Section 9: Common Types of Theft – Promotional Material
Section Goal: Implement internal controls to eliminate employee theft caused by improper use of promotional material
If your bar uses promotional items such as coupons or drink tickets to help bring in business, it is possible that theft opportunities are being provided as an unwanted side effect. Bartenders and servers can easily continue to reuse coupons or tickets to steal money paid for other drinks.♦
Internal Controls to prevent theft using promotional materials:
- Use pre-numbered coupons for tracking purposes. Coupons should all be pre-numbered and match a pre-numbered tracking log so accounting can reconcile the used coupons. This also prevents duplicates to be made and used to close out and steal cash transactions.
- Require bartenders and servers to attach a used coupon to the receipt it was used for. This prevents the reuse of coupons as bartenders and servers will have to attach the used coupon each time one was used.
- Require bartenders and servers to present receipts and obtain signatures from guests using the coupons or tickets. Signatures should be required even if a coupon or voucher completely takes care of a check. This provides an extra level of perceived protection. Bartenders and servers would not be likely to risk any consequences of forging a guest’s signature even if it is not actually verified later on. This also allows the guest an opportunity to charge a tip to his/her room on a free drink.
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Click here to continue with The Common Types of Theft
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Your progress so far: 1.Introduction, 2.Understanding Budgeted Cost, 3.Inventory Inaccuracies, 4.Perpetual vs. Periodic Inventory, 5.Poor Pour Practices, 6.Causes of Internal Theft, 7.Common Types of Theft, 8.Self Assessment, 9.Review and Conclusion
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