that taking ten bucks to let someone into the front of the line is wrong, but at the end of the night, when the person who paid that ten bucks has to go home because she's out of cash, it's your potential bottom line that suffers. To combat this, simply ask someone you know to go to the door and offer a kickback to jump the line. If the kickback is accepted, you need a new security guard.
- The over-charger. Your bartender either rings up a price higher than what you've set for a drink or charges regular prices but rings up "Happy Hour" prices, pocketing the difference. To combat this, ensure that cash register tapes are changed at the end of every shift and the bartender explains any "Happy Hour" discounts. Likewise, ensure that all drink prices are posted clearly for your customers so that they can identify an overcharge.
- The over-pourer. This bartender simply pours more than he or she needs to and hopes for a hefty tip. Keep an eye on your inventory, and this one should be easy to spot.
- Rounding up rounds. Bartenders tally up a round of drinks as a "total price," rather than as separate items. This makes it easier to inflate that price without it being noticed by the customers. They then pocket the difference when they ring it up. To combat this possibility, keep drink prices clearly posted behind the bar or on table menus.
- The "soft" scam. Your bartender simply neglects to charge for the mixer component of a drink, thus peeling a small bonus for every mixed drink he or she sells. This should be easy to spot if you check register ribbons, but if you don't, your staff can make a fortune.
- The "padded" tab. When your customers run a tab, the bartender pencils in an inflated total, takes the money from the customer, then later erases it, replacing it with a correct total.
Removing pencils from behind the bar and telling your staff that they must use pens is the best way to fight this one.
- The substituted cash register tape. This ingenious little plan involves the bartender leasing a cash register just like yours and bringing in his or her own prepared cash register tape, substituting it for the real tape and pocketing the cash difference. Essentially, if you keep bartenders from "Z"ing their own tapes, you'll prevent this from being possible.
- The refund. This is a simple, small-time scam where the bartender claims that a discrepancy in his or her takings was refunded to a customer for money lost in faulty vending machines or gaming equipment. Have any customer seeking a refund fill in a small claim form, with phone number and ID details included, and this shouldn't be an issue. Most customers won't mind doing this if they have a legitimate refund claim.
- The jigger switch. The bartender brings in his or her own shot glass that seems identical to your normal barware, but is actually smaller. After several short measures, the bartender can start pocketing money without the inventory showing a shortage. Fight this by clearly marking your pouring measures and doing regular checks of your bar equipment.
This article is an excerpt from the Food Service Professional Guide to Bar & Beverage Operation, authored by Chris Parry, published by Atlantic Publishing Company. This excerpt has been reprinted with permission of the publisher. To purchase this book go to:
Atlantic Publishing Company
Amazon.com
Topics:
liquor inventory,
Bar inventory,
liquor theft,
bar business,
Bar Management,
bar control,
inventory counting,
inventory control
