Cash drawer shortages

PRM

We are a company with a large number of convenient stores with gas pumps. Our cashiers have shortages in their cash drawers on a regular basis. Is there anyway we can make the cashiers responsible for these shortages?

Dutch2

Don't know about the C-Store business but in banking we have a standard set for our tellers. They are supposed to balance every day; however, stuff happens. If their outage reaches a certain amount (short or long) they automatically go into our progressive discipline process. At one level they must retake the beginning teller training program. If not corrected or if the outage reaches a certain amount it will result in their termination.
Are you sure the cash drawer is in balance when each cashier starts their shift? If you have more than one cashier using the same register, you could have difficulty proving who is making the errors.
Good luck...

System

PRM,
Had the same issue not too long ago. We have several convenience stores as clients (we are a PEO) and that questions arose. I talked to our attorney about it and he said that it is always very difficult to take money from employees checks, but not impossible. First, you can not reduce someone's pay below minimum wage (unless by order of the IRS for tax liens). Secondly, you should have employees sign an acknowledgement that they will be responsible for cash shortages from tills they are responsible for. However, if more than one employee has access to the cash drawer, your ability to single out one employee, or hold both accountable, is significantly diminished and can quickly turn into a potential wage-hour violation. Proceed with extreme caution, and talk to your local wage/hour office about accepted methods of capturing cash shortages. You can, however, discipline employees who have a propensity of being involved in shortages (or overages) as it then becomes a performance issue and you can proceed with disciplinary action, including termination, for failure to properly perform the duties of cashiering and for careless performance of cash handling and balancing. State just that in your handbook or policy manual, and have all employees sign an acknowledgement stipulating they understand this policy.

WT

We have been down the same road. You will have these shortages unless or until there are consequences for them. Forget about trying to get the money back. Make employees responsible through discipline.
1. Each employee should have their own drawer and nobody gets into someone else's drawer.

2. Have each employee count their drawer at the beginning of the shift and the end. Record the results.

3. Formulate the amount of money or number of incidents that will cause discipline and then do the discipline up to and including discharge.

Do this and your shortages will diminish greatly and the worst employees will be discharged which will also help solve the problem. Do it right away.