Void abuse at the point of sale
A void reverses a line or a check that has already been rung. It is a normal, necessary function, which is exactly why it is the most abused one on the register.
How the scheme works
The guest orders, receives the goods, and pays in cash. The server rings the sale, takes the money, and then voids the check. The register shows nothing was sold, the drawer balances, and the cash goes in a pocket.
A second form runs against the house rather than the guest. A line is voided after the item has left the kitchen or the bar, so the product walks out unpaid and the inventory variance is written off as waste.
Both depend on the same thing: nobody looks at the void because the paperwork is clean. The drawer reconciles, the check total is zero, and the report shows an ordinary day.
What it looks like in the data
- ✓Voids concentrated on one employee, one terminal, or one shift, out of proportion to volume.
- ✓Voids applied after payment rather than before it.
- ✓Voids on cash checks at a rate that does not appear on card checks.
- ✓Voids clustered near the end of a shift or during a known supervisor absence.
- ✓Repeated voids of the same item or the same amount.
What the video has to show
- ✓The guest hands over cash and receives change or a receipt.
- ✓The product is delivered.
- ✓The void is entered at the terminal after the exchange, not before it.
- ✓What the drawer does immediately afterwards.
What to do about it
- ✓Score voids by employee against the peer group working the same outlet and shift, rather than against a fixed threshold.
- ✓Require a reason code and a second signature above a value the operation sets, and audit whether it is being applied.
- ✓Review the video attached to the outliers, not to every void.
- ✓Take the pattern to human resources or to law enforcement as one record: the transaction lines, the video, and the comparison against peers.
Voids, answered
- What is a void exception report?
- It is a report that isolates voids that do not look like the rest of the voids on the property: too many for one employee, applied after payment, concentrated on cash, or clustered in time. eConnect scores every void against the peers working the same outlet and shift, then attaches the video of the transaction to the ones that stand out.
- Are all voids suspicious?
- No, and treating them that way is why most void reports go unread. A busy outlet produces a large number of legitimate voids. The signal is not the count, it is the shape: which employee, at what point in the transaction, on which tender, at what time of shift.
- How does eConnect show the video for a void?
- eConnect reads the live transaction journal from the point of sale system already installed and binds each line to the camera covering that terminal. The void carries its own timestamp, so the frame is located by the event rather than searched for afterwards.
The other three schemes
A refund moves money out of the drawer. Unlike a void, it does not need a guest to be standing there, which is what makes it attractive.
A no sale opens the cash drawer without ringing a transaction. There are legitimate reasons for it. There are also very few of them.
A comp is a deliberate giveaway with a business reason behind it. Comp abuse is the same transaction with the business reason removed.
See the exception, and the video, together.
We will show you the join on a live journal from a point of sale system you already run.
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