Monitoring Internal Theft With A POS System

pos system


A Point-Of-Sale (POS) System can help identify theft and specific losses in conjunction with conducting regular physical inventory checks during the inventory ordering process. Not all losses are caused by theft and a POS system can help identify losses caused by spoilage, shelf life loss or other types of loss. For instance, McDonald’s goes to extreme lengths to monitor their French Fry inventory control. McDonald’s conducts a physical count once a month of every single French Fry container in an individual restaurant location. Each container is designed to hold a specific weight of fries. On the last day of the month, after the close of business, the count is done. The POS knows how many of each containers were on hand at the first of the month, how many were added to inventory during the month and how many of each size were sold during the month. The same control is used for the French Fries. McDonald’s is able to see exactly how many pounds of raw fries they went through, how many pounds are left and determine how many were pounds were lost.

On a smaller scale, a bar that sells beer by the bottle enters in how many bottles they are receiving during delivery. On beer ordering day, a report can be generated from the POS system to show how many bottles of beer were sold and what should be remaining on the shelf in inventory. If the POS reports there should be 48 bottles of beer left and you can only find 40, you know that 8 have been stolen, given away or broken. Either way, as an owner, you know you paid for them but didn’t sell them. That’s not a good thing.

An efficient POS system used correctly can pay for itself in no time simply by identifying that you have a problem so you can begin fixing the problem. Many systems such as the Clover system shown in the photo are very inexpensive to purchase and can be operated with an i-Pad or other tablet device. Chosen Payments provides POS Systems including the Clover system as well as credit card processing, check processing, gift/loyalty programs, ATM’s, merchant cash advance and mobile applications. For more information visit


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