Should You Make Your Facility Cashless? – Part 4

The FBI has called employee theft “the fastest growing crime in America!” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that more than 30% of business failures are caused by or related to employee theft. The Chamber also estimates that 75% of employees steal from the workplace, and the majority will repeat the theft. The American Society of Employers estimates that 20% of every dollar earned by a U.S. company is lost to theft. And in 2007 over $50 billion was lost by U.S. companies to employee theft, with the majority of these losses coming from cash handling companies in retail, hospitality and entertainment. What are you doing to protect yourself?

The first line of defense is a good Point of Sale system. Gone are the days that a simple cash register can ensure your security and accountability for monies entering your facility. Now it is imperative to have a sophisticated computer system monitoring your employees’ performance and reporting discrepancies as they occur.

Since you are reading this blog, I assume you already use a strong Point of Sale system (hopefully CenterEdge Advantage), or you are considering getting a system (hopefully CenterEdge Advantage). However have you considered removing or limiting the opportunity to handle money from your employees? By removing the ability to handle money, you are in effect removing their ability to take your money as well.

With a Cashless System, customers are given a card or some form of media in exchange for currency. This exchange can take place at a Point of Sale station, where one employee would still have access to cash, or at a self-service kiosk, where the money leaves the hands of the customer, enters a machine where it is calculated, and then a card is dispensed for the customer’s use. The Cashless Card can then be used to purchase food and beverages, admission tickets, arcade game plays, retail, or anything else your facility sells.

Unlike a typical transaction where an employee can use schemes such as short-changing the customer, memorization of prices, and sharing with friends; a cashless system transaction is an exchange of currency, not assets. Therefore the system not only expects a specific amount of currency, but also requires it in order to finalize the transaction. It is then the card, not cash, which the employees will handle in order to finalize further transactions.

One of the hardest things for an owner or manager to keep track of is their arcade or batting cage tokens. Because of the constant in and out flow of the tokens, standard inventory control measures for preventing employee theft are nearly impossible to implement. The use of Cashless Cards to operate your arcade games and attractions eliminates the oppurtunity for an employee to steal or giveaway play tokens. The Point of Sale system simply won’t allow the employee to issue a card with value without also expecting the money at the end of the shift.