The shit is about to hit the fan

[smileyeagle1021]

And I really hope I am there to see it.
As a background, I posted in cursing out coworkers about the F&B manager who refuses to deal with problems with tips... well, things came to a head yesterday.

She keeps insisting that her cashiers aren't short, that it is in fact the auditors who are in the wrong because we aren't minusing out tips paid when calculating cash due... which is entirely true, we don't give half a rat's ass what the tips paid is... we do however care greatly about what the tips charged was. If the guest didn't get charged for a tip, then quite simply no tip was given. Now, if this was a one off thing due to a problem on the resort's system, then management would have no problem telling servers to still collect their tips as it isn't their fault... however, it is becoming quite clear that this is a problem with servers not ringing up payments properly and forgetting to charge tips to the guest credit card (which frankly, as far as I, and the rest of the audit team is concerned, it doesn't matter if the guest didn't pay because they stiffed you or you screwed up, the guest still didn't pay). Well, the food and beverage manager has repeatedly claimed that it isn't her problem, she shouldn't have to deal with it. Today, the compliance officer (my boss's boss) got fed up with the back and forth (and I've been following it, because I was one of the two auditors who discovered this problem and the one that she has solely tried to blame as being unable to do my job, so it is kind of personal for me) and sent the following email to the CEO (and also largest shareholder)
"It is my understanding that (F&B manager) is under the impression that it is perfectly acceptable for servers to steal from the resort as long as they report such theft as "tips paid". I have come to this conclusion because she is adamant that there is no training problems in her department that need to be addressed because of this issue and for that matter she believes that it is not a problem at all because she is under the impression that it is an audit mistake to even see a problem in servers getting paid more tips than they have charged. If this is not a training problem, then that leaves theft, and if it is an audit mistake to report it, then it must be that she approves of the employees' actions."

Oh, what I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall the next time the CEO and the F&B manager are in the same room.

[Pixilated]

I can't believe this F&B manager actually thinks her repeated denials are actually going to solve the problem.

Please keep us updated ...

[wolfie]

This is my understanding, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Tips paid = cash from till going to employees who were tipped on a credit card
Tips charged = tip amount on credit card slip

Looks like customers were putting tips on their cards, employees were entering the pre-tip amount into the computer (so the tip never actually got billed to the customers' cards), and taking the tip amount from the till. The last part would have been OK if the tip had actually been billed to the card (since a $10 tip would be represented by a $10 entry on a credit card slip rather than a $10 bill, the bookkeepers would be happy), but since there was no corresponding billing to the credit card (even though the customer had written "$10" on the tip line) the till was short.

[Gerrinson]

This is my understanding...

Your understanding is correct, based on my years of accounting/auditing experience.

I once worked for a place that had a F&B manager with the same attitude. Sadly, she had a 'special' relationship with the GM on the side so despite pushing the evidence up the chain, there were no repercussions.

[Raveni]

I ran through about a half dozen scenarios where this could be a training issue with the staff, but they'd all end with the registers being OVER instead of short.

They be stealin. Where's my chair and popcorn?

[Kazim]

The .Gif ,where is it, We need the .Gif

[Jay 2K Winger]

The .Gif ,where is it, We need the .Gif

Ask and ye shall receive!

[smileyeagle1021]

I ran through about a half dozen scenarios where this could be a training issue with the staff, but they'd all end with the registers being OVER instead of short.

They be stealin. Where's my chair and popcorn?

I would love to hear those scenarios, because I can't think of any... that may be because I'm facing a scenario where it is causing them to be short.
How it is supposed to work is when a guest pays by card, they have the option to write in a tip amount. The server is supposed to then take the signed receipt and update the charge to the card to include the tip. At the end of the day, they are supposed to run a report on how many tips have been charged to credit cards and take that amount out of their drawer (ultimately, we don't care how the revenue is paid for, be it by credit card or by cash, as long as we get paid for it).
What is happening, the guest is writing down a tip amount and the server is ignoring it, never adding it to the credit card charge from the guest, and still taking the money out of the drawer... at which point now we have a shortage because money has been taken out of the drawer with nothing else to cover it.

Edit to add- this whole thing though has lead to my favorite passive aggressive comeback yet.
Before it escalated this high, the F&B manager was in the finance office talking to my direct supervisor, and she said "I really wish accuracy would improve around this place" while glaring at me... my response was "Yeah, I know how you feel, when do you think your employees will start?"
The high five from my boss after she left made my week

[dougall]

Are they getting stiffed on the tip writing one in on the casinos copy of the credit card slip then charging the customer the correct amount?

[smileyeagle1021]

Are they getting stiffed on the tip writing one in on the casinos copy of the credit card slip then charging the customer the correct amount?

I hadn't thought of that option... but it seems unlikely due to all the cameras everywhere that could catch it... then again, the restaurant cash tills are a somewhat low priority after the main cage, the table games, and the casino in general when it comes to how closely security is watching them (unless of course they have a reason to suspect that they need to... which they may have now).

[Seshat]

I would love to hear those scenarios, because I can't think of any... that may be because I'm facing a scenario where it is causing them to be short.

One that comes to my mind would be the server being trained to enter the total (including tip) and then the tip; before taking the tip cash from the cash drawer.

That would end up being an audit nightmare, but I can see it being an honest training error in the server's case. I know that if I'd been told to do it that way, I'd expect that the computer was doing the appropriate math internally.

That would, I think, end up with the cash drawer being short compared to what the register said it should have - BUT you'd have the tips recorded and could go back and fix it. Irritating but correctable; and the type of training mistake would be obvious once someone took a long look at the register records.

[Raveni]

I would love to hear those scenarios, because I can't think of any...

Well, it depends a lot on how your system works. I've seen ones where it's set up to record ALL the tips, so that the server is getting their income reported properly for tax reasons, which would then involve servers having to report cash tips (which they have already received) separately from credit card tips (which they will need to be paid out for). Mixing them up due to lack of training or laziness (or worse) can bounce a overage pretty quickly.

Not that an overage is a good thing either. If anything, it's a sign of a bigger problem.

Edit to add- this whole thing though has lead to my favorite passive aggressive comeback yet.

I've checked around a bit and haven't seen an explanation, but does anyone know why some users can still edit, while others no longer can?

Bah, nevermind. Now it's right on the top of the forum.

http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...d.php?t=100842

[dalesys]

... some users can still edit, while others no longer can?

Some are more equal?

[EricKei]

I merged his posts -- Mods can edit, but that's it for the moment. If anyone else needs us to merge their posts for that reason, please just OM an online mod or Report your own post with the request, and we'll take care of it