BARTENDER FRAUD AND ABUSE
The most common bartender ways to cheat are:
Ringing up a custom, underpriced drink in the POS and pocketing the difference
Over pouring for friends, family, authorities, or local merchants
Buying and bringing their own liquor from home and using that to pour drinks, not ringing anything up and pocketing the money
Flagging a check as a walk-out and keeping the money
Unsanctioned comps, AKA free drinks
Claiming a drink was sent back by the guest, then reselling it and keeping the money
Ringing up well drinks (see what is a well drink) but giving away top-shelf liquor
Ringing up top-shelf liquor but giving away well drinks and keeping the difference
Ringing up drinks on another bartender’s open POS login
Ringing up a bottle of wine, but serving wine by the glass and pocketing the difference
Failure to ring in cocktail server sales and pocketing the money
Selling wine bottle left-overs to other customers as wine by the glass and not ringing it in
Prevention internal control measures:
Control POS manager void access carefully
Require ROD ring on delivery and observe compliance
Limit access to liquor store room to manager only
Track liquor requisitions to main lounge
Require bottle for bottle exchange to maintain par on hand
Eliminate open promotion key access in the POS
Utilize electronic promo tickets and control issuance
Manager review and tracking of void tickets, walk-outs, and complaints
Track daily sales and inventory of super premium liquor and wine
Utilize unique POS employee sign in and terminate old accounts
Utilize cloud based POS systems to track sales, tips and payments in real time (Toast, Square, Clover)
Print and review daily financial and sales report
Add surveillance cameras to the main bar location, drink stations, POS, and inventory
Lock beer kegs, wine, and liquor inventory after hours.
Perform monthly inventories with modern APPS (ParTender, BarLounge, BevTend, and others)
Comments