Where Did The Cash Go?

Employee theft is a real issue for most restaurants. Statistics show that the average restaurant loses about $400 per month in cash alone, never mind inventory sneeking out the back door.

There are several manual systems that can be put in place to help control these issues, but some of them are rather complex, expensive (like a camera over every cash register), and time consuming for the owner / manager.

At my restaurant, The Cellar in Idaho Falls, ID, we have eliminated the disappearing cash syndrome by implementing two simple systems: 1) a good Point-of-Sale (POS) system - in our case it is DinePOS - with excellent, accurate, and cross-checked reporting of revenues, coupled with 2) a Flash Sheet, which for us is a nifty Excel spreadsheet that I created that tracks several of the daily data from the restaurant, including the number of guests, how they heard about us, and what the average amount spent per guest was. That's in addition to the core of the sheet, which correlates with our POS Closing Report and tracks cash in and out, as well as helping us verify accuracy and reconcile with our Accounting System, which for us is QuickBooks Online Edition - one of the greatest Application Service programs I have ever encountered. By using these 2 systems together, which takes about 10 minutes a day, I stay balanced and in control of my cash, and save myself at least an hour a day over what I used to do in the past.

I am happy to share the Flash Sheet with anyone who wants to also save a bunch of time and money. That and the overall simplicity of our POS system have created about 2 hours a day of free time for me. OK it's not realy free, but it is time I can use doing other important things now.