Archived Super Mistake with Closing Registers

[thatGSgal]

My LOD puts all the money bags in order in the portable safe I take with me when closing the lanes so I don't have to flip through them to get to the one I need when closing said lanes. In any case, when I was first closing the registers, I was making sure the bags I was putting the money was correct, but then halfway through, I wasn't paying much attention since I assumed it was all in the right order.

At the end of the night when I went to put the money in the cash office, I realized a bag was missing and the LOD and I found it had fallen to the back of the portable safe that I carry around with me when closing so I didn't see it earlier. My LOD just assumed I forgot to close that one register and told me to do so, but I did actually close the register. I put the register's money into a different bag and pretty much shifted all the money from the bags thereafter. Example: reg. 10 went into bag 11, reg.9 went into bag 10, reg.8 went into bag 9, and so on.

What will happen? Does the cash office actually check to make sure each register had the right amount of money or do they just count it all and see if all the registers combined had the right amount of money?

I'm so nervous. It's not my first time closing lanes, I've done it before as needed for when we had call outs. I did just become a GSA though.

Please help. 🙁

 

[dannyy315]

I think as long as all the money combined was counted properly there isn't a problem. Learn and move on.

 

[Firefox]

The CO person won't be happy with you, but as long as all of the money made it into the safe it should be fine.

 

[redeye58]

Central audit will notice the discrepancy at first but a sharp auditor (in India?) would notice a pattern.
In the end it would be OK as long as the relevant amt of funds were accounted for tho it would be helpful to send an email explaining the discrepancy.

 

[MrGSTLman]

It happens to the best of us. If it happens again and you notice the mistake sooner you could always move the money to the correct bag (just make sure either AP, the LOD, or even another cashier is watching you do it, or you do it in full view of the camera). One thing I do to avoid making a mistake is once the portable cart is ready with all the start funds inside I put all the closing bags in the order I close (right down to the ones I leave open until close go on the bottom). This way I don't have to fish through bags to find the right one, and I notice if I make a mistake. Like everyone else said, on the surface your CO person will be off, but as long as the money is secure usually everything aligns in the end.

 

[BadWolf4531]

If the CO process is still the same as it was a few years ago, they shouldn't even notice.

The CO TM's job isn't to find cash shortage in specific registers. Their job is to count the cash, input how much they count, prepare deposits and next day funds, and make sure the beginning and ending safe totals balance after all is said and done. They don't even have access to how much cash an individual register is "supposed" to have.

Off-site auditors are who actually compare what was entered to the journal totals. If there are major cash discrepancies, then AP and/or Investigations gets alerted.

That said, still a good idea to have the CO TM send an email to Central Audit about something like this.

 

[On6]

Just my experience with internal investigations, but....

As long as the money all adds up for the day it should be fine. If you did have a instance where a drawer was actually being shorted it will give some headaches to the cash shortage investigators who are trying to find out who did it.

 

[thetargetman]

I personally would not have been too happy if I went into CO to find the wrong money in the wrong Bags. Just make sure you leave the COtm a note explaining what happened. The COtm should be able to send an Email. Our CO team always put the bags in order as we counted them so it is easier for the closing GSTL/GSA. If I had a problem or had to use the next days bag for one of them I always brought them to the side and spoke to them about it so they know what is going on.

 

[Phoenix26]

I personally never rely on the bags being in the right order, So I always take a moment to make sure before I begin closing any registers.

 

[mrknownothing]

When I was a cashier, one of the GSAs would have one of us distribute the bags to each lane. When she got to each register, the correct bag would be there for her to use. The bags were empty, of course.

 

[RedMan]

We always exchanged the bags when closing the register. There would be empty bags in the cash cart which would be left at each register when it was closed; then the empty bag at the register from yesterday's close would be filled with the cash in the drawer and dropped into the cash cart. We also exchanged the bags at registers which weren't used for the day. That way, you'd alternate days with green and red bags. Say on Tuesday, all the green bags were returned to the cash office and the empty red bags were left at the registers. If you ended up in the cash office with one red bag on a green day, you immediately realize that you'd missed closing a register. And it was near impossible to fill Register 28's bag with Register 29's bag. Sounds a bit confusing, but it works quite well.

 

[Phoenix26]

We always exchanged the bags when closing the register. There would be empty bags in the cash cart which would be left at each register when it was closed; then the empty bag at the register from yesterday's close would be filled with the cash in the drawer and dropped into the cash cart. We also exchanged the bags at registers which weren't used for the day. That way, you'd alternate days with green and red bags. Say on Tuesday, all the green bags were returned to the cash office and the empty red bags were left at the registers. If you ended up in the cash office with one red bag on a green day, you immediately realize that you'd missed closing a register. And it was near impossible to fill Register 28's bag with Register 29's bag. Sounds a bit confusing, but it works quite well.

We do the same thing at my store

 

[redeye58]

That's SOP.