Tracking down lost money.

[draggar]

I support POS systems now and routinely I deal with business owners and upper-management (even of some large companies) as well as low level employees and site managers. One thing that ceases to amaze me is that some of these people, especially owners, have NO idea how run a business.

Perfect example, shortages and overages. While discrepancies with credit cards are fairly easy to track down, cash ones are nearly impossible but if you know an exact amount I can narrow it down (99% of the time user-education is needed).

(and yes, I always make the disclaimer that I am not a CPA or accountant but only tech support)

But there are a few sites, that are worse than that. They don't know how much money is missing, just know money is missing (or "about $50").

Seriously, if you don't know how much money is missing how can I even begin to see if someone made an error with their system?

Let alone, a BUSINESS OWNER clearly has little knowledge about their own finances? I guess I'll see your license # under someone else's name in a year.

[icmedia]

Not only are some business owners not knowledgeable about their finances, some are willfully ignorant and even sorely misled;

I once worked for a business which had a strange policy regarding cash drawers. Namely, if your drawer balanced out perfectly at the end of your shift, you'd be written up. Their exact words were, "Nobody EVER gives people the right amount of change. If your drawer isn't at least off by a few cents each shift, you MUST be stealing. That's too perfect."

Needless to say, I tossed a couple of pennies from the "Need a penny take a penny" cup into my drawer each shift, since my drawer always balanced.

[KuariKaydrith]

I've worked for businesses like the one icmedia mentioned and I found it damn frustrating because I always prided myself on balancing my drawer each shift. I had one boss flat out tell me that I must be shorting other people in change while giving people I like too much back. I quit that particular job and told him to shove the place up his ass, that just because he and his wife were not able to give out correct change does not mean that I'm a liar, thief, or idiot.

[wolfie]

I had one boss flat out tell me that I must be shorting other people in change while giving people I like too much back.

WTF? How would someone doing this be MORE likely to have a balanced drawer than someone who always gives the right change? They'd have to mentally keep a running total of how "off" they were, and they'd never be sure whether they'd get the "right" kind of customer before the end of shift so that they'd get back in balance. Also, they're dealing with CUSTOMERS - and I'm sure everyone here has experience with customers LOUDLY complaining when they THINK they've been shorted.