Employee Theft At Bars And Restaurant

What is employee theft at bar and restaurant?

Employee theft at bars and restaurants refers to situations where employees steal supplies from the establishment without the knowledge of the manager or owner. In many bars and restaurants, employees often take liquor and other supplies unnoticed.

In bars, bartenders sometimes serve liquor from their own bottles rather than using the liquor supplied by the bar. By doing this, they earn money for themselves while the bar's inventory continues to shrink unnoticed. Here are some of the common types of thefts that occur in bars and restaurants:

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Underwriting Theft

A common trick of employee theft occurs when employees serve drinks at the restaurant's menu price. The customer pays the listed price, but the employee manipulates the transaction by entering a lower amount and skimming the difference from the cash register or petty cash book.

For example, if a customer orders a drink worth $85 and pays in full, the employee may record the sale as a cheaper item or enter a discounted price. The remaining amount is then pocketed by the employee—this is where the deception begins.

A common trick of employee theft occurs when employees serve drinks at the restaurant's menu price. The customer pays the listed price, but the employee manipulates the transaction by entering a lower amount and skimming the difference from the cash register or petty cash book.

For example, if a customer orders a drink worth $85 and pays in full, the employee may record the sale as a cheaper item or enter a discounted price. The remaining amount is then pocketed by the employee—this is where the deception begins.

Serving own bottles

Some employees bring their own liquors to serve their customers and earn an illicit and colossal profit. This trick is usually used by bartenders while making drinks for the customer. For instance, a customer orders a gin martini, and the bartender swiftly changes it to vodka or whisky instead of gin, which he bought at a lower price, and serves it to the customer for $100, where he makes a $20 profit from it. This type of service theft creates a bad impression on customers and also spoils the reputation of the owners of the bars and restaurants.

Theft of Food and Inventory

The restaurant thieves not only rob money but also steal food and inventory used in the restaurant. This is one of the most common ways employees misuse the stocks of your business. This kind of theft includes snacking on your supplies, taking food home from the restaurant, outright stealing supplies and raw materials from your delivery truck, and most importantly, stealing alcohol—causing your sales rate to remain continuously low at your business.

Alcoholic theft is the main reason for the low process and dropping profit rates in the business. To solve this problem, you can invest in an inventory management tool. Clover POS comes with a powerful inventory tracking system, and you can customize your system as needed.

 

Lookout for Checkouts

You must also check out the employees while they are going out. Checkout theft is more common than you may think. Checkout theft includes taking cash from the register, omitting ordered items, improperly ringing up items in the cash book, inflating tips, and underreporting sales.

A digital POS system can help you check receipts that do not match the sales. Checkout theft can be largely prevented with an automated POS system. A good way to keep everyone honest is to give each of your servers a checkout system that sends the data back into the central POS kiosk.

Theft in the Ledger

Accounting theft and checkout theft go hand in hand in spoiling the business. This theft is more long-term, and indicators to find the theft are harder to spot. If you leave the accounts unchecked, the employees will take deadly advantage of this. It can have a serious impact on your business.

Forms of accounting theft include manipulating ledgers, canceling checks, skimming cash, underreporting earnings on the balance sheet, and setting up fake accounts payable. The use of accounting software can reduce theft because this type of theft is very insecure and very hard to identify its source.

Stealing Grandma's Secret

There is a reason behind the term "The Chef's Touch," because the head chef knows the secret ingredient of his dishes. That's what makes a restaurant unique and special. Just like that, a business has its own specialty, and every businessman tries to keep it secret and wants his trusted men to carry forward his secret. Here, the minus is that not everyone is trustworthy. There are a few employees who want to steal the secret.

That is known as intellectual property theft. Intellectual property theft refers to the theft of trade secrets of a business. You don't want anyone to sell your menu items in another restaurant. More than earning money is important in business, but protecting trade secrets like proprietary recipes, ingredient lists, cooking processes, and branding, etc., is more important for the business. Therefore, trustworthy and honest people are required in many businesses, and particularly in the food business.

The food business invents new creative dishes to keep the business running and creates a specialty in the business. But the restaurant industry is a lot smaller than you might think. In some restaurants, they will work day and night by giving shift work and part-time work also. But it's hard to protect your secret recipe from becoming public knowledge. You should have honest and trustworthy kitchen staff for the cooking, and at the same time, you should give respect and have trust in the employees.

Time Thieves

Time theft is especially common in all restaurants. The employees have their own check-in and check-out timings. Improper time registry in servers, unscheduled breaks, improper timesheets, unpunctual office timings, leaving early, and phone breaks are some of the time thefts. Some employees will work overtime for money. The business should provide convenient working hours and frequent breaks for the employees, and staff should follow the timings and rules of the business.

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