Entering Closing Amounts Manually vs. Automatically

Jason,

More speciffically I'm wondering why the credit card information doesn't automatically fill in.

Thanks for the reply!

"Jas> Without entering closing amounts, how would RMS be able to calculate the

Without entering closing amounts, how would RMS be able to calculate the Over/Short amounts?

We have stores where each cashier counts the till and enters the latest "closing amounts" after every shift, then prints an X report for the manager. This works well in stores where the cashiers share a till. In a store where each cashier keeps their own drawer, they do a Z report between every shift and then do a ZZ report at the end of the day.

Why would it? The whole idea of closing amounts is for the cashier to enter the amounts themselves, in order to discover discrepencies. Many times I've seen a cashier enter a debit or credit card sale as "cash", which throws the accountants off.

Just a thought. If you have one tender type listed as credit cards RMS has no way to figure out each type ,i.e. Visa, Master Card, etc.

Plus I agree that the purpose of counting the register down is to make sure you're correct. If you just want a lump sum and no check method run the tender type report from Manager.

I agree with Turin (I don't think he is suggesting that RMS fills in cash amounts). If you are using the integrated EDC, it would be a big advantage to have RMS fill in the debit and credit card amounts when closing out the batches. RMS already has all the information it needs (in the database) as to what was charged and what settled (providing you settle the EDC batch before running the X or Z reports).

Our current process is to manually fill in the EDC amounts required for closing the batches based on the "Electronic Draft Capture" report. We don't like this workflow because it requires that we give the person closing the batches access to the Manager program, as well as introducing greater oppurtunity for operator error.

We would be much happier with the product if a cashier could close out the batch from within the POS program, without accessing the Manager program. Of course, this scenario is only possible if Microsoft would implement a way of settling the EDC batch from the POS program as well.

James B.

"Elizabeth" wrote:

Ok, I think I understand what you're saying now. You're right, if you're using integrated debit/credit processing or EDC then it would make sense to have those types filled in automatically. Unfortunately I don't think it can do that, but it would be a good product suggestion. (Go to CustomerSource and create a product suggestion there)

Ok I get it now. We have an external system for processing credit cards.

It is NOT a good idea to auto fill those fields in. Credit card slips get lost and misplaced. What the system is doing is setting up the report for over and shorts. This MUST be based on what is counted and not what is expected.

Also, a cashier should NEVER EVER be allowed to run and X report. There would never be and overage if that were the case, you can bet on that. This is why a certified trained partner comes in handy, keeping you safe and filling you in on the basics of POS 101. See BLIND CLOSE in your help manuals and buy from a partner who has years of POS behind them. Werd.

mt

Are you advocating summing the totals off of the actual credit card receipts and using this number for the closing amounts? If we've lost or misplaced a credit card slip and the transaction settles anyway, should we contact our merchant services provider to have them credit the card holder's account. What is your recommended way of reconciling the physical credit card slips with the credit card transactions in the current batch (so we can see if we have lost or misplaced any credit card slips)?

Since Debit Card charges don't produce a slip to be lost or misplaced, do you think it would be alright to use the internal reporting to get the total figure for that? Would it be better to maybe have the cashiers print duplicate receipts for all debit card transactions so that we could then manually sum them?

This part got me confused. If I understand you correctly, you a advising not to let cashiers see an X report because they would then have the information to keep any overages in their drawer, thus preventing the store from getting this potential overage? Is that the correct understanding? (In our store, we are more concerned with the drawer being short than over, although I agree that both are bad).

On the X report topic.

We use the X report to verify all tender types are accurate. Everyone except for the newest staff members still in training have this right. We are also concerned with overage or under amounts. We have established a guideline for when the manager should receive a phone call on overage/under amount.

I would suggest to maintain using the X report because it does allow you to change the closing information. It also allows you to tell if any credit card information slips are missing as well.

If you can't trust the cashiers to be honest it then you shouldn't have them working for you.

OK, sorry I rarely come here, but I am back to help.

Cashiers can not be trusted. Not even if they are your own blood. All that is needed to steal is greed and opportunity. The rest comes natural. It is a proven fact 25% of people are totally honest. 25% will steal if they have to break a lock, 25% will steal only if you let them. The other 25% didn't respond, they steal and won't admit it!

Yes count all the credit slips/debit receipts and use that as input. The idea is you want a true balance, not a forced balance. The idea is you find good cashiers with this method. Over is worse than under, it means they are A. Stealing or B. can't add and are short changing customers. A manager should run the X and compare that to the report. If they need to move totals around in POS the manager should do this, using the tenders that need adjusting.

Hope this helps. Be wise and keep and eye on everyone all the time. mt

What happens when we need the cashier to count the money at the back, not at the cashier itself, when there is a change in shift for the cashiers? You can't be counting the money at the POS and letting the customers wait and let a queue forms up. Anyone has suggestion for this kind of scenario?

Raym> OK, sorry I rarely come here, but I am back to help.

That's what a blind close is for.

You blind close the register, take the cash tray out of the drawer and go to the office to count. The next cashier puts their tray in the drawer, enters their opening amounts and starts ringing sales.

If you don't have some amount of trust in your cashiers, you shouldn't be employing them. It's easy to get paranoid about these things, but most sensible people realize that it is inevitable. Nothing is 100% in life.

While you could count every single credit and debit slip, why do all that work unless you think there is a problem? Just print the end of day report from your debit terminal, and check the number of "returns" to look for signs of a problem. Further, if a cashier is under-handed enough to be stealing money, then having them count the debit/credit slips themselves is not going to help you.

The only real way someone could steal is to put through a debit/credit transaction to process it for more than what the sale is - e.g, if the sale is $23.25 and the cashier puts $43.25, they could steal $20. However most customers won't sign or enter their pin number unless the amount of correct, and this is why many stores make the customers initial their receipt when they get cash back. Even so, they've stolen from the customer, not from you (which doesn't make it any more right).

You should never be over or short by more than a dollar or two. I've seen many stores where it's too busy for the cashier to bother counting out pennies, so they round up or down. Most places would rather lose a few pennies than let customers wait in line any longer.

Many stores I work with either have their cashiers share tills and do an X report between each shift, or keep separate tills and do a Z report between shifts and a ZZ report at the end of the day (which I think is the best method if you have numerous cashiers throughout the day).

Also, you should be able to compare your bank deposits to your sales, be it on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. This is where you're more likely to notice theft, especially if it's in small amounts over periods of time. Physical inventory counts are also very useful, as long as cashiers arn't able to adjust inventories themselves.

Everyone is assuming that the RMS settlement total and the x/z report cc totals should always match. Sure this is the case about 98% of the time, but I have seen them not match due to a system crash or a cashier clicking 'cancel' during the authorization screen. Therefore I always suggest adding the receipts and comparing the CC totals to the settlement total to ensure you have not had these rare occurances where the credit card hits the visanet tables but not the transaction tables. I've also seen this happen when a printer error causes a crash or when a customization hook returns an error after the card has been processed.

Casey Hanson New West Technologies

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