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Six months ago, a restaurant client was excited about POSiwatch because of the ability to connect the dots; to run tests on transaction behavior. They set the customized data monitoring system to ‘trap’ each server’s orders according to the types of orders: mixed drinks, well drinks, call drinks, and miscellaneous.

POSiwatch immediately detected abnormal behavior and sent an email to the owner that three of the twelve servers had average drink orders except for one category, Open Liquor.

POSiwatch had calculated that those Servers had sent Miscellaneous drink orders to the prep station but many didn’t have closed receipts to off-set the prep tickets. He watched the video records of the servers and their drink deliveries.

The manager found that when the receipt was written and printed (but not closed), the customer would pay for the drink. If the customers paid in cash, the server could revise the receipt to erase the Miscellaneous description and price, and the Open Liquor would go away.

Upon further inspection, the manager discovered the fraud had been hatched over three years ago and up to five servers would run five to ten drinks every night this way.

The manager estimated the three year collective loss for the bar at over $39,000.

Brian McMillan is Director of Product Development of In Sight Commander System, Inc.  a software development company specializing in restaurants and video surveillance systems.  He can be reached at (714) 940-9800 or http://www.insightcommander.com/