Is staff stealing money from the till?
Sometimes the answer is yes. Often the first signal is a short till, a run of voids, or a bad feeling after a busy shift. Answer the question like an owner coaching the till: document the routine, see whether it was followed, then look. Do not open with an accusation.
Short answer
Treat “staff are stealing” as a hypothesis. Lock shared drawers and make the count real. Then see whether POS events — voids, no-sales, cash refunds — repeat on the same shift and match a short clip of the drawer. Training, a sloppy close, and misconduct are different endings. The clips do not pick the ending by themselves.
Questions that keep the coaching honest
- Was there an owner? If not, you have a process gap. Fix that before you pick a person.
- Is the shortage bigger than normal change error after the count is actually done? You are comparing to your own closes, not to a number from the internet.
- Do the exceptions cluster? One void is service. A stack of unexplained ones on one shift is a conversation.
- Does the clip match the note? Mismatch is the moment you ask, calmly, what happened.
What you do with the answer
If the routine was never taught, teach it and watch the next closes. If the routine is solid and the pattern remains, write down what you have and follow a fair employment process — this page is not legal advice. Prevention once you know the gap: stop staff stealing from the till. The shortage itself: why the till is short. Patterns: signs of employee theft.
Answer the till question with the shift, not a hunch
SoraData soft-connects cameras you already run so a drawer question has a short clip beside the register report. Request a trial or view plans when it fits.