Use Case Spotlight: SITs

Single item transactions are always a point of concern for restaurant loss prevention professionals. While these transactions will happen in the normal course of daily business, high velocity by the same cashier is an indication of potential pass-offs of added items to friends and family ("Sweet-hearting") or the cashier under-ringing items and pocketing the added cash from the guest. These transactions look like incomplete orders, like just the bacon showing on a check for a double bacon cheeseburger, or just the guacamole appearing on an order for a burrito. The cashier sends the full order to the kitchen, but then voids off items and only rings the add-on item and tenders the check, pocketing the difference.

Here’s one example: Big Breakfast Barn is a fictional fast casual chain serving all kinds of breakfast foods. A customer orders a $5 cheese omelet, $2 white toast with jelly, $8 French toast and a $1 side of bacon. The waiter rings in the order and it goes off to the kitchen to be prepped. After enjoying their meal, the customer takes out their wallet and places $20 cash on the table. The waiter goes to close the check and bring the customer their change, but before doing so, they void off the omelet, toast, and French toast, leaving just the bacon for $1.  After tendering the transaction, bringing the customer their $4 in change, and placing the $1 check total into the register, the waiter pockets $15 cash. This profit was from just one transaction, imagine the impact of a waiter that is a repeat offender!

This fraudulent behavior has a direct impact on your restaurant’s bottom line, as your profit walks out the door with the guilty server. Having the right tools to identify and prevent this behavior from escalating is key. Through the use of 20/20 Restaurant, restauranteurs have several exciting ways to target this behavior. Reports can be set up to summarize and highlight SIT activity by employee, location, region… you name it, we can do it. The powerful alerting tool can be configured to capture the exceptions and notify the right person or team responsible for the location that a single item transaction has been identified. The days of sifting through endless checks or stagnant reports are over! Instead, analysts will be presented with all of the necessary data, linked together, providing actionable insights and measurable results.  

Want to see what 20/20 can do for you today?