MISSING CHECKS IN MICROS POS SYSTEM

[espartacus]

I am a new owner of a POS system. I only gave to two people access to the system.
I have noticed the last few days that there are missing checks (2 or 3) per day in the POS system for the last month

Is it possible to have checks missing in the POS system.

I cannot find those checks in the electronic Journal either?

I also have about 10 cancels a day.
Is that an acceptable number in the restaurant industry?

i do not have much knowledge of the micros POs system so i will appreciate any input

 

[Wildbar]

How can you tell the checks are "missing"? Typically all transactions get recorded in the journal....and most staff would not have the know how or access to edit the journal to remove check details.
"Cancels" are fine....that just shows staff are correcting mistakes before they committing them to the system. As in open the wrong table...."Cancel" out.....open the correct table. It is voids you need to be more concerned about but you should have the system set up that most staff don't have privileges to do voids...just the manager or supervisor.

 

[TobeThor]

Cancels may not be fine if you are counter or quick service operation. IE: counter person rings up 3 items, tells the customer "that will be $12.50, customer hands the counter person $15, counter person presses "trans cancel" twice and sale is gone. Now they must get the cash drawer open to give the customer their $2.50 in change so that all looks legit. Two methods 1) press the no-sale button or 2) index .01 into misc food and press the cash button and the drawer opens in either way the counter person gives the $2.50 change and puts the $12.50 in their pocket... maybe.

 

[espartacus]

Thank you for your answer.

I was able to import the check data information for one day and see that all the checks in the zip file from the electronic journal were not there, and there were three missing. I thought that was a red flag.
For example: I can find 2201 and 2203 but no 2202 . And both checks were in the middle of the day. Is this a red flag or is it possible to have missing checks in one day in the POS system.
I do not have much experience in POS system, and I would like to know if all checks should be accounted for no matter they are 0 sales, voids, cancel or split .

I am a little concern. Only two people have access to the system like I do, and I wonder if somebody is deleting checks.

I thought POS accounts for all checks even the ones that are voids, cancel, or 0 sales.
The voids transactions I am not that concern about as they need the manager approval to void a transaction. Cancels are 10 a day, and somebody answered that can be ok in the restaurant industry

 

[pmegan]

I wouldn't worry about the missing check numbers. Every time a check is started the next number is allocated to that check. If it's cancelled before the first transaction is completed, that check number is skipped over. Chances are that in your example somebody started check #2202, realized there was a mistake of some sort, cancelled and started over.

Your system, revenue center and employee details should all show the cancel total. This shows that a transaction was started and cancelled rather than service totaled. The acceptable amount is up to you, and should depend on how much business you're doing. $300 per day may be unacceptable to a small restaurant doing $3,000, but fine for a big place doing $30,000.

One thing you should look out for is consistency and trends in your cancels, voids, returns, discounts and no sales. Once your restaurant is open and operating smoothly these should all be somewhat consistent from day to day. If one of them spikes on a particular day, go to the employee reports and find out who's responsible. If that employee often has more voids, no sales, etc... than others doing the same job he/she is either doing something fishy or needs to be retrained.

 

[espartacus]

pmegan,
thank you for your response as it makes sense. I just thought it was impossible to skip a check number in a POS system and I started to think that one of the two people I give POS access is deleting 2 or 3 checks a day. Average sale per check is around $150, so I am missing 3 checks from the POS that could be $450 a day.
Is this possible?

I just wanted to know if it was possible to miss checks in the POS.
I called the POS help , and the employee told me it should not happen.
That is why I wrote in here to see if anybody has experience missing checks in a POS electronic journal as I miss 2 to 3 a day.

Thank you again

 

[pmegan]

I wouldn't think that you're missing checks. If you have a Micros 3700 there's no way to delete a check. They can be voided or discounted, but that will show up on your reports. Its is possible, and probable, that you'll have check numbers that get skipped. In the example I gave above, and also if checks get added together.

If you still think there are checks missing, try running a closed check report and compare the totals to your daily system sales detail. Sales post regularly throughout the day, so that report reflects everything that was rung in.

 

[TobeThor]

Do you have a Bar? Do you ring any fast transactions or is it all table service with a guest check for each transaction?

 

[Wildbar]

The other thing you need to watch for is the dancing bottle of wine, soft drink or coffee. Server rings in a coffee, pop, bottle of wine depending on the establishment and then just transfer it to table to table as they bill people. So ring in one item then collect cash for that same one item 10 or 20 times over. Was a restaurant I know of that servers made there own drinks. Most of these servers were caught doing this and making on average over $10,000 a year through the process. They managed to do this over a couple of years. So limit your transfers or actually look at the reports for transfers / split checks.