Properly handling cash is one of the crucial things you should think about when running a business, especially if you’re struggling to find a trustworthy individual who can deal with this task without you having to intervene much.
In fact, successful cash handling comes down to three things: accountability, trustworthy staff, and proper policies. If any of these three elements fails, you’ll have a serious problem to deal with.
While it’s good to have a trustworthy staff, people get anxious around cash, and that can lead to some unforeseen consequences. Even though it’s kind of a taboo to talk about employee theft, it’s definitely a real problem, and it can jeopardize your business.
Therefore, the best course of action is to choose a few people whom you can trust with your money and let them handle the numbers at all times. That also includes restricting access to cash for individuals who aren’t on that list.
It’s never a good idea to have one person handle every possible aspect of your business. That’s why it’s important to separate the duties and disperse the responsibility among a few people instead of holding only one staff member accountable for every error.
This method also works well when it comes to reducing the risk of theft and catching mistakes before they slip through the cracks.
While this rule takes away a bit of convenience, it also offers you to have more control over sudden irregularities. For example, many restaurants don’t have this rule, and consequently, have both waiters and cashiers in charge of the money.
Naturally, when a problem emerges, it is in your best interest to have the freedom to pinpoint the cause of the problem instead of having to draw conclusions based on your employee’s testimonies.
It’s important to familiarize your staff with the restaurant cash handling procedures and make sure everyone follows the rules.
Having a cash handling policy for your restaurant is probably the first thing you should do before you come up with a list of rules. Once you come up with the policy, it’s pretty easy to include a set of rules with it.
The most important rule you should enforce is the Strict Rule for Discrepancies. As the name suggests, you should come up with a set of actions that will be taken in case a discrepancy is found during the balancing of the cash register.
That doesn’t mean you should threaten your staff with termination if such an occurrence happens, but a write-up or any disciplinary measure should suffice. Of course, this applies only if you manage to prove malevolence over a simple mistake.
Make the rules strict, clear, and make sure you follow them yourself or else you won’t set a good example for your employees.
Obsolete hardware is often the cause of many errors, especially if you’re running a large business. Don’t hesitate to invest some money in better and newer cash registers, surveillance, and applications that are foreseen for efficiency calculations.
The better the equipment, the fewer problems you’ll have to face in order to run your business smoothly and up to the highest standards.
In case you want to know more about the proper ways of running a successful business, take a moment and check out some of our other articles!
